Wild Solutions

For our National Parks, conservation of Scotland's landscapes and wildlife should be the top priority

- Jim Crumley, Scotland's leading wildlife author,

A LONG time ago, a man I barely recognise from the photograph on the cover of what was then his new book, wrote a closing chapter titled The Spirit Of The High And Lonely Places, which included a radical conservation blueprint for the Cairngorms.

Not only does that photograph from 34 years ago strike a note of unfamiliarity, but the uncompromising nature of that blueprint has an angry edge to its language that surprised me. I am not in the habit of reading my backlist books, but two recent events in the troubled history of Scotland's relationship with National Parks nudged me towards the stoorier corners of memory and that old book, A High And Lonely Place.

The two events called into question the nature of the Scottish Government's commitment to National Parks.

One was the shrug of indifference that appeared to characterise the willingness to wave through Flamingo Land's application for a theme park on the edge of Loch Lomond - a project whose sole ambitions are to make money at the expense of the landscape and wildlife, and to flood a landscape already overburdened by tourism with new hordes of people and vehicles.

All this is despite more than 150,000 objections from members of the public. The Scottish Government took the decision not to stop the development.

The second event concerned a Scottish Government-led initiative to establish a third National Park. After consultation settled on a shortlist of locations, they chose Galloway.