Deer stalking in Scotland........necessary and humane

Red deer stag

Just before the first Covid19 lockdown in March last year  I posted a blog about Scotland having too many deer after a doubling of our deer population in the last 60 years Too many deer.... too few trees . Since then before our latest lockdown I've been deer stalking ( hunting in N. America and Europe) for the first time in fifty years.. The last time was hunting moose in Abitibi, northern Quebec in the late 60s. Why? ..... well I thoroughly enjoyed the days in the bush, camping , canoeing and watching wildlife in the pre-dawn northwoods, it was a great adventure so I thought I'd give it a go again  in Scotland.

There are two main types of deer in this country, red and roe, both are indigenous and have been here since the last ice age. There are non-natives too; fallow and sika but red and roe make up the vast majority. These wild deer belong to no one but that doesn't mean you can just go out and shoot them. In law they belong to the owner of the land where they are shot.  So in practice they belong to estate owners, farmers and the State forestry organisation Forestry Scotland who can either keep the stalking rights for themselves or lease them to hunters.

The red deer by and large live on the open mountains and are the larger of the two species,  a mature male (stag) weighing in at around 200 kg live weight and around 100 kg as a carcass. The stalker can't carry a deer carcass on his back down a mountain side and several kilometres back to the larder so it becomes something of a logistics exercise and calls for back up.

Some estates still use ponies with the deer tied on their backs but in most places ponies have been replaced by eight wheeler go anywhere argocats. Unless you own the estate if you want to hunt red deer you'll be accompanied by a professional stalker and you'll have to pay perhaps £600 to shoot an average stag. The stalker will guide you to the stag after first seeing if you can shoot with a large bore rifle, on the range. He ( or she these days) will, after breakfast , get you as close to the quarry as possible to ensure a humane kill, then eviscerate the animal ( gralloch ) and get you and the deer safely down the mountain again.

Young roe buck

Roe stalking is different, You start before dawn or in mid-afternoon  hunting slowly and quietly upwind along the forest edge where the roe are feeding. The bucks are stalked in summer from April to the end of October  and the does from mid October until the end of March. If you have the stalking rights and you have the skill and experience you can hunt alone or as with the reds a professional can guide you. This might cost you from £80 to £180 per stalk depending on it being a buck or a doe and then there's usually extra for a trophy head .  The roe carcass is much smaller than the red and can be packed out on the hunter's back in a rucksack  lined with washable plastic after the gralloch. 

Last week I had two morning stalks with a professional and two afternoon/ evening still hunts from a high seat about 12 feet above the ground as I have always wanted to try both methods. I was assured by Rab the stalker on the second day that walking was generally much more successful.

Now most of you are going to disapprove of this and I can understand why; these are beautiful animals and we don't need to kill them for meat or trophies. But as I argued last March we have too many deer and the population has to be managed by killing deer as humanely as possible. If you eat beef, pork, lamb and poultry these animals have to be killed too and it's often done less humanely after a  life in inhumane conditions.

The hunters I know give the highest priority to accurate shooting and quick humane killing. They also eat the venison and are not very interested in trophies. After all, it wasn't their efforts that grew the largest antlers it was a combination of environment and genetics.

An update; 26.03.2021

Since I posted the above in December last year there have been some important developments. A "Deer Working Group" has reported to the Scottish Government with a list of 99 recommendations for the future of deer management. The priority seems to be large reduction of the national deer population.

The current open season for red deer hinds runs from 22nd October until 15th February, it is when a large proportion of the females are culled. This is a huge potential animal welfare problem at both ends of the season. If shooting females runs into April for example large numbers of heavily pregnant hinds will be killed; they calve in June! This would  also result the starvation and slow death of orphaned calves in the autumn and at the end of the winter.

Stags are currently shot between early July and 21st October, the Committee recommends year round shooting of stags which along with unregulated night-time shooting could mean more poaching but reducing the number of stags will have little effect on the overall population.

We do have too many deer and a smaller population would result in greater bio-diversity, fewer problems for foresters and a reduction in road accidents but there isn't a simple solution.

"There's simple solution to every human problem.

 It's neat, plausible and wrong!"

