Public Talk: 'Conservation Management for Mammals'
- Details
- Written by Tessa Jones
- Category: Meetings
- Published: 27 August 2019
Public Talk: Conservation Management for Mammals in the National Forest Estate.
Thursday 5th September 2019. 7.30pm.
YMCA, 80 High Street, Grantown-on-Spey PH26 3EL
All welcome. Free.
Public Talk: 'Amphibians & Reptiles of the Cairngorms'
- Details
- Written by Tessa Jones
- Category: Meetings
- Published: 03 July 2019
Tuesday 9th July at 7:30 pm, Carrbridge Village Hall: 'Amphibians & Reptiles of the Cairngorms' by David O'Brien.
An entertaining and knowledgeable speaker who has supervised projects on various amphibians including great crested newts in the Highlands, David is an active member of the Highland Biological Recording Group and a true enthusiast on amphibians and reptiles.
Public Meeting The Cairngorms National Park 15 Years On
- Details
- Written by Tessa Jones
- Category: Cairngorms National Park
- Published: 20 November 2018
Public Meeting The Cairngorms National Park 15 Years On. Illustrated talk by Nick Kempe of Parkwatch Scotland. Thur 22 November, 7.30pm at The Badenoch Centre, Spey Street, Kingussie. All welcome. Free admission. Refreshments.
Welcome refusal of artificial ski slopes plan on Cairn Gorm
- Details
- Written by Gus Jones
- Category: Campaigns
- Published: 15 October 2018
At their public planning meeting on the 12 October the Cairngorms National Park Board resoundingly rejected the application for artificial ski slopes at Cairn Gorm.
In arriving at their welcome decision, the National Park Board took time to quiz the applicant and listen to concerns of BSCG and Aviemore Business Association, all of whom gave presentations at the meeting.
The Press & Journal report indicates that the applicant, Natural Retreats, is considering its options.
P & J article 13 October 2018
Visualisation of artificial ski slopes
View from proposed artificial ski slope site
View from proposed artificial ski slope site
Plastic ski slopes on Cairn Gorm need to be refused
- Details
- Written by Gus Jones
- Category: Campaigns
- Published: 11 October 2018
Questions are being asked about how Cairngorms National Park Planners have recently recommended approval for a costly proposal for artificial ski slopes on the hill. It is shocking (but convenient for the developer) that the public screening opinion claims this project would not have any “significant effects on the environment”. Envisaged in the high altitude development over a footprint of 2.1 ha is the stripping of thousands of cubic metres of peat. No mitigation is possible for the habitats to be destroyed. These support valued wildlife including mountain hare, mountain bumblebee, plants like interrupted clubmoss, heathland with natural bearberry, juniper and lichens that with the natural landform has developed since the end of the last Ice Age. The compensation proposed (of some tree and shrub planting) is arguably what should already be happening on responsibly managed land in public ownership in such a special area in the heart of a National Park.
Apparently requiring £1.5M of public money, this climate-unfriendly project is plainly highly unsustainable in financial, social and environmental terms . If in the teeth of considerable community opposition this project is consented it has enduring reputational implications and would illustrate subservience to a speculative unreasonably optimistic and disastrously ill-informed vision.
If the CNPA Board approve this project it opens the way to a new wave of major environmental and landscape damage on the hill.
Today ( 11 Oct 2018) the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald reported the planners recommendation for approval of the controversial project "is despite growing protests that it will damage the environment and become a white elephant".
Strathspey & Badenoch Herald ( October 11 2018, extract from page 4 )
The exposed high altitude site has an extensive footprint in a sensitive location with multiple potential significant environmental effects