In my recent post criticising the use of plastic tree tubes to plant woodland in the Cairngorms (see here), I argued that tree shelters wouldn’t be necessary if nature was not so out of kilter – primarily due to sporting land management. The addiction of the native woodland planting business to tree tubes, however, goes…
Tag: conservation
In Scotland it is often easy to tell whether land is protected for nature, it looks, sounds and feels like nature is doing well. Ben Dolphin explained this recently in a fine article for walkhighlands (see here) about why Scotland’s Nature National Reserves are a good place to walk. The challenge for both the Scottish…
One thing the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) needs to fix urgently in the new National Park Partnership Plan, which is currently out for consultation, is the plastic tree tube problem (see here). The case against using plastic in the countryside I had not driven along the A95 north of Grantown-on-Spey for a number of…
As a campaigner who is trying to change how Scotland’s two National Parks are managed, I am always pleased when posts are picked up by the mainstream media. I never expected my blog on the Royal Family and COP26 (see here) to end up on the front page of the Scottish edition of The Times…
While working on my last post criticising the response of the leadership of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority to the climate emergency (see here), I had no idea of the damage that had by wrought by Storm Arwen at Stronachlachar in the Trossachs. My thanks to the Steamship Trust for including parkswatch…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) website has had a makeover. If you click on their site address https://www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/ you are greeted by a photo of a digger in the uplands, the hashtag slogan “Let’s do net zero” and a page of links to information on various aspects of the “climate emergency…
The Abergeldie Estate, which I referred to in my post on the Royal Family last week (see here), is now under offer. That is hardly surprising. There are plenty of billionaires in the world for whom forking out £23m to become neighbours of the Royal Family is small change. Whether the prospective buyer will be…
Royal hypocrisy “It is a source of great pride to me that the leading role my husband played in encouraging people to protect our fragile planet, lives on through the work of our eldest son Charles and his eldest son William. I could not be more proud of them.” (Queen’s Speech to COP26 reception for…
There are lots of good aspirations in the draft Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP), which is out for public consultation until 17th December (see here), but at the heart of its plan for nature is an unambitious target for carbon emissions. The effect of this will be to allow unsustainable management of land to…
I am writing this post in my capacity as Convener of Helensburgh and District Access Trust (HADAT), a Scottish incorporated charitable trust which seeks to improve countryside access in the Helensburgh and Lomond area. The trust manages the Three Lochs Way Great Trail and for many years has had ambitions to see that route extended…
“We need farmers”. Speaking in Glasgow on 2 Nov, alongside First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and young activists, the former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, emphasised the role of farmers in making a “step change in our relationship to the natural world”. Such a step change was “really…
What the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) have discovered at Mar Lodge While away in Lochaber last week I read a very interesting article in the latest Reforesting Scotland journal (Issue 64) on ‘Regenerating aspen: “spontaneous appearance” at Mar Lodge Estate’. The author, the ecologist Andrew Painting, recounts how in 2018, while undertaking fieldwork in…
Today’s Herald on Sunday, in conjunction with the independent investigative journalists’ platform the Ferret, looks forward to next week’s COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow. 26 people were asked to contribute their views on a future vision for Scotland (see here). This is what I said: “In the Scottish uplands overgrazing by red deer will…
On Friday, while travelling north up the A82, I stopped by the first roundabout at the start of the Crianlarich bypass to take a look at the landscaping. It provides a lesson in ecology and current forestry practices right next to the road. The A82 Crianlarich by-pass, was completed in December 2014, almost seven…
In March, a Planning Application (see here) was submitted to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) to add five new intakes to the Ben Glas run of river hydro scheme, above the Eagle Falls at the head of Loch Lomond. Parkswatch has covered this scheme before, (see here) and (here) for example,…
In my posts (see here) and (here) criticising the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board for abandoning their decision-making role and allowing senior staff to take control, I was aware of a recent exception to the rule. At the Planning Committee on 30th August (see here for papers) Board Members rejected a recommendation…
Following my post in June about capercaillie and fencing (see here), it is very good to see that the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project has been working with the Seafield Estate to replacing plastic netting on deer fences near Aviemore with wooden droppers. We should not be allowing plastic, whether in the form of netting or tree…
The National Park Partnership Plan is a five year plan which sets out the overarching framework for what happens in our National Parks, the contribution of the various public authorities involved and priorities for action. The current plan for the Cairngorms runs out in 2022 and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is in the…
On 19th August a firm called Caledonian Building Surveyors Ltd submitted a Screening Request (see here) to Highland Council on behalf of the Pitmain and Glenbanchor Estate Ltd. It asked if an Environmental Impact Assessment was required before they could upgrade and create new tracks and upgrade part of the public road up Glen Banchor…
This post takes a look at the implications of the co-operation agreement and shared policy programme that has been agreed between the SNP Government and the Greens (see here) for National Parks in Scotland. Investment in National and Regional Parks While the SNP said absolutely nothing about National Parks or Regional Parks in their election…
Following my two posts on BrewDog’s proposals to create a Lost Forest (see here) and (here) at Kinrara, plans for peat bog restoration on the estate appeared on Highland Council’s planning portal (see here). In April the Scottish Government issued new planning guidance on Permitted Development Rights (see here) which required peat bog restoration schemes…
Watching the torrential rain showers in Glasgow over the last ten days, I have been wondering about what impact they have been having in hills, both in our National Parks and more widely. Erosion is a natural process but the impact of increased heavy rainfall due to climate change on eroded slopes such as that…
A ding-dong battle On Thursday an organisation called Rewilding Britain issued a news release (see see) highlighting the destructive impact of grouse moor management in national parks in the north of England and the Cairngorms and which urged: “ministers to show real leadership by creating wilder national parks and setting up core rewilding areas in…
This post looks at two further examples of the use of plastic tree tubes (see here and here), this time on the western side of the Cairngorms National Park, argues that their use is completely unjustified and it is time they were banned completely. The use of plastic tree tubes in the A9 dualling project…
If BrewDog’s description of Kinrara as a “Lost Forest” is appropriate for the Strathspey part of the estate (see here), it feels even more apt as you descend the Burma Rd past scattered pine trees towards the River Dulnain. But then, after you cross the Allt nam Muireach, you realise the pines are not so…