                           H.L. Mencken

 

UK Government obsessions, incompetence and corruption - Covid19 economic and health disaster

This post is a letter to my cousin Ian in California (and my American friends ), we contact each other about once a month on family and other matters. It's to assure him that Americans aren't alone ,we have a parallel obsessive, incompetent and corrupt government that has allowed Covid19 to get out of control.

Ian,

The UK government has a  Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE)  it's composed of a wide  range of people from a wide range of disciplines; scientific, economic, social science etc. Earlier this year SAGE advised a national lockdown to save lives and to prevent the National Health Service from being overwhelmed. The government didn't seem to take this seriously and was more concerned about the economic effects but by the third week of March the figures were so scary that a national lockdown was imposed to restrict the spread of the virus.  It was the right decision but several weeks too late to avoid thousands of extra deaths.

On 23rd March we were confined to our homes ( except for essential workers) in May it seemed that the worst was over and by 10th May we  were allowed out again. 

We learned a lot during and after lockdown but the government seem to have learning difficulties .

They saw the problem as binary;"Save the economy or save lives" it's much more complex than that and you have to be aware that the Conservatives have two guiding principles;

First... All policies must ensure the continued upward flow of wealth and power to those who already have it. Second ....Libertarian-ism or freedom from government interference in our lives is of equal importance to the first notion above

As in the  USA  the loony right take this to extremes and there is a Neanderthal loony right who don't understand the idea of public good.  This is a bit hard on Neanderthals who were rather nice caring people by comparison.

Testing and tracing was to help solve the complexity problem by allowing only those with the infection to be isolated for 14 days. We have  a competent test and trace system at local government level but this was ignored and replaced by central command and control by government. That was in March this central control system is still not fit for purpose and is headed up by an old university friend of the Prime Minister with no experience or qualifications in the field. 

Restaurants, bars and clubs were closed during lockdown and the hospitality industry took a big hit. The solution was to subsidise eating out. £500m was spent on this, lots of people crowded into restaurants and obviously infections soared. A simple solution to a complex problem and as H.L.Mencken said, "there's a simple solution to every human problem; it's neat, plausible and wrong!"

Last night our feckless, out of his depth Prime Minister held a press conference to announce another lockdown, six weeks after SAGE first recommended it. This one will last until December and we all hope that the government might have learned from it's many mistakes before, during and after the last one. viz

• Make sure that care workers have adequate protective equipment
• Test and trace needs to be de-centralised and fit for purpose
• Don't send infected patients from hospital to care homes
• Government needs to give clear, consistent advice and some leadership would help

Of course you have an even bigger problem that brings another favourite quotation to mind, it's an army promotion reference, " men will follow this officer anywhere out  of a sense of morbid curiosity" for officer read Trump. So good luck on 3rd November.

Stay safe,

Tom

 

Scotland's native pinewoods........... an alternative to Munro Bagging for "crumblies"

If like me you feel you are getting too old and slow for "Munro bagging", the obsessive  pursuit of walking all of Scotland's 282 mountains over 914.4m (3,000 ft) there is an attractive alternative. You can visit and walk in the remnants of the ancient pinewoods of Scotland.

These remnants were first surveyed, described and catalogued 60 years ago (Steven, H.M. Carlisle, A, The Native Pinewoods of Scotland, Oliver and Boyd, 1959.). Then in 1975 the woods, their distribution, wildlife, soils, history and management were comprehensively examined at a symposium in Aviemore.

More recently, The Ancient Pinewoods of Scotland by Clifton Bain is in two formats, a coffee table book and a pocketbook with descriptions of 38 pinewood remnants with suggested walks, throughout the Highlands. 

Beware, take an Ordnance Survey 1:25000 map Bain's maps are a rather sketchy guide; or take an excellent, instinctive navigator as in the image below.

Glen Tanar pinewoods 

I am gradually working my way through the list, the latest visit was to Glen Tanar in the north east Cairngorms. The wood like most of the others has been changed over the centuries by felling, fire, flood and grazing but at the western boundary something like the original still survives under conservation management.

