On Wednesday NatureScot, formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage, issued a news release (see here) about how they had entered a partnership with the Hampden & Co, Lombard Odier Investment Managers and Palladium (the company that in in a partnership with National Parks across the UK called “Revere). They described this as: “a ‘national first’…
Tag: scottish natural heritage
The Scottish Government is currently advertising for six new board members for the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) (see here) and a new chair for Scottish Natural Heritage/Nature Scot (see here). Further changes in the composition of the CNPA Board are pending with Local Member elections due next month and with the Convener, Xander…
For the last few years the Herald has carried a full page feature about once a week on the climate emergency and nature crises. Every 4-6 weeks this involves NatureScot, the new brand name for what is legally still Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). Sometimes these pieces are written by NatureScot – often under the name…
NatureScot’s consultation on National Parks closes today. In my view the most important section of the online survey (see here) is about the powers and functions of National Parks (questions 13-16). Get this right and there would be no need to resort to “green” finance as the means to address the undoubted problems in our…
Walking back down the road in upper Glen Falloch in September the difference in vegetation between the east and west banks of the River Falloch was striking. On the right of the photo you can see lots of natural regeneration, whereas on the left there is none. The Roy Map 1747-52 (see here) shows the…
The Planning Application (see here for planning papers) for a fish farm on Loch Long, along with associated road upgrades, was submitted just over a year ago. It is to be decided at a special meeting of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) Board in Arrochar on Monday after a site visit…
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…
The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which introduced access rights, also gave Scotland Local Authorities and National Parks new powers and duties as “Access Authorities”. Section 25 required Access Authorities to set up one or more Local Access Forums (LAFs) to advise on the exercise of access rights in their area and to help resolve…
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…
Earlier in the week, a few people copied me into a twitter exchange about Scottish Natural Heritage’s delayed name change. If I was capable of doing anything on twitter, except using it as a means of enabling people to follow parkwatch’s posts, I might have shared this: Says it all really! If you don’t…
I have liaised with Nick Kempe on matters relating to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park for several years now but, in his recent blog (see here) on the recent planning approval for the RSPB path in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Nature Reserve, I think he has underplayed the importance of nature. …
While arguing in my last post (see here) that Scottish Natural Heritage’s advice on access to farmland during the corona crisis undermines the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and is unduly restrictive, interestingly it contains a link to the quite separate Scottish Government advice on taking dogs outdoors for a walk that is far less restrictive….
On Monday (20th April) the Scottish Parliament met, sitting two metres apart. The session started with the Presiding Officer asked MSPs to take particular care to maintain that distance when arriving and leaving at the Chamber. That same day the First Minister announced a crackdown on workplaces that had been allowed to remain open but…
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…
Yesterday, I enjoyed a ski tour up Sgairneach Mhor in the Drumochter Hills, accessed by the track up Coire Dhomhain and a bridge over the river. Unlike many tracks in the Drumochter Hills, this one is old and appears on the 1981 OS Second Series 1:50,000 map. The steeper sections, however, have been badly eroded…
Anyone trying to understand Scotland’s deer problem need only travel between Perth and Braemar and see the herds of deer desperately seeking food and shelter in the snowy wilds. This photo is taken close to the location where Brian Shackleton filmed masses of deer on the move a few years ago (see here). There are…
Anyone who wonders why new legislation is needed to regulate deer numbers in Scotland need only study this photograph, taken in Oct 2018, and then read David Lintern’s fine article from 2017 on Walkhighlands “Bare hill of the Hind” (see here). The Walk Highlands article includes a video of a massive herd of red deer…
Every year I check out the litter and marine debris washed up on the shore at the head of Loch Long at Arrochar, and occasionally the state of a similar beach at Lochgoilhead. Debris accumulates in vast quantities during the southerly gales and high tides that annually occur between October and late Spring. Because of…
A winter’s day In a deep and dark December Is what it was for most of December. Dreich was the word to describe it. What better kind of day for a trip down memory lane? I first climbed on Creagh Meagaidh in the early 1970’s. The place gripped me from the start. The location was,…
It seems that the Cairngorms National Park Authority Enforcement Notice against the Glen Clova hotel hill road (see here) has had some effect because at the end of November the Estate notified Angus Council of their intention to construct a new forestry road (see here for planning papers). Not only that, but the Prior Notification papers…
After the criticisms in my last post of the lack of transparency in the planning system, its nice to report that in other areas the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority is showing signs of improvement. The LLTNPA’s recent publication of Deer Management Plans for the area is particularly welcome. The impact of deer…
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…
I was pleased to get this letter on Scottish Power’s plans to cover land around their windfarms with solar panels into the Herald the weekend before last . While our two National Parks may have no windfarms within their boundaries, the broader issue, the impact of renewable energy developments on the carbon held in soils,…
The poisoned beech trees – but what is the way forward? Photo credit – Mary Jack Back in August 2017 (see here) I queried the felling of some beech trees and poisoning of others on the Island of Inchtavannach on Loch Lomond. That article was based on a study/paper claiming that the beech trees were indigenous…
In September, the local SNP Councillor for North, West and Central Sutherland, Kirsteen Currie (see here), lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament petitions Committee to create no wild camp zones in Scotland (see here). The petition was prompted by perceived concerns with the impact of camping and campervanning along the North Coast 500 (see…