The news of a poisoned Golden Eagle being found next to a poisoned Mountain Hare on Invercauld Estate (see here) led me to reflect on the afternoon I found a trapped gull on that estate in June 2016. While this received publicity at the time, some of it excellent, (see here), I have never told my…
Tag: grouse moors
It’s the height of the muirburn season and the clear blue skies at the start of the month helped highlight the folly as the Cairngorms National Park was dotted with plumes of smoke. The pollution caused by muirburn doesn’t just release carbon into the atmosphere, it reduces air quality and harms the health of people…
It’s now four years since I wrote about the potential for landscape scale conservation (see here) and the problem of bulldozed tracks (see here) on the Dinnet Estate. I have been meaning to explore the area further ever since so I was pleased recently to be sent some photos of the way the land…
Recently I was sent photos, taken in 2019, of a stink pit at the northern end of the 42,000 acre Glenavon Estate, about 5km south of Tomintoul. The person who sent the photos had been alerted by a walker who had stumbled across the pit a couple of months earlier in February and reported finding…
A week after the Herald piece, on 29th December, Prince Charles was interviewed about his views on the natural environment by Margaret Atwood, guest editor for the Today programme (see here – from 2.20.30 to 2.29.30). It is highly recommended listening. I had not realised that Prince Charles had been speaking out about the dangers…
The tree tube problem The theme of the Spring/Summer issue of Reforesting Scotland was climate change. It ended with an excellent piece by a forest manager, Willie McGhee, on “Seas of plastic in the countryside”. His guesstimate is that in Scotland we may have used 200 million plastic tree tubes in the countryside over…
The problem with the Scottish Government’s response to the Werritty Review (see here), which I blogged about almost a year ago (see here), is that fails to tackle the central issue, the intensification of moorland management in order to produce more grouse for shooting. The conversion of Scotland’s moors into vast farms for grouse is…
In October I went for a walk over Brown Cow Hill on the Delnadamph Estate, which was bought by the Queen in 1978 and gifted to Prince Charles on his marriage to Diana. I had not been for many years but was keen to see how the estate was being managed given Prince Charles’ role…
I had not been up Glen Callater for a number of years but last week, after a wet morning, went for a run over Creag nan Gabhar returning down the northern half of the glen. Credit should be given to Invercauld Estate for provision of the car park at Auchallater which is very well used…
In the corona panic, the Scottish Government and our Public Authorities have completely lost all sense of reason. It will have serious human and environmental consequences. What the Coronavirus Health Protection Restriction Scotland Regulations (see here), passed last week by the Scottish Government without any parliamentary scrutiny, actually say is that you cannot leave where…
Following yesterday’s post Spreading misinformation about Glen Feshie and access in the Cairngorms National Park I have been sent two photos. The first (above), was sent from Roy Turnbull of the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group to illustrate his comment on my post: “Not only is there now (of course) no restriction of access in…
The Werritty report (see here), which was published a week before Xmas, is not disappointing, as some have claimed, its what everyone should have expected. Both the remit for the review and the membership of the review group were wrong from the outset. The question which the Scottish Government should have asked is not whether…
Last week Revive, the coalition for grouse moor reform, issued a new report Untold Suffering about how thousands of animals are killed and trapped on Scotland’s grouse moors. Its one of the scandals of our time that this slaughter takes place even in our National Parks which were set up to protect nature (see here). …
This short video was sent to me with the message “take you mind off politics for a moment”! It shows all the wildlife which used a log to cross a stream in Pennsylvania during the course of a year. Most enjoyable – do watch – but I couldn’t escape the political implications. There could hardly…
Back in February 2018 Parkswatch called for the Cairngorms National Park Authority to start taking enforcement action against the unlawful hill roads in Glen Clova (see here). The CNPA responded to say that in most of the cases it was unable, whatever it thought of the roads, to do so. This was either because…
Parkswatch was sent photos a couple of weeks ago of new road construction on the Balavil Estate. Earlier this year Balavil was granted planted permission by the Cairngorms National Park Authority to construct a controversial new road over into the heart of the Monadliath Wild Land Area (see here) and (here). (Work on that…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority’s consultation on its new Economic Action Plan, 2019-22, will close on Friday (see here). While there are some good things in the plan, this post argues its exhortation for people to work together won’t work under our current system and it fails to address the one economic matter over which the…
[UPDATE: This post was prompted by an article in the Guardian claiming NTS had decided to end driven grouse shooting at Mar Lodge. This was subsequently changed – thanks to James Shooter for pointing this out. I have since checked with NTS staff who have helpfully explained they adopted a new Vision and Master Plan…
As the downpours continue, the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham, should be asking herself why so much of the recent flood damage has been within our National Parks? Examples include disruption and damage to the rail network near Carrbridge in the Cairngorms (see here), at Ardlui and north of Crianlarich in the…
On Monday the Green MSP, Alison Johnstone, launched a public consultation on a Members Bill to introduce a ban on fox hunting and further restrict the killing of mountain and brown hares (see here). The Bill is partly in response to the failure of the Scottish Government to respond adequately to Lord Bonomy’s report into…
After my post on The Scottish Planning Bill, hill tracks and our National Parks a reader sent in what appears to be a standard letter which SNP MSPs have been sending to constituents who have lobbied them. With Andy Wightman’s amendments to bring most hill roads into the planning system due to be debated in…
Background The Planning Bill, which is about to be considered again by the Scottish Parliament, originated as a response to developers who claimed that the Planning System was an impediment to “economic development”. The real explanation for why developments can take a long time to materialise lies in most developments being driven first and foremost…
On the same day, 24th May, that the Cairngorms National Park issued a news piece entitled Our National Treasures about the European Day of Parks, the police issued a news release about four geese that had been found poisoned near Loch Gynack by Kingussie at the end of April. This received excellent coverage on Raptor…
I almost never watch TV but last week, in the middle of the first week of the Extinction Rebellion protest, I did watch the BBC documentary “Climate Change – the Facts” narrated by David Attenborough. The footage of forest fires burning out of control and the evidence that not only have the numbers of fires…
Its the muirburn season (1st October to 15th April). Following my post on muirburn at Mar Lodge (see here), REVIVE has released film footage of muirburn in the Cairngorms National Park (see here). This was covered by the Ferret yesterday (see here). Parkswatch can add to the concerns about the impact of muirburn on the…