To put the whole idea into some historical and ecological context find a copy of Jim Crumley's book, The Great Wood, or my post on a walk in Rothiemurchus Forest at; https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8922954556426967855/4090761231834512957

Lynx re-introduction to Scotland ........ Kintyre and E. Aberdeenshire the most suitable landscapes.

Lynx kitten

Fifty years ago on a hot, still, blackfly and mosquito infested afternoon  in northern Quebec I came across two lynx kittens sleeping in the sun on a big flat rock beside the Tonnancourt river. They were about two metres away. I watched them briefly and moved on, not wanting to disturb them. I didn't try to fish out my camera from the pack ....the moment was too precious for photos.  I still have a vivid recollection of the scene, it's better then any photograph and I've been a lynx enthusiast ever since.

Then five or so years ago I was really excited to read that the Lynx Trust was attempting to reintroduce lynx to the UK after an absence of 1,300 years.  Kielder Forest in N. Northumberland, the biggest man made forest in Europe with it's tree cover, remoteness and abundant roe deer was assumed to be suitable habitat. The project failed to get started.

If you are going to re-introduce an extinct species to an area you have to meet two essential ecological criteria; you have to ensure that the introduced animals have a good chance of surviving and multiplying and that the population you take the animals from is not damaged.  Just as importantly you need the support of all of the stakeholders, local and national. The Kielder proposal did not have this essential support.

So it was with some enthusiasm that I set off for Aberfoyle and a public consultation on the re-introduction of lynx to the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park near Loch Lomond.  There was no doubting the enthusiasm of the  organisers (Lynx Trust UK) and the dozen or so members of the public but the whole event was disappointing. ....... An introduction to put the case for lynx on this site would have been helpful along with scientific evidence of the suitability of the habitat;this didn't happen. The venue had dreadful acoustics and the Covid 19 social distancing didn't help.

Meanwhile  some recent research in Scotland on the suitability of three large forests ( including Kielder) has been recently published. This research used computer modelling of lynx population dynamics, ecological, behavioural and landscape factors to rapidly assess the suitability of large predator habitat for re-introductions. The work concluded that Scotland;'s landscape is suitable for lynx re-introductions and tested the suitability of three forested sites; the Kintyre Peninsula, N.E. Cairngorms (Aberdeenshire) and the Scottish component of Kielder Forest. Of the three Kielder was found to be the least suitable, Kintyre and E. Aberdeenshire were most likely to be successful, Queen Elizabeth Forest Park wasn't mentioned. Ovenden, T.S et al Biological Conservation, 234, 2019, pp.140 - 153  

If the Lynx Trust are to be successful they need to take note of this research and to have the support of local stakeholders (farmers, landowners, foresters and the public) plus national organisations, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Forestry and to be aware of the research quoted above. As for "consultation" this needs to be done in a structured way, in a suitable venue with a representative set of stakeholders or it is just a box ticking exercise by the organisers i.e. "we've done the consultation", perhaps?... but not in a fully representative, objective and methodical way.

For an authoritative view on lynx re-introduction have a look at this.......

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/2019/07/could-we-reintroduce-lynx-to-scotland/

and this........

http://forest-ecology.com/publications/

Summer sunset in Canadian lynx habitat 

Was Boris Johnson hiding in a former Youth Hostel on the Applecross Peninsula last week?

 Last week the "Daily Mail" broke the story that our Prime Minister, Alexander Boris de Pfefell Johnson was hiding from the chaos his lack of competent governance has created in a cottage  by the sea on the Applecross Peninsula.  I may be wrong but it looks like the former Scottish Youth Hostels Association hostel "Lonbain" where I spent a summer in !962 as the voluntary seasonal warden.

Lonbain was the former  village school halfway between Applecross and Arina , it was only accessible by  boat or on foot. When the road round the peninsula was built a few years later the building was sold and converted to a holiday home.

In the early 60's there were still families living in "black houses",  the Macbeth family were my nearest neighbours , the post man made his deliveries on a motor bike and we burned peat on the stove. Obviously it has to be quite luxurious now for A.B. de P. Johnson the incompetent, mendacious, narcissistic UK Prime Minister.

