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<\/a>\nThe Act gave local authorities the power to designate Country Parks –\na managed and accessible taste of the countryside on the edge of\nlarge population centres – and key to these new leisure hotspots were\nranger services, which the Act allowed councils to create. Rangers\nwould welcome and inform visitors about the recreational\nopportunities on offer, educate them about the wildlife they might\nencounter, and foster a greater understanding of both the Country\nPark and the wider countryside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRanger Services were soon adopted by most council areas, numerous\nprivate estates (such as Balmoral), and at properties managed by\ncharities (such as Culzean). Several decades later there are around\n90 services in Scotland (provided by over 60 employers) and you\u2019ll\nfind them from the heart of our cities to the farthest flung islands\n(eg Tiree and Fair Isle).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ranger role varies from one service to the next depending on local heritage, the local environment, local recreational pressures and the management objectives of the property in question. And while a basic remit links them all together \u2013 that of connecting people to places and to nature – still the question of what a ranger remains unanswered because even within an individual service it\u2019s fantastically varied work, and no two days are ever the same. That\u2019s why we all love it so much!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe best way to answer it is to spend a week with a ranger\u2026..so\nlet\u2019s do just that. Here\u2019s my actual diary from an average week\nin June this year, as a ranger at Mar Lodge Estate. Oh and I should\npoint out this was just my own personal workload. The other two\nrangers were equally busy elsewhere on the estate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMar Lodge is a 29,000 hectare estate in the Cairngorms, managed by\nthe National Trust for Scotland (NTS). We have 15 munros on the\nestate (including four of the five highest hills in the country),\nover 200 miles of paths, two principal car parks and we receive\napproximately 100,000 visitors a year. The Ranger Service has two\npermanent staff and one seasonal (Me!).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \nWednesday<\/strong>: 10am start. Email check first, then it\u2019s down to\nthe Linn of Dee car park for the daily inspections. It\u2019s our main\naccess point for visitors, and on busy summer days there can be 100\nvehicles crammed into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nFirst I check that the visitor portaloos are clean and free\nof\u2026.erm\u2026.blockages. We do this every morning (several times on\nbusy days) and there\u2019s always apprehension when you open those\ndoors because you never know what you might find. Bagged dog poo,\nbags of beer cans, spent nappies, disposable BBQs, dirty clothing or,\nworst of all, a loo with the lid down. That\u2019s never a good sign. I\ndon\u2019t know if it\u2019s a shame thing or what, but people seem oddly\ncompelled to try and hide what they\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThen I put the hillwalking weather forecast (MWIS) up on the notice\nboard and fill the leaflet dispensers, our most popular leaflet being\nthe Linn of Dee Trails. Parking ticket machine checks are next,\nemptying or fixing them as required, before litter-picking the car\npark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Litter-picking is a staple in all ranger services, and the number of hours some spend doing it is ridiculous. We\u2019re fortunate at Mar Lodge that we don\u2019t have a huge litter or flytipping problem, but when I worked as a ranger in West Lothian it could amount to a full working day or more every week. I always thought that the person who says \u2018keeping you in a job, mate!\u2019 when challenged about dropping litter was a ranger myth, but I encountered them in my last job. I calmly replied that my job would be here regardless, but that for every 90 mins I spent picking up litter it was another primary school class I couldn\u2019t teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nToday the car park is clean save for the requisite half dozen or so\ntissues, some sweet wrappers and a pair of forgotten walking poles. I\nthen ensure that the events whiteboard is up to date, as we run a\nprogramme of events between March and October, including black grouse\nwatches, tours of the lodge & ballroom, kids\u2019 outdoor\nactivities and guided walks. I then drive down to the Linn of Quoich\n(our other car park) and repeat most of the above tasks, all of which\ntakes all morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nAfter lunch the Ranger Service leads a walk for 54 students. We host\neducational groups in term time, and not just from Aberdeenshire.\nThese are from Paris and today we\u2019re taking them around the Glen\nLui loop to show them our woodlands and wildlife, explain how and why\nthe estate is managed as it is, and help them practice their English.\nIt needs all three of the rangers to do it, taking 17 students each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThe last time we hosted a French group some of the words and\nterminology were lost in translation, so this time I\u2019ve memorised\nkey French words to help me explain better. \u2018Cerf\u2019 is stag.\n\u2018Ramures\u2019 is antlers. \u2018Miles carr\u00e9s\u2019 is square miles. But\nthe word for \u2018stalking\u2019 continues to elude me, and my attempts at\na literal translation instead prompt raised eyebrows when I say we\nemploy our very own stalkers. