The Scottish Government has given final approval to a 17 turbine windfarm at Lochluichart between Achnasheen and Garve. The Mountaineering Council of Scotland was one of the bodies who objected to the proposal on the grounds that the turbines would be visible over a wide area and therefore spoil a wild but popular area and due to the likely adverse effects on wildlife, biodiversity, and the disturbance of large amounts of peat currently acting as a carbon store. The MCofS said in their submission that, “the proposed wind farm would be visible from a large number of hills, including the…

The National Trust for Scotland, is looking for volunteers with a talent for sewing to make simple bags to help save lost puffin chicks on the Dual World Heritage Site, St Kilda.   Every year, dozens of pufflings become disorientated by lights from the buildings on the isolated island of Hirta and end up inland, instead of out at sea. Ranger staff, who live on the island throughout the summer, regularly rescue pufflings by placing them in small, cotton drawstrings bags to keep them safe, take them to the coast and release them out to sea.   Now, Property Manager…

The Scottish Beaver Trial took one step closer to the UK’s first native mammal reintroduction when four beaver families arrived in Heathrow last night. The beavers, originally from Norway, will now spend six months in quarantine before being released in Knapdale, mid-Argyll on a time-limited trial basis in spring 2009. The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), project partners for the Scottish Beaver Trial, enlisted the help of a specialist team to assist them with the capture of the beaver families from the Telemark region of Norway in September. For the last two months,…

The John Muir Trust has announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive, Stuart Brooks, who will take over on 1st March 2009. Stuart, 39, is presently the Director of Conservation with the Scottish Wildlife Trust a post he has held since 2002. He said, “I am absolutely delighted to take up the post of Chief Executive at the John Muir Trust and am looking forward to working with staff, trustees and volunteers to secure a better future for our most spectacular and important wild land areas. I feel very privileged to be joining a membership organisation that has already…

John Muir Trust volunteer work parties have completed a gruelling five year programme to remove more than 120 unsightly cairns from the summit of Ben Nevis. Now the Trust is asking walkers not to build any news ones. Around twenty cairns have been left along the main path close to the summit. The John Muir Trust – owners of Ben Nevis since 2000 – has cleared these cairns to preserve the wild and remote feeling at the top of Britain’s highest mountain. The cairns were also being used as rubbish bins and their proliferation could give people a false sense…