News

How wildness is lost: 250 years of encroachment into the hills

2/11/2019

Hydro pipe and commercial forestry plantations north of Loch Tay

The editor of Wild Land News, James Fenton, has written an excellent article about how wildness has been lost from the Highland landscape over the centuries. He focuses on wild, uncultivated land, not the settlements and the land around where signs of human impact would always have been high.

He considers the impacts of: peat cutting, roads and railways, fencing, Victorian and later shooting estates, forestry plantations, the original and more recent hydro-electric schemes, agricultural improvement, footpaths and ATV routes, hill tracks, pylons and associated infrastructure, downhill ski developments, wind farms, and other small-scale structures.

You can download a copy of the article here.

Coul Links: recent additional concerns brought to light

2/4/2019

It would appear that the Scottish Government is intending not to adhere to the UK and Scotland's commitments to upholding the international Ramsar Convention. This will undermine the Coul links objection and also set a further precedent for other similar sites in Scotland.

This not only puts Coul at even greater risk but will also greatly reduce Scotland's international reputation. All in the quest for their ill-conceived 'inclusive economic growth'.

Read more about the Coul case on The Ferret and also see what the RSPB, Jonny Hughes (Scottish Wildlife Trust) and Aedan Smith (Scottish Environment LINK) are saying on Twitter.

Not Coul - group fighting the proposed golf course development at Coul Links in East Sutherland

1/7/2019

SWLG supports the work of a group of local residents who are fighting the proposed golf course development at Coul Links in East Sutherland. You can watch a short video about their work and they are asking for donations via their website notcoul.com.

Coul Links, in the far north of Scotland, is home to one of the UK’s most important sand dune systems. It is protected by three separate environmental designations because of its international importance and because it is home to rare animals and plants that are under threat. In June this year, Highland Councillors sparked an unprecedented public outcry after indicating they would approve the ruinous golf development on these irreplaceable dunes. More than 90,000 people signed a petition opposing the development and over 12,000 wrote to the Scottish Government.

This prompted the Scottish Government to hold a full public inquiry, which will take place beginning 25th February 2019. The Government will then decide whether or not the development can proceed. We have recruited a world class team of environmental scientists to appear at the inquiry. And now we are raising money to help fund detailed analysis work that these experts are undertaking in advance. In all, we need to raise £44,000 (that includes a 10% contingency) to meet our costs of the Public Inquiry.

Coul Links is designated as a ‘Ramsar’ site – meaning it is a wetland of international importance – and this will be the first time that Ramsar protection has been tested by the Scottish legal and planning system. Wetlands store more carbon than any other ecosystem, yet we are losing wetland resource three times faster than natural forests. Coul has therefore become a landmark case that could well influence the future law and practice of protected natural places in Scotland, and beyond, making them more vulnerable to development, and ultimately to destruction.

Compared with the Trump golf development in Aberdeenshire, the proposed course at Coul would destroy or damage almost twice as much protected dune habitat – a habitat that is rarer than rainforest – while delivering even less economic benefit.

How wildness is lost: 250 years of encroachment into the hills

Coul Links: recent additional concerns brought to light

Not Coul - group fighting the proposed golf course development at Coul Links in East Sutherland

Scottish Wild Land Group

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