The Scotsman letter: Rich Wasteland
- Details
- Written by Roy Turnbull
- Category: Debates
- Published: 01 April 2015
Mature Scots pine burnt during grouse moor management, Dorback, Cairngorms National Park. Note also eroding soil and burnt ground vegetation.
Dear Sir,
You report (24 September) the pledge from the UN New York summit on climate change to stop natural forest destruction and restore hundreds of millions of acres of degraded land by 2030, in order to help sequestrate carbon in woodlands.
What will Scotland's response be to this welcome news?
In much of the world, such destruction and degradation of forests is caused by the desperately poor, seeking fuelwood or land to grow food.
In Scotland, it is caused by what might be called the desperately rich: burning land for grouse shooting, overgrazing it with red deer for deer stalking or, as in the Cairngorms National Park, building housing estates, often for holiday or second homes, in native woodlands. Scotland's uplands with respect to carbon sequestration (not to mention biodiversity, landscape or social justice) are a wasteland compared with what they could be.
Let us hope that this summit finally opens the eyes of the Scottish Government to the deplorable state of much of Scotland's land, in thrall as it is to sport shooting or speculative development interests.
How many of those hundreds of millions of acres of degraded land will be restored in Scotland? When will we stop destroying native woodlands for housing? What will be the Scottish Government's response to the New York Declaration on Forests?
Roy Turnbull
Nethy Bridge
The Scotsman 25 September 2014.
Carrbridge development sites - please object
- Details
- Written by Gus Jones
- Category: Carrbridge
- Published: 17 September 2014
Millions of freshwater pearl mussels wiped out by pollution
- Details
- Written by Gus Jones
- Category: Campaigns
- Published: 15 September 2014
The Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group (BSCG) has released a report by the James Hutton Institute, released under a freedom of information act request, that suggests there has been a 50% decline in Freshwater pearl mussels in the River Spey over the last 15 years.
The report says scientists had identified pollutants, such as high levels of phosphorus from detergents, fertilisers and human waste, as being the cause of the harm, with the worse affected area being in the vicinity of Aviemore.
BSCG are concerned that the proposed building of thousands more homes in the Cairngorms will put the rare species at greater risk.
Dr Gus Jones Convener of the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group (BSCG) said: "It looks alarmingly as if the Spey’s pearl mussels are in free fall. If pearl mussels are to have a future in the Spey it is vital that current pollution standards are improved immediately. We hope this timely report will be a wake up call that radical action is urgently needed if Scotland is to save the Spey’s pearl mussels. The report reveals that pollution levels are already exceeding safe limits and yet thousands more houses are planned in Strathspey, further impacting on water quality."
Roy Turnbull (Vice convener) of Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group added: "The pearl mussel decline follows the building of about three thousand houses in Strathspey in the last thirty years. Yet the national park plans to allow thousands more houses, which would increase the pollution of the Spey."
Damselflies of Badenoch and Strathspey Leaflet
- Details
- Written by Tim Ransom
- Category: Leaflets
- Published: 06 July 2014
Our leaflet on Damselflies of Badenoch and Strathspey.
'Difference coming out of the woodwork over Nethy Plan'
- Details
- Written by Roy Turnbull
- Category: Debates
- Published: 28 May 2014
Letter in Strathy 22 May 2014.
Dear Sir,
Interesting differences have emerged between the Cairngorms National Park Authority and Highland Council over the application to build 58 houses in School Wood, Nethy Bridge.
The CNPA, in its Landscape Report, dismisses the development site as “pine plantation woodland”, whereas the HC Forestry Report correctly states, “ the site is contained within woodland which is listed in the Ancient Woodland Inventory as Long Established semi-natural origin” and continues, “This is sadly not a development which would co-exist with woodland, this is a development at the expense of woodland”.
With the lack of any self-build plots and the cramped nature of the housing proposed it is hardly surprising that Nethy Bridge Community Council reports, "There is now a greater antipathy in the village towards the development as it currently stands."
Representations can be made until 29th May to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. See: http://www.eplanningcnpa.co.uk/online-applications/ with 2013/0119/DET in the search box.
Roy Turnbull, Torniscar, Nethy Bridge.
