Awful and unlawful! I have avoided blogging about Abrdn's management of Far Ralia recently in part because I wanted to compare their tree planting to BrewDog's Lost Forest. Then this retrospective planning application..... parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/05/02/the…

The Scottish Government's free market approach facilitates the industrialisation of the countryside with almost no regard for wild land or wildlife and all for questionable benefit. There is a wrong place for pump storage and windfarms alike parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/29/the…

One reason Scotland has been failing to meet its carbon emissions targets is that most public bodies ignore them. Transport Scotland's grubby deal with Flamingo Land at Balloch facilitated by the Lomond & Trossachs National Park Authority exemplifies this parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/20/tra…

The Shared Rural Network programme epitomises all that is wrong with government investment in rural areas, lavishing public funds on what is not wanted or needed while ignoring the urgent and pressing needs of local communities parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/18/una…

Thanks to Jon Brady for revealing James Watt, BrewDog CEO, now admits over half his Lost Forest is dead, claiming 'sustainability is hard'. That is complete rubbish. All BrewDog needed to do was cull the deer and nature would have restored itself dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

My post on BrewDog's dead trees at Kinrara went viral before Parkswatch crashed. With PW running again this follow up post argues paying landowners like BrewDog to plant trees is terrible for people too & another reason for scrapping forestry grants parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/17/bre…

Thanks everyone who has contributed to crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-stobo-h… following yesterday's post on BrewDog and Scotland's rotten forestry grants system. @hopestobo tell me contributions doubled overnight but still not yet enough to force a judicial review. Please consider helping

Apologies parkswatchscotland has crashed following my post on BrewDog's dead forest and Scotland's disastrous forestry grants scheme yesterday

Its now official that much of BrewDog's Lost Forest is dead. Unfortunately the Scottish Government is so obsessed with planting targets that it is unlikely to enquire about the causes of this disaster but a legal challenge at Stobo Hope could change that parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/14/bre…

Of the five main outdoor snow centres in Scotland the one best placed to survive global warming the longest is Cairn Gorm because of its altitude and location yet, as Graham Garfoot explains, that potential is constantly undermined by HIE's incompetence parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/09/the…

The Scottish Government's proposals to reform deer legislation, as set out in the consultation which closed last week, won't reduce deer numbers to bring Scotland into line with other European countries but could strengthen the hand of stalking estates parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/04/how…

If the UK Government really wants to help rural communities in the Highlands it should give them the £500m Shared Rural Network Programme money and let them decide how to spend it. It wouldn't be on telecommunications masts in Wild Land Areas parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/03/una…

In this, the first of two posts which looks at how far the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority is using the planning system to protect nature, I explain how planners justified approval for a new luxury holiday lodge on Inchconnachan SAC parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/04/02/how…

Professor Douglas MacMillan explains why the legislative proposals in the Scottish Government's consultation on deer, which closes today, are unlikely to do much to address the climate and nature emergencies
parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/03/29/man…

Scotland's market free for all approach to greener energy threatens to destroy many of our finest landscapes while hiking our fuel bills. Jane Meek questions the silence around the Lochan na h-Earba pump storage planning application parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/03/27/the…

With the funicular doomed, Graham Garfoot shows how HIE is no longer even trying to make best use of the surviving uplift at Cairn Gorm, for the benefit of snowsports enthusiasts and the Speyside economy parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/03/27/hie…

Having bottled grouse moor reform, as this post explains, the Scottish Government will need to take a far more radical approach to stalking estates and the control of deer numbers if it is to meet it's nature and climate targets parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/03/26/the…

The Cononish goldmine is as great a National Park scandal as the funicular with the difference being the Lomond & Trossachs NP Authority is directly responsible. So why is it's CEO presenting such a short and misleading report to his board on Monday? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/03/07/the…

On top of the funicular fiasco Highland and Islands Enterprise is losing even more public money at Cairn Gorm due to incompetent management parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/03/02/hig…

Why is there so little public awareness of the Vale of Leven windfarm, a proposal to erect 10 x 250m wind turbines, at the western end of the Kilpatrick Hills? It will destroy landscape quality from the Clyde estuary to the summit of Ben Lomond. parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2024/02/29/the…