Perhaps he's had time to reflect on Abraham Lincoln's advice;

" You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time".  Abraham Lincoln

Johnson  has fooled "some of the people some of the time " for example during his election as leader of the Tory party and then during election to govern the UK.  The electorate chose to believe his lies and to disregard his previous incompetence as Mayor of London, Foreign Secretary and third rate journalist. As Mayor of London he had a string of deputies to do the job for him while he turned up for PR and photo  opps.

He's still fooling some of the people all of the time but the majority of voters  seem to be getting wiser, Those  being fooled all of the time are mainly " golf club Tories"and Daily Mail readers. But he and his anarchist consigliere must realise by now that their inability to govern the country is apparent to the majority of rational voters. (Not all voters are rational, see Brexit)

If you know the Applecross Peninsula and if you stayed at Lonbain sixty years ago you might be able to confirm the the holiday home was Lonbain here's the link to the photo in the Daily Record.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/boris-johnson-holidays-1200-week-22559974

 

How will the Scottish government deal with UK government's no deal?..... Virtual meeting with our MP next week.....

 One of the unexpected side effects of Covid19 lockdown here on the peninsula is that many of us have learned to use video conferencing. So, next week we have a ZOOM meeting with Kate Forbes our local MSP and Scottish Minister for finance.

"Scottish farming will be in dire straits if we crash out of the EU without a deal and no deal seems more and more likely due to the incompetence and intransigence of our parliament in London. How does the Scottish Government plan to deal with it? ".......That's my question.

In recent years almost half of Scottish farm businesses have only made a trading surplus at the year end because of European Union farm support payments..... the Single Farm Payment (SFP). On 1st January 2021 that payment will disappear and so far there does not seem to be a credible alternative to replace it. Many farm businesses could go bust next year without the SFP.

Crofters are largely part-time , small scale stock keepers with sheep and cows. All but very few expect to make a living from crofting,they tend to be "multiple job holders or pensioners" they keep sheep because they always have done, they like it and they do receive the SFP which supplements their income.  without the SFP many will find that their sheep keeping is a lot of work and loses money.

If you add up all of the costs (not including overheads including labour) I estimate that it cost roughly £50 for a Crofter to raise a lamb to the point of sale. Then there's £2 for transport to the mart and £3 to Auctioneer for selling the lamb; total costs £55. They average sale price is around £40 and could be much lower in 2021 if exports are disrupted by tariffs . 

The  SFP contributes on average £600 a year subsidy, £60 a head if you only have 10  ewes and a small croft to cover the loss per ewe of £15 and the Crofter's labour. It's an area payment so as stock numbers increase average income per head goes down for Crofters.

On large farms and estates because the SFP is an area payment it can be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds and makes a big contribution to the farmer's family school fees, skiing holidays, shooting, fishing, horses land and lifestyle. They will continue to do well as there are other benefits of large scale land ownership, in particular tax avoidance opportunities and government funded projects such as the "Renewable heat initiative"  The renewable heat initiative

 

Led by donkeys ... Covid19 exposes the truth about incompetent leadership

For the last four years I have been trying to work out how and why Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and why Boris A.B de P. Johnson  persuaded more than half of voters that we should leave the  EU and that they should elect him as Prime Minister of the UK.  For four years I've been trying to discover how any rational intelligent voter could support either of these people? I've decided that voters don't make entirely rational decisions.

Led by donkeys

Today I was reminded of a famous officer promotion reference written  by a commanding officer for a junior........ "Men will follow this officer anywhere; out of a sense of morbid curiosity".

Like the soldiers in the reference voters aren't entirely rational, they want to believe the optimistic stories they are told, from half truths to downright lies and even knowledge of a potential leader's mendacity, incompetence and indolence doesn't put them off.

George Packer, in The Atlantic, explains how the Covid19 virus  has manged to exploit chronic underlying conditions;" political corruption, a sclerotic bureaucracy and heartless economy "and to show up the USA as a,"failed state". Every American concerned about the future of USA should read it, Trump is not going to make America great again.
We are living in a failed state, George Packer.

