The title of the Scottish Government’s consultation, “Wildlife Management in Scotland” (see here), which closed yesterday, was very revealing. Despite the nature emergency and the Scottish Government’s commitment to protect 30% of the land by 2030 (see here), there were no questions about how natural processes could be restored or we might reverse the catastrophic…
Tag: grouse moors
After the first three questions in NatureScot consultation on National Parks, which are about whether to turn them into vehicles for “green finance” (see here), the fourth is about the role of local communities (see here). The introductory text to the section claims that our National Parks “provide exemplars of community engagement” but contain no…
Following the poorly designed consultation on creating a new National Park for Scotland which took place May-June (see here), the Scottish Government asked NatureScot, its statutory adviser on such issues, to provide advice on the role of National Parks and “how new nominations for National Parks could be evaluated”. In the summer NatureScot set up…
A couple of days after going to look at the botched Beauly Denny construction road restoration (see here) while walking north of Carrbridge, I came across a more recent example of SSE’s work to upgrade Scotland’s network of powerlines. Another landscape horror. In 2018, while visiting the Auchtertipper native woodland creation scheme on the Reforesting…
Last month it was reported that Brewdog had been awarded over £1m in grants by Scottish Forestry Scotland as part of its Lost Forest project at Kinrara. The Scottish Forestry website is very hard to use – searches for Brewdog, Kinrara and on its land based database all come up blank – and I have…
I have spent several days in the last couple of years in and around the Phoines Estate and, while not blogging about the estate itself, have included photos of way they manage the land in posts about muirburn madness (see here) and the politics of muirburn in the National Park (showing the state of the…
Following the online protest organised by the Grampian Moorland Group against the National Park Partnership Plan (see here), Scotland’s “Regional Moorland Groups” have been putting a glossy leaflet through the door of every household in the Cairngorms National Park. The Moorland Groups are shadowy organisations (see here) that do not declare their membership so it…
It’s a while since I posted one of Adam Watson’s photos, contrasting then with now (see here), but I was reminded of this photo when starting out up Glen Ey late Friday afternoon. (It has featured on parkswatch before in a post by George Allan about the LINK hill tracks campaign (see here)). What you…
Today the Grampian Moorland Group have been mounting an online protest (see here) against the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s proposals to reduce the numbers of red deer in the National Park from around 11 to 5- 8 per square kilometre. The protest is backed by the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) (see here) and Scottish…
On Tuesday NatureScot launched its new corporate plan 2022-26 (see here) under the guise of what it described as “an ambitious new plan for nature” (see here). The 16 page document commits NatureScot to delivering the Scottish Government’s recently adopted targets that 30% of Scotland’s lands and seas should be protected by 2030 and 10%…
Ten days ago I went to have a look at the (larger) part of the Ralia estate that has been bought by Standard Life but first had to pass through the part of the prorperty that borders the A9 and has been retained by the previous owners. I had been there several times in the…
[NB My apologies, I have corrected an error in the first version of this post and have used Assynt in the title, which I cannot change without destroying weblinks, when it should have said Coigach – see comment below] While staying near Ullapool last week I came across this sign, which was new to me,…
I was away up near Ullapool last week. Driving up the A9 the snow had helped pick out the muirburn in Glen Truim, north of the Drumochter and Dalwhinnie. Much of the hillside below the telecommunications mast, which is on land that appears to be owned by the North Drumochter Estate, would quickly regenerate as…
[Update: since posting this I have been contacted by Seafield Estates who have informed me that “there are 20 sheep in Kinveachy, they have not been there long and we have already arranged for them to be gathered and returned to their rightful owner”. They also told me that “There are occasionally sheep in the…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s consultation on their draft National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP) officially closes on Friday, apparently at 5pm. So far, I have only considered the draft plan from a climate and nature conservation perspective but will continue covering other aspects of the plan after the consultation closes. Before that, however, I…
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…
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…
A recent visit to the Cromdale Hills prompted some thoughts about the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s policy approach to hill tracks, the use of All Terrain Vehicles and their impact on the natural environment. What the CNPA National Park Partnership plan says about hill tracks The draft National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP), which is…
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…
Development for “sporting” purposes on the Pitmain and Glenbanchor estates in the Cairngorms National Park, albeit interspersed with some tokenistic conservation projects funded by our public authorities (see here), is relentless. On 8th October Highland Council validated a planning application (see here), submitted by Savills, to erect a 6m high lattice radio mast and equipment…
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 Wednesday I drove to Luss, the first time I had been along the A82 since May, and was amazed by the transformation. Instead of the usual litter strewn verges and laybys, I had to look quite carefully to spot any litter. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has for years had a…
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…