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nToday, using the scientific Latin\/Greek names for species is actually\nmore effective than trying a translation of the common name. One\nFrench ecologist instantly understands \u2018Molinia\u2019 whereas \u2018Purple\nMoor Grass\u2019 draws a complete blank. But even then, confusion or\namusement arises. When the same chap points at a large scots pine and\nasks\u2026.\u2019penis?\u2019, it takes me a few seconds to figure out it he\nis saying \u2018Pinus\u2019 but with a French pronunciation. Ha ha, we get\nthere in the end!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThursday: <\/strong>9am start. It\u2019s an ecology day, which means\nhands-on help for the estate ecologists. They\u2019re out and about most\ndays, surveying and monitoring the flora and fauna, and as seasonal\nranger I get to help them one day a week. Over the summer that tends\nto be tree transects, which is an important part of the woodland\nregeneration work underway at Mar Lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThere\u2019s only 180 km2 of native scots pine woodland left in Scotland\nand we have about 5% of that total on the estate. It\u2019s rare,\nprecious, showered with various nature designations and, thanks in no\nsmall part to deer control by the estate\u2019s team of keepers, the\nwoodlands are \u2018regenerating\u2019 of their own accord, without the\nneed for planting. Pine, birch, rowan, alder and willow saplings are\npopping up all over the place now that the grazing pressure has been\nreduced, and this is meticulously studied and documented by the\nestate ecologists. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \nToday\u2019s survey is in Glen Derry and involves studying a 1000m x 2m\ntransect, which runs down one side of the glen and up the other,\nrecording and measuring the number of saplings and seedlings. It\ninvolves two of us shuffling through 1km of thick heather, eyes at\nour feet, getting sore necks. The terrain is challenging and any new\nseedlings are almost invisible, so it\u2019s slow work and it takes all\nday. There are over 10km of these transects to do – they get done\nevery two years but other tree surveys are annual while some, like\ndead wood surveys, only get done every ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nFriday:<\/strong> 9:30am start. The morning is a repeat of Wednesday\u2019s\nduties. After lunch I reply to emails, including a Duke of Edinburgh\ngroup checking if it\u2019s okay to camp at Derry Lodge one night in\nJuly. We appeal to DofE groups to run their plans by us so that we\ncan, if necessary, minimise the impact upon the environment by\nsuggesting alternatives when more than two groups are planning on\ncamping in any one location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nI then take a phonecall from someone booking onto our guided walk up\nBen Macdui, before planning a school class I\u2019m helping with next\nweek for Braemar Primary. I\u2019ll be teaching the kids how to use\nwildlife keys to identify invertebrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nMar Lodge has a long relationship with the school, and these days we\nvisit most weeks to assist with their outdoor \/ nature learning. The\nnursery kids in particular favour a forest school approach, and it\u2019s\ninteresting how some kids whose learning struggles in the classroom\nare more relaxed and better able to cope with tasks in a woodland\nsetting. That they react so positively towards nature speaks volumes\nabout its power to educate, and how important the natural world and\noutdoor recreation are to human development. Of course, that assumes\nthat everyone has access to the natural world, which we know isn\u2019t\nthe case, and is just one way that ranger services can make a\ndifference at that young age by engaging with primary schools,\nespecially in urban areas. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nI finish early at 3pm because I\u2019m on fire patrol this evening.\nEstate staff take turns to patrol the estate, owing to the\nsignificant danger that campfires present to our internationally\nimportant habitats and wildlife. We spend the summer in perpetual\nanxiety about campfires becoming wildfires, as happened in 2014 when\na weekend campfire seemingly burned down unseen into the peat and\nthen, three days after the campers had departed, flared up in strong\nwinds. It took 11 fire appliances and a helicopter to bring it under\ncontrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIn Scotland, campfires aren\u2019t permitted in woodland or on peaty\nground without landowner permission, or during times of high fire\nrisk. It\u2019s high fire risk just now, so tonight I\u2019m patrolling the\nglens, sniffing for smoke and chatting to campers. It\u2019s\nuncharacteristically quiet but I get that familiar sinking feeling in\nmy stomach when I catch the whiff of smoke through the truck window.\nWalking through the forest, following my nose, I find half a dozen\ntents and a large group of adults and kids having a barbecue.\nThankfully it\u2019s not one of those disposable BBQs, which can ignite\nthe vegetation beneath them, rather it\u2019s a proper self-contained,\nraised BBQ with a grille. A much safer option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThey\u2019ve finished cooking but I still give a friendly talk about\nbeing extra vigilant in the bone-dry woodland. We chat cheerily for\n10 minutes about camping and other things, and they insist on sharing\ntheir spare burgers with me. It\u2019s a nice gesture, but not uncommon\nbecause most people understand it\u2019s nothing personal and that\nyou\u2019re only trying to protect the place. Folk generally react okay\nto having their fires extinguished provided you don\u2019t go in all\nguns blazing. I eventually finish work at 10:15pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nSaturday: <\/strong>9am start. Straight down to Linn of Dee to clean the\nloos and litter-pick the car park and trails. I then deal with two\nrecent campfire sites, one on the Dee and one at the Punchbowl, both\nof which appeared this week during the high fire risk. Both have the\nclassic ring of stones around a scorched, blackened area of grass. I\ncheck that the stones and ashes are cold before putting the former\nback in the river, and scattering the latter widely. That magic ring\nof stones doesn\u2019t contain your fire because the heat burns\ndownwards as well as outwards, so I then check that the ground\nunderneath the fire site isn\u2019t hot. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nOn peaty and woody soil the only way to be certain a campfire is out\nis to dig down as much as 20cm, utterly saturate the hole you\u2019ve\ndug with as much as 10l or more of water, and then pierce the bottom\nof the hole with a stick to let the water seep downwards. A\nsaucepan\u2019s worth, or a 1l bottle of water, just won\u2019t suffice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digging-over also ensures that the burnt and seared patch of ground will turn green again. One blackened patch in a season wouldn\u2019t be massively detrimental visually and would recover in time, but when our wild places are under such massive pressure it\u2019s never just one blackened patch. If we leave them in situ they breed like rabbits, old fire sites arguably giving people the impression that fires in woodland or on peat are tolerated. They\u2019re not. And so for the sake of the environment, and to maintain the sense of wildness for all of our visitors, we restore campfire sites so that you\u2019d never know anyone had been there – \u2018leave no trace\u2019 being the worthy and logical maxim when accessing the outdoors, leaving places as you find them\u2026.or indeed better! Last year we found and restored 61 campfires between May and October, and managed to speak to the folk who\u2019d lit them in about a third of those cases. This year we\u2019re already approaching 50. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \nWhile I\u2019m digging, a walker asks if the footpath up the east Quoich\nis walkable. I explain part of it was washed away by the floods in\n2014 and is therefore very rough. He thanks me and heads off,\nundeterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nI then return to the Linn of Dee car park and staff the ranger hut\nfor a couple of hours, chatting to visitors. Public engagement is at\nthe core of rangering and, given the size of Mar Lodge Estate and its\nimportance in Scottish conservation, almost everyone has a question\nor is looking for assistance in some way. Along with guided walks\nit\u2019s the part of the job I enjoy most, actually talking to people,\ntelling them why this place is so special. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThis morning\u2019s engagement includes chatting to several DofE groups,\nhelping folk park their vehicles, supplying change for the ticket\nmachines and helping a bloke figure out how to wash his hands! Lots\nof people are seeking route advice but in under two hours I also\nfield questions re\u2019 dogwalking during ground-nesting bird season,\nthe history of the lodge, the state of the woodlands, why there are\nno rubbish bins, the rules of wild camping and where is good for a\nswim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nI\u2019m out on patrol again this evening so I finish at 2pm. When I\nreturn home a car pulls up, and a couple ask if they can see inside\nthe lodge. Mar Lodge Estate has busy housekeeping and estate\nmaintenance teams, who can show people inside the lodge if duties\nallow, but I\u2019m the only person here just now. I do enjoy a good\nblether so spend 40 minutes or so showing these folk the public rooms\nand the ballroom, eventually finishing at 3pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nBack to work at 7pm, patrolling Glens Dee, Lui and Quoich. I chat to\na few campers at Derry Lodge but happily it\u2019s quiet and fire-free\nagain. I take the opportunity to litter-pick behind Derry Lodge, as\nit\u2019s usually peppered with tissues from where people have emptied\ntheir bowels, and finish work at 9:45pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nSunday: <\/strong>9am start. The usual morning portaloo\/litter\/mountain\nweather duties at the car parks before heading out on a remote patrol\nto Bynack Lodge and Red House, where I find and restore two more fire\nsites. At Bynack Lodge I chat to two cyclists, who ask about the\nquality of the track between there and Glen Tilt. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nAfter lunch, 3hrs of public engagement at Linn of Dee, first\n(reluctantly) removing a small wasp\u2019s nest from the ranger hut. I\nunfurl an OS map on the bonnet of the truck, an effective way of\nattracting folk seeking advice. Aside from route advice, this\nafternoon\u2019s questions include clay pigeon shooting, lodge\naccommodation, DofE routes and where to visit in Perthshire and\nAssynt. I also help two French walkers find the start of their\nmulti-munro walk, and help a nervous-looking bus driver find his 24\nmissing Icelandic hillwalkers. Don\u2019t ask!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nTHE FUTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThere\u2019s less money around these days, which won\u2019t come as a\nsurprise to anyone, and ranger services are therefore every bit as\nthreatened as some of the species and habitats they seek to protect.