Ramblers Scotland has called for Scotland's third national park to be established on the Isle of Harris. In a briefing to MSPs before the debate on National Parks in Scotland planned for 13 November, the Ramblers have urged the Scottish Parliament to press the case for a third national park to be established as soon as possible. Ramblers Scotland Director, Dave Morris, said: “The SNP Government has been too slow in developing Scotland’s National Park system. Apart from extending the southern boundary of the Cairngorms National Park down to Blair Atholl they have done virtually nothing since then to promote…

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…

New scientific research is giving hope to the future of endangered red squirrels after one animal survived the normally fatal squirrel pox. Scientists working at the University of Liverpool discovered that an adult native red squirrel that contracted the parapox virus was able to fight off the disease and survive. Research is ongoing to see if this holds the key to reds being able to gain immunity to the disease which has decimated red squirrel populations in southern Scotland and northern England. Rachel Miller, Red Squirrel field officer at the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire and North Merseyside, told the Liverpool…