Who would have thought that the recent Land Reform Review Group’s report would be so contentious?
As far as wildlife is concerned, the report takes no account of the need to have large enough tracts of land, and the investment and incentive to go with this, to allow Scotland to manage and maintain a wide range of flora and fauna at scale. This management is carried out everyday to a high standard seven days a week by many of our hard working members. Fragmentation will not advance the case for wildlife.
At the moment there is a consultation on the current state of our trout and salmon rivers, but which conveniently avoids the huge elephant in the room - salmon farms which are killing our wild salmon with sea lice and pollution from the cages.
Why is this fact being ignored? Maybe the money being made by the salmon farming industry is over-riding the environmental damage which is being wreaked underneath our estuaries. If this industrial style damage was to be done on the land there would be a huge public outcry and calls for change.
The government is also proposing new legislation on licensing air rifles even after receiving thousands of signatures opposing it. I believe some of these new proposals will seriously hinder the law abiding person from taking up the sport of shooting which, in the long run, will drive legitimate people away from owning guns. Maybe this is Kenny MacAskill’s intention.
If we remember back to the terrible Dunblane tragedy, when all hand guns were banned, this denied our young sportsmen the chance to take part in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. There was an understandable clamour for action. Yet, looking at the cold facts, we find that armed crime with illegal pistols has increased massively. The point is, no amount of knee-jerk legislation will keep guns from idiots.
Ask around, in any city centre, and the element in our society intent on criminality can acquire a firearm, or any other illegal possession, in half an hour, registered or not.
Every time legislation is enacted in our society, against the weight of opinion, the reaction is anger because the law abiding citizens realise they are the soft target. They are the people hit hardest by these draconian laws. Politicians are elected to listen to our concerns. When some are so one-tracked in their thinking that they ignore what they are being told, the only option left for people is to vote with their feet.
This past month we have been very busy trying to keep the never-ending tide of predators from eating our wildlife. Some of us have had fantastic success up to now, keeping the vermin at bay.
Last Saturday evening we had six different keepers lined out on the hill waiting for one particular dog fox which has had some lucky escapes due to to topography and terrain. But I thought to myself, as I picked up each individual keeper in my binoculars, where else would one find such dedication and diligence? How many officials from the so-called conservation bodies would be showing the same amount of dedication on a Saturday evening, unpaid….. I wonder!
Whilst sitting out early doors last week, I was rewarded by seeing curlew chicks being brooded by the female and male curlew. And last night, whilst sitting on a high seat, I was delighted to watch the silent hunting of a barn owl. But when the hoolit landed on the barrel of my rifle, and gave me a look of total befuddlement before flying of again, I was totally impressed!