\nIn 2017 there were 269 full time rangers in the whole of Scotland,\nwhich might sound a lot but 141 posts have been lost since 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThe Scottish Countryside Ranger Association (SCRA), which represents\nScotland\u2019s rangers and is entirely volunteer-led, has charted the\ndecline. It seemingly began in the 90s but accelerated in 2008 after\nthe Scottish Government stopped ring-fencing the SNH grant aid that\nmost ranger services received, and instead put it into the main\nsettlement for local authorities, with predictable consequences. The\ndecline accelerated after the financial crash with, unsurprisingly,\nthe bulk of ranger losses being borne by councils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paradoxically, as ranger numbers fall, rangers are needed more than ever. It can\u2019t have escaped anyone\u2019s attention that there\u2019s a tourism boom going on out there, not unlike the one that led to rangers being introduced in the first place. Visitor numbers to Scotland have been increasing in recent years, but who will welcome these visitors to our great outdoors? Who will recommend routes and walks? Who will advise them on responsible access? On the Scottish Outdoor Access Code? True, that information is all online if you actively search for it, but often there\u2019s no substitute for walking into a visitor centre or picking up the phone, and chatting to folk who know the area intimately. Folk who understand not only visitor needs, but also those of the sensitive environments they\u2019ve come to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nBut even before you consider the needs of overseas visitors, the\nvalue to the folk who live here in Scotland is huge. In 2017 almost\n70,000 people, between nursery and university levels, attended\neducational activities with rangers. More than 25,000 volunteers\nparticipated in practical tasks led by rangers. More than 3000\ncommunity groups engaged with ranger services to meet their aims. And\nmore than 50,000 people attended ranger public events. There is no\nfigure for the number of people who engage with rangers during their\nvisit, and by that I mean more than just a \u2018hello\u2019. I mean having\nbeen helped in some way, whether that\u2019s advice or a question about\nwildlife, parking, walks, heritage or whatever. My own engagement\ntally just for this season is more than 1300 people, so the total\nfigure nationwide, across all rangers, will be huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nRangers are a complete no-brainer, especially when there\u2019s a\ngovernment focus on getting more people physically active. The case\nfor physical and mental wellbeing, of having green spaces in which to\nplay, relax and volunteer, and of having someone managing them to\nimprove access, cannot be overstated. Nor can the importance of\nnature conservation in the current climate and extinction crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nSCRA organised a petition in 2017, asking the Scottish Government to\nimplement the \u2018Rangers\nin Scotland\u2019 framework<\/a> that SNH produced in 2008. This would\ninvolve detailed reporting on ranger activity (and therefore\ndocumenting the benefits) nationwide, and recognition of the role\nrangers play in Scottish society. The government has since\nacknowledged rangers\u2019 importance but they maintain that funding is\na matter for local authorities. So, where we stand in 2019 is finding\nHolyrood\u2019s Public Petitions Committee broadly supportive of moving\nthe petition forward, and SCRA in conversation with SNH to that end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThere\u2019s no room for complacency. People don\u2019t know what they have\nuntil it\u2019s gone, and people won\u2019t speak up for something if they\ndon\u2019t know it exists. And that\u2019s a problem for many ranger\nservices because, unlike some professions, their work can easily go\nunnoticed despite the broad remit. We definitely need to shout louder\nabout what we do, and in that regard I hope this column might at\nleast help in raising the profile of rangers, the work they do, and\nhighlight their precarious existence in an even more precarious\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nGOODBYEEE!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alas, this is my final column for Walkhighlands, and I couldn\u2019t go without saying an enormous thank you to Paul and Helen for having giving me this opportunity back in 2014. I\u2019ve since written 60 articles and have learned LOADS from all the research I\u2019ve done, but the high profile of Walkhighlands in Scotland has also undoubtedly played a big part in creating other opportunities for me along the way, not least the president role I\u2019m currently holding with Ramblers Scotland. And for that, I\u2019m enoooooormously grateful. But a BIG THANK YOU as well to everyone who has read these columns and commented on them, and who have shown such an interest in the natural world over the years. I hope you\u2019ve learned as much as I have. It\u2019s been a pleasure! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh and you can follow my \u2018Ranger Daily Diary\u2019 from Mar Lodge here on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m currently in my seventh ranger season. I say \u2018season\u2019 because I\u2019m a seasonal ranger. We get employed during the busier, warmer months when more folk are flocking to the great outdoors, whether that\u2019s urban green spaces, Country Parks, or the wider countryside. And across those seven seasons the question I\u2019ve probably been asked most is\u2026.what does a ranger actually do? Well, let\u2019s set the context first. Countryside rangers have been around for 50 years in Scotland, the first having assumed their post in 1969. The impetus for this landmark event was the expansion of leisure time in the 1960s…<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,37,8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-access-issues","category-features","category-magazine","category-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20168"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20191,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168\/revisions\/20191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}