Andy Beckett in, The Guardian , explains how today in the UK we have the highest Corona-virus death rate in Europe exposing a similar range of fault lines in Britain and why exaggerated  wilful optimism of the snake oil salesman is about to collide with reality. Johnson is just not up to the job of governing the country ; his complacency, misplaced sense of his own exceptionalism, old Etonian privilege and lack of attention to detail has been exposed by the pandemic.  At least those who voted for him are having their sense of morbid curiosity satisfied.
Vote winning optimism and half truths are about to collide with reality, Andy Beckett

Lock down week 7; at last the adults are in charge...

On Saturday Tobermory was still and quiet; we were still keeping our distance there were no visitors, no cruise ships, I had the ferry, "Loch Tarbert" to myself again and the inshore fishing boats were tied up in harbour. The economy is in stasis but we are all trying to stay safe.

Back in February The UK government bumbled along complacently despite what was happening in the rest of the World and warnings from health experts here, rather like the Trump administration in the US. We lost the initiative by acting too late.

We are now in week 7 of "lock down" and  have the highest Covid19 death rate in Europe, over 40,000. The government is keen to open up the economy  to get people back to work and on Sunday 10th May the UK Prime Minister (Boris Alexander de Pefeffel Johnson) presented us with a road map showing how  his government would deal with the next phase and open up the economy. I don't think any of us are any wiser or safer.

Inshore fishing boats tied up in harbour

Johnson's prescription could be seen as an attempt to shift responsibility from his government on to us as individuals by exhorting us to, "Be alert" what ever that means in this situation.

Meanwhile... nurses and doctors still don't have the personal protective equipment they need and we don't seem to have an effective testing and tracing system.

In Scotland our devolved government has it's own policy....... no change, we stay at home and only essential workers go to work. There are some adults in charge at last!

The first priority of any government has to be the safety and health of it's citizens ( subjects in our case) the economy although vitally important has to take second place. Unlike in the USA where the Trump administration with the pandemic not yet under control and heading for over 100,000 deaths seems to favour the economy over it's citizens safety. Trump isn't alone in passing the buck;  it also looks as if Vladimir Putin is shuffling off responsibility for Russia's Covid19 problems on to the country's regional governors.

Did you enjoy your Dinosaur eggs for breakfast?

First find a mouse

Hens (chickens in the USA) are highly intelligent, they can negotiate complex mazes in return for rewards, they learn quickly, for example they expect me to be out there in the late afternoon to feed them some grain and as soon as they see me around that time they come running like cartoon chickens.

Genetically hens are highly diverse, visit a local poultry show and you will see 30 or 40 different breeds because of there dinosaur ancestry.

Research shows that my hens are evolved from and are the most closely related to ancient feathered dinosaurs. They have more microchromosomes  and a more diverse genome than  any other bird species, just like the feathered dinosaurs.

This morning I watched what looked like a small bit of dinosaur behaviour; a hen swallowing a mouse whole. Luckily I had my camera phone with me and my birds are extremely tame. Poultry will eat almost anything they find palatable, whole grain, insects, earthworms, grass and this morning mice.

Then swallow it whole- headfirst of course

If you enjoyed an egg for breakfast this morning that was laid by free range hens perhaps it was mouse in the hen's diet that made it taste so good.

This mouse was supplied by Mimi the cat she leaves them outside (most of the time) as gifts for me.

Wildlife watching from "Ranger Hamza's" sitting room window.

Wild goats where they should be... not in town

It's quiet out there with very few people about and wild animals are moving into urban spaces.

Today's "Guardian" newspaper has a photo of a gang of marauding goats taking over Llandudno in N.Wales.......wild goats in town.

I have just had a text from my brother in N.Wales , he says this is a true story, not a Grauniad April 1st spoof . 

Llandudno is now a,"Goats town". His pun not mine.

Closer to home, my neighbour Hamza (aka "Ranger Hamza" of BBC Ceebeebies) is locked down at home watching and filming wildlife from his sitting room window.

Fortunately he's not alone, he has a" live in "pine marten in his loft. You do know when there's a pine marten in the roof they make lots of noise.....a sound like a corpse being dragged across the ceiling, just before they go off to work in the evening.

https://www.facebook.com/hamzayassinphotography/photos/a.167055510115366/1613626398791596/?type=3&theater

She visits Hamza on her way out in the evening ( pine martens are single mothers) he tells me that it took 5 minutes to set up the camera and two hours for her to come out. You can meet her on Hamza's Facebook page by following the link above.

