Conservation charity Trees for Life is celebrating today following the announcement that it has won £50,000 of Lottery funding for a pioneering project to help restore Scotland’s ancient Caledonian Forest and protect its rare wildlife from extinction, while benefiting hundreds of disadvantaged people from the Inverness region. The conservation charity’s plan to create a new volunteer training programme at its Dundreggan Conservation Estate near Loch Ness was successful in yesterday’s finals of the People’s Millions public vote. Trees for Life’s Executive Director Alan Watson Featherstone said: “This is fantastic news for our work to save the Caledonian Forest and its…

Nine of Scotland's leading environmental charities are calling on the Scottish Government to put an end to the unregulated system for hill track construction which allows landowners to build tracks without any public oversight. Instead, they want hill track construction brought within the planning system. Working under the umbrella of Scottish Environment LINK, the organisations today published ‘Track Changes’. This report shows evidence of the huge damage caused to landscapes, wildlife and habitats across Scotland by some of these tracks, carved across the landscape for motor vehicles. The aim is to persuade the Scottish Government to remove ‘permitted development rights’…

Members of the Scottish Parliament are being sent a leaflet from the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) reminding them of the huge benefits of Scotland's mountains. The leaflet challenges them to balance the need for green power with the need to safeguard a hugely valuable but finite and vulnerable resource. “To some the term ‘wild land’ just translates as emptiness – something without any value,” says MCofS Director of Landscape and Access Dave Gordon. “Scotland’s mountains are very far from being without value: they are among our greatest assets. But our uplands are also incredibly vulnerable. “Our mountains and wild…

The golden eagle has overwhelmingly topped the vote in a campaign to find the country’s favourite wild animal. The impressive bird of prey was competing against the red deer, red squirrel, harbour seal and otter. Thousands of votes were recorded online following the campaign launch in spring this year and voting closed yesterday . With almost 40 per cent of the vote, the eagle was well ahead of its counterparts. The next closest was the red squirrel with 20 percent, then the red deer and the otter, with the harbour seal in last place. The campaign was run jointly by…

Drumochter and Ben Alder Estates have submitted planning applications to retain several miles of the temporary access tracks built for the construction of the Beauly – Denny powerline. Drumochter wish to retain 4.5km of track east of the A9, whilst Ben Alder wish to retain a shorter 600m of track to the west of the A9. The original permission granted for the Beauly-Denny powerline required that all temporary tracks must be reinstated once construction was completed. However, the documents submitted by the agents for Drumochter Estate state that “since the track was constructed, it has become apparent that it offers…