Four conservation charities – Buglife, the Scottish Campaign for National Parks, the Badenoch & Strathspey Conservation Group and the Cairngorms Campaign – have united to launch a legal appeal against plans for large new housing developments in the Cairngorms National Park. The charities are objecting to the creation of a new town of 1,500 houses at An Camas Mor near Aviemore, and a near doubling of the size of Kingussie as well as other housing developments in Carrbridge and Nethy Bridge. They have now launched an appeal to ‘Safeguard the Cairngorms’ – aiming to raise £30,000 to help fund the…

Conservation charity Trees for Life has announced details of its Conservation Weeks for 2013, offering people the opportunity to make a positive difference to the environment whilst experiencing an unforgettable visit to the Scottish Highlands. Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s Executive Director, said: “The Year of Natural Scotland is the perfect time to enjoy Nature and wild Scotland, and to take action to restore the Caledonian Forest and its unique wildlife. Our 2013 Conservation Weeks offer an inspiring hands on conservation experience in breathtaking Highlands scenery of mountains, forest and rivers.” Trees for Life is restoring the Caledonian Forest…

Two years after the Petition was lodged, the Scottish Parliament’s Petition Committee has discussed how to progress the wild land designation petition lodged by the John Muir Trust (JMT) in January 2011. Most members of the committee, across all parties, agreed that the petition should be continued and that the Chief Executive and Chair of Scottish Natural Heritage should be invited to report on their progress on wild land mapping, which has been underway for several years. Members of the committee, including SNP MSP John Wilson, expressed disappointment at the inadequate response of the Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse, who had…

Highland Council planners have thrown out proposals to build a wind farm near the edge of a National Nature Reserve on one of Scotland’s best known mountains. The plans to build 17 turbines, each 126.5 metres high, at Clach Liath near to Ben Wyvis in Ross-shire was deemed so unsuitable that it was rejected without even needing to be put before the council planning committee for a vote. David Gibson, MCofS Chief Officer, said: “We welcome this decision but it is completely wrong that companies can waste public time and money by putting forward grossly unsuitable applications of this kind.…

Vital conservation work, including the growing of rare trees, by award-winning charity Trees for Life has received a welcome funding boost thanks to players of a charity lottery. The seven thousand pound award from People’s Postcode Trust, has allowed Trees for Life to expand and develop a tree nursery at its acclaimed Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston near Loch Ness, Inverness-shire. Trees for Life has been able to invest in a much-needed new polytunnel, tools and equipment – increasing the nursery’s capacity to grow rare trees and plants to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands. Volunteers will carry…

A new initiative has been launched by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to explore options for the future of Kinloch Castle on the Isle of Rum. SNH owns the castle and most of the island which is home to the Isle of Rum National Nature Reserve. Although going beyond SNH’s remit, the management and upkeep of the castle comes as part of the ownership responsibility, something that the organisation has invested more than £1m in over the past few years. The castle was built for the Lancastrian industrialist George Bullough in 1897. Luxuriously furnished, its heyday took place before the First…