From his window Hamza has a view from the tidal lagoon just outside, south down the Sound of Mull to Ben Tallaidh and east to the top of Ben Hiant. Working from home he has been able to watch and film:......

White tailed sea eagles                                    Otters
Red kite                                                            Mink
Whooper swans                                                Dolphins
Red breasted mergansers                                   Seal
Wigeon
Teal
Hoodie crows                             

Evening on the Sound of Mull and Hamza's pine marten is off to work

Carrion crow
Water rail
Sparrow hawk
Buzzard

Coronavirus caravanners not welcome

For one passenger and no cars

We've been doing self-isolation in the UK for a week now, it's felt like a string of Church of Scotland Sundays.

The village shop / post office is doing a sterling job supplying the basics but I had to go to Tobermory yesterday for fresh fruit and veg. On a normal Saturday morning at this time of year a dozen or so villagers are waiting for the ferry. Yesterday I was on my own.... I had the ferry to myself for the 35 minute journey both there and back.

In Tobermory the Co-op supermarket was allowing 6 or 7 people inside at a time to protect staff and customers, the main street was almost deserted and people were careful to maintain two metres separation from each other.

Yesterday we had had a total of 33 confirmed cases of Covid19 in the Highland Region; not surprising that it's relatively low,  we have probably the lowest population density in the UK, 9 persons per square kilometre and even fewer here on the peninsula.

I'm told there are 700 inhabitants between the lighthouse and Salen, the next village, 30 km away. If the peninsula is on average 5 km wide that's roughly 150 sq km, 4.5 persons per sq km, about the same as Lapland.

It you think I'm wrong feel free to comment, it's something for you to do in quarantine.

Queuing for the supermarket

Having distance between us is normal compared with the London Underground, Glasgow and New York. London has almost 4,000 people per sq km. So perhaps it's easier to keep 2 metres apart when we meet here.

Last week after the movement restrictions were announced we had a lemming like migration of motor caravans from the South, refugees from Covid-19, mainly with white haired, bearded drivers like myself, in the "vulnerable" Over 70, crumbly" category. They were not welcome;.. think about it..,.,.

In normal times our health services here in the Highlands are overstretched because of distance and scarcity of resources. If one of these people had a heart attack or symptoms of Covid-19 that could occupy the ambulance service or the helicopter for at least half a day. Our nearest major hospital is in Inverness and it looks after people from here to Shetland. N. Shetland is nearer to Oslo then Aberdeen by the way.

Tourism is the main source of income in the Highlands and everyone is welcome in normal times. But not at the moment.

P.S.  

I should have added that there were no cars on the ferry. Currently only the vehicles of Isle of Mull residents are allowed on to the island except for those of essential workers and for the delivery of essential supplies. You may be asked to show your driver's licence as this has your permanent residential address. The same applies to all of the islands and the Ardnamurchan Peninsula at Corran Ferry.

Too many deer......too few trees

No trees too many Red deer 

If I look down from my bedroom window in the small hours of a moonlit winter's night there are large grey shapes mooching around in the field that runs down to the sea.

During most of the year these red deer are cautious and keep away but tonight they are hungry, perhaps even starving. They have come down from the hill jumping barbed wire fences, browsing  and trampling  my newly planted trees.The night visitors

Until two or three years ago there was only a small population of deer at the west end of the peninsula but without effective culling there's been a population boom as in the rest of Scotland.

A deer trail down from the hill
follow the black lines and you'll find the deer

It's been estimated that since the 1960s Scotland's deer (red and roe deer) population has doubled and we now have more red deer than at any time since the end of the last ice age. Until recently trees could be planted here  (on the west end of the peninsula) without a two metre high fence to keep deer out.

Fencing costs are well over £3,000 per hectare, more than the trees, the planting , site preparation and subsequent maintenance. The Scottish Government's planting target is !0,000 ha each year until 2020 then 15,000 ha after that. Fencing will cost £300 million a year for the next four years then £450 million each year afterwards.

