In mid-February (see here) I described how many of the trees planted by BrewDog, as part of the Phase I creation of its Lost Forest, had died and how they appeared to be investing little, if any, of their own money in the whole disastrous project. A week after the post I received a response…
Tag: Deer
Question: how does France (along with many other European countries) manage to have so much more woodland than Scotland and “do” forestry without fencing and planting? Answer: they control grazing by large herbivores, whether livestock or deer, using completely different legal mechanisms than exist in Scotland The fundamental failing with the legislative proposals in the…
The Scottish Government’s consultation on proposals to modernise the legislation which governs deer management in Scotland closes today (see here). There is a survey which is relatively easy to complete. The primary aim of the proposed legislation is to ‘ensure it is fit for purpose in the context of the biodiversity and climate crises’. The…
On Thursday the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill (WMMB) (see here for text) was passed by the Scottish Parliament. Judging from the responses of some of the main proponents and opponents of the Bill one could be fooled into thinking will usher in major changes to how grouse moors are managed. On the one hand…
Conservation and the welfare of the public: the Wallabies and Fallow Deer on the Loch Lomond islands
In December the Planning Committee of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) unanimously approved the planning application by Mr and Mrs Young to build a luxury holiday lodge on Inchconnachan (see here for committee report). Initially the application had included a proposal, based on advice from NatureScot, to remove the wallabies from…
Deer fencing and stock fencing generally serve very different purposes, the former is used to keep deer out, the latter to keep sheep and cattle in. While I have covered the disastrous consequences of deer fencing quite often on parkswatch, most recently in relation to the case of BrewDog’s Lost Forest and its impact on…
It is just over a year since I explained how the Cairngorms National Park Authority has ignored the role of deer fencing in the decline of capercaillie (see here). While the causes of capercaillie and black grouse decline are complex – they include loss of habitat and climate change – the one thing that has…
Soon after suggesting that sporting estates managed for grouse pose the greater threat to access rights because of their concerted attempts to make people “keep to the path” (see here), I came across this salutary reminder that some deer stalking estates are still ignoring the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC). One of the primary meanings…
I had not attended a Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) board meeting in person since before the Covid lockdown but on 11th December once again took the train to Balloch. Having just written a post on The fundamentally useless National Park Authority and its useless National Park plan it was very decent…
Restoring Scotland’s natural woodland cover and biodiversity from centuries of over grazing is an urgent and necessary step towards sustainable management and care for our hills and mountains. Woodland regeneration could, within decades, extend throughout the uplands allowing a natural woodland mosaic to develop, increasing biodiversity while protecting and enhancing the terrestrial carbon cycles. The…
The Scottish Government’s consultation on “Tackling the Nature Emergency: Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity” (see here), which was launched in September and includes proposals to reform Scotland’s National Parks, closes on 14th December. To date I have only considered the Scottish Government’s undemocratic proposal to increase Ministerial control over appointments to National Park board appointments…
Having written fairly extensively about the impact of grazing on landslips, earlier this week I was alerted that sheep had got into the new native wood plantation intended to help stabilise the slopes above the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful. I contacted Nick Halls, a contributor to Parkswatch, who by chance was returning…
On 9th November, two days after Scotgold announced (see here) it had been unable to find a new investor for the Cononish goldmine and it was likely to go into administration, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) informed me their Planning Committee had noted without amendment the “annual report” on the mine….
At the start of October, almost a year after they bought the Glen Prosen Estate for £17,555,000, , Forest and Land Scotland (FLS) launched an initial consultation of what to do with the land and buildings under the banner of developing an Angus Glens Land Management Plan (see here). When I last wrote about Glen…
Two years Abrdn Property Income Trust (formerly the Standard Life Property and Income Trust) bought 1400 hectares of land from the Ralia and Drumochter Estate with the stated intention of using the land to offset carbon emissions by planting trees. Abrdn were advised on the purchase and the “habitat restoration project” (see here) by Fenwick…
I spent a couple of days this week on the Rhiedorrach Estate, east of Glen Shee. Walking up to the lovely Loch nan Eun to camp, we only came across this trap because the river was so low we decided to boulder hop across it opposite the Dalmunzie hotel. Two days before we had come…
I was pleased to be quoted in an article in the National on Saturday (see here) about how the Scottish Parliament still drafts legislation designed to exclude the Royal Family and Crown Estate. Twenty 20 years ago outdoor recreational interests successfully fought to close a loophole which would have meant access rights did not apply…
I biked over to the River Dulnain two weeks ago not to search out unlawful access signs on the Dunachton Estate (see here) but to take a look at the forestry and a new native woodland scheme around An Suidhe. There is some lovely woodland surviving on the estate, even if none that I saw…
Anne Weir was “quite shocked to see a rather large gate across the road and deer fencing stretching across the hill on either side” on a walk up Geal Charn Mhòr via the Burma Road and sent these photos to parkswatch along with a couple of comments. Anne noted that that there was still lots…
Following on from my post on peat bog restoration in Glen Banchor (see here), in 2020/21 three new woodland enclosures were erected along the River Calder as part of a conservation project. It involved a fair amount of machinery, raw materials (including bags of cement just out of the photo) and materials for fencing. How…
Following the completion of my post on Deer and Peat Bog restoration on the Glen Banchor estate, I was sent a photo by a reader of deer grazing the Caledonian Pine forest remnants at Kinveachy, all of which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and some of which is a Special Area of…
Annotated woodland plan for Glen Banchor showing a) area of peatbog restoration b) three new woodland exclosures extending across the River Calder onto the Cluny Estate c) the approx position of the sporting pond. Map Credit Cawdor Forestry.The woodland management plan contained in the latest Planning Application to build a track around Newtonmore (see here)…
Writing in the magazine British Wildlife in August 2018 David Hetherington, ecologist with the Cairngorms National Park Authority, explained the importance of natural regeneration in expanding the existing remnants of the Old Caledonian pine forests in the Cairngorms. Natural regeneration is the key defining character of these forests, demonstrating that they are descended directly from…
Having highlighted the issue of forest fences being covered in plastic to prevent bird collisions a year ago (see here), it is very good to see that the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project has been doing more work with the Seafield estate to remove the orange netting. Unfortunately, rather than removing the fences completely, they have been…