Conservation work at the National Trust for Scotland’s Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve got a boost this month as £2000 was pledged to the site. The Artemis Charitable Foundation made the donation after holding a leg of the Great Kindrochit Quadrathlon at the Perthshire nature reserve which is owned and cared for by the conservation charity. As part of the gruelling endurance race which took place in July 2011, participants walk or run up seven munros in the Ben Lawers range, as well as swimming and kayaking in Loch Tay and cycling around it. Around 200 people braved the challenge…

Over 200 members of the public have voted against Scottish Power’s plans to reduce the visual impact of the controversial Beauly to Denny electricity pylon route and joined with the Council to call for an improved plan. The public meeting was called by Stirling Council after the Scottish Government approved the line of the power route but asked Scottish Power and the Council to work together to come up with plans to mitigate the effect of the planned giant pylons in the area around Stirling and the Wallace Monument. Scottish Power put forward plans which involved painting the pylons to…

Two new reports on the Scottish Beaver Trial in Argyll, published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), show that beavers are changing some of the woodland structure but so far having little effect on fish in streams. Beavers were reintroduced to Knapdale forest near Lochgilphead in May 2009 as part of a five year scientific trial run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, hosted by Forestry Commission Scotland. After an absence of more than 400 years, the effects of beavers on the environment are being closely monitored by SNH in partnership with a number of…

Walkhighlands self-catering advertising members, Somerset and Carolyne Charrington have been crowned Britains best wildlife farmers after a close-run public vote. The annual RSPB Telegraph Nature of Farming Award celebrates the fantastic work farmers are already doing for wildlife, with a top prize of £1,000 for the very best. The Charringtons who run a 750ha upland livestock farm at Treshnish on the Isle of Mull have taken to heart the need to manage the land in tune with nature whilst ensuring it provides a sustainable business. Their farm lies on some of the most spectacular coastal scenery on Mull and the…

Four golden eagles, the most recorded in a single year, were amongst 29 birds illegally poisoned last year, according to the latest annual report by RSPB Scotland. The report, “The illegal killing of birds of prey in Scotland in 2010”, indicates that persecution remains at high levels and continues to pose a serious risk to the long-term populations of some of Scotland’s most vulnerable birds of prey. The report also highlights the importance of dead birds found by walkers in remote areas although it is acknowledged that many suspicious bird deaths are likely to never be known about or investigated.…