There is an alternative to fencing............. In Glen Feshie fifteen years ago the Red Deer Commission, the government body that oversaw deer management in Scotland at the time, began a huge cull after widespread destruction of native plants, trees and  the  arctic-alpine nesting habitat of the  Dotterel ,one of Scotland's rarest breeding birds. A team of stalkers using helicopters and high powered rifles reduced deer numbers from 1,500 to 400 in a year. The results were dramatic.Glen Feshie - Zero tolerance for deer

Deer hair on a barbed wire fence

When I visited Glen Feshie three years later there was widespread regeneration of native scots pines, the arctic alpine flora was flourishing and so were the dotterels. There was still a population of red deer, just fewer, giving a genuine hunting experience for the hunters. As opposed to the "canned hunting" available on many Highland estates where the hunting is more like the ritual slaughter of animals that have been hand fed in winter . The hunters are transported up on to the hill, they seem to have forgotten how to walk and hunt.

Where new woods are being planted fewer than 10 deer per square kilometre means that we can probably do without fences, damage is minimised.

Halving our deer population would mean; reducing the cost of planting, by up to half, more natural regeneration, more  CO2 sequestered and a more authentic experience for hunters.  The great cull doesn't mean just hunting;  wolves could be re-introduced in the highlands. More on that next time......

The rags are soaked in diesel, it's supposed to deter the deer

Extinction Rebellion classed with violent extremists.... UK Terrorism police

The UK terrorist police think I'm a potentially violent extremist despite my white hair, hearing aids, poor eyesight, poorer memory, dodgy knee and the occasional corn on my right foot. Why?...

Because I support the aims and activities of Extinction Rebellion along with many other crumblies and their grand children. Who wouldn't, given the evidence on climate change and government inaction?...

Anti-terrorism police have produced a guide to recognising children and adults with, "anti-establishment" views and philosophy who might be keen to take part in non-violent protests in order to pressure government to introduce effective climate change mitigation measures, it's obviously aimed at XR.

So XR have been included in the secret policeman's handbook along with Neo-nazi and violent islamist organisations. Once you recognise these people you are asked to report them to the appropriate authorities. It looks like the thin end of a very authoritarian wedge.

How could anyone consider me "anti-establishment?  Possibly because I think of our new Prime Minister as a mendacious, indolent, incompetent narcissist but this is a perfectly reasonable assessment and a view held by over half of the population.

A peaceful protester outnumbered by not very secret policemen

The cops haven't kicked my door in yet perhaps because their project has been widely revealed and criticised in today's newspapers.

In a rapid about turn they have said that they do not now regard XR members as violent extremists and their guidebook is to be recalled.

National Parks were the best idea the USA ever had.....Why is the Trump administration being allowed to destroy them

I have always been lucky, my mother once told me...." If you fell in the harbour you'd come out dry with your boots full of fish".

Forty years ago I was lucky to be given a Winston Churchill Scholarship to visit the USA to find out about the development of sustainable agriculture. I travelled from coast to coast meeting academics, farmers and environmentalists. I took a small tent and at weekends I camped and hiked in  National Parks from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to Colorado and Californian Sierras.

Half Dome Yosemite NP

The National Parks  were beautiful, well managed, well protected and looking as if John Muir's vision would last forever. However, commercial developments, road building and tourist facilities encroached up to and within park boundaries. It seemed they were in danger of being sacrificed to commercial tourism......outdoor versions of Disneyland. I also formed a lasting impression that without national parks the US might have very little left of conservation value, outside perhaps of Alaska.


Why are you Americans allowing the Trump administration to dismantle the National Park Service, hand political leadership to anti-public land sycophants , natural resources to mining, ranching  and other industries while allowing widespread misuse of the parks during government shutdowns?

Since that first visit in 1983 we took our children camping, canoeing and walking in US national and state parks from S. California to the Boundary Waters, the White Mountains, the Appalachians and upstate New York.

Later without the children we drove south from British Columbia into Washington State from pristine forests, lakes and mountains into a scene of utter devastation south of the border forests had been laid waste and rivers polluted with run off from soil erosion. No one stops there anymore the highway was littered with abandoned gas stations and wrecked vehicles. Don't let this happen within your National Parks. To keep up to date with developments click on the link below.

This land is your land, get regular updates here