Has the bubble burst on the Scottish land repurposesing drive.

[Reloader708]

I've read today that Scotlands leading rewilding charity, the John muir trust, is in server finance difficulties and is looking at making significant redundancys in a bid to save money.
Whilst I'd never wish redundancy on anyone it does make you wonder on the financial viability of other such projects.
The whole idea of rewilding (something I'm not completely opposed to) is difficult to categorise and anyone who appreciates nature as probably been an active rewinder at some point. To me it's a spectrum, at one end releasing a bear, at the other picking a crisp packet up whilst on a stalk.
Some of the major players like JM trust however do seem to have weponised the whole thing. People who have managed land for years, farmers, keepers, stalkers, and made a life, arbeit a meger one are out and and the new approach with an office full of admin staff are in.
Now it seems there isn't the money in it to pay all the big wages.

Third of jobs at one of Scotland's leading wildlife charities at risk over 'serious financial debt'

Staff at the charity were told this week that up to 19 posts could go as the charity’s operating costs have been “considerably higher” than its income.

www.scotsman.com

 

[Goingback]

I too feel for the ones being made redundant. A wolf,lynx or bear killing a deer doesn't earn money, a paid stalk does....and pays wages. Eco tourism only goes so far and does not create revenue that fieldsports do.

 

[Malxwal]

It's high time the wheels fell off the rewilding wagon. No doubt there are parcels of land that could be changed for the benefit of wildlife, but the whole rewilding thing needs put back in it's box.

 

[Mickeydredd]

They could always sell some land…..

 

[Nimrod1960]

Probably staffed and run by wokey do gooder vegans straight out of environmentalism studies at uni.
I can just imagine the time wasted (and therefore overstaffing) on virtual meetings about virtual meetings. No concept of generating genuine positive cash flows as the magic money tree will provide for the (self) righteous. Sorry for the individuals but these days most large charities are run in the first instance for the benefit of the staff , bit like much of the public sector.

Oh ! have I just committed a Scottish non crime hate crime thought breach ? Will I be sought out if I cross the boarder into Yusefland ?

 

[Rake Aboot]

The John Muir trust isn’t just about rewilding and don’t rely on rewilding to make their income

Conservation charities going under through lack of money isnt something to celebrate in my view. Not because you don’t agree with everything they do.

 

[chriswjx]

I believe I saw a post from the SGA that the permanent staff based up in Assynt have been let go already?

 

[sikamalc]

Hmm I re visited Assynt Estate last October. I had not been back since we finished culling on there, which was a few years ago now. Apart from the new deer larder, (the old one we had to use is still standing) the whole place looked run down.
There was not a sole about anywhere, the front lawn, which used to be reasonably well kept, was nothing but a wild area. The lodge itself was looking pretty sad, although they appeared to have replaced most of the windows, which when we were there were mostly crital windows, and broken.

At the back of the lodge there is a wooden building put up, with nothing of any much inside, and again no one about.

Two argo cats sitting idle as well, and didnt appear to have been used much. The road up to the lodge was falling into a bad state. All in all a pretty sad state in my opinion.
I was quite surprised, as I expected some activity at that time of year, as this was early October, and the stag season should be in full swing on such a place. Not even a car present or a 4x4 to indicate some one around.

If this is what happens to an estate after re wilding is attempted, its a joke. Seems to me its re running down a place.

 

[NullMac]

People who have managed land for years, farmers, keepers, stalkers, and made a life, arbeit a meger one are out and and the new approach with an office full of admin staff are in.

Yes it's arrogant scientists that believe the only answer is science. The don't know what they don't know and rather than take an empirical approach to preserve the status quo they would rather measure the ecosystem as it fails before making a belated intervention, if at all.

Look at wild salmon. They are counting the numbers as the species becomes extinct. Hatcheries? Can't have that, it's not scientifically pure.That is where Science as a god gets you. Nae fish.

Capercaillie I guess is another, let's reintroduce Pine Martins in areas where we are trying to save the Caper of course they won't eat the eggs, science in a silo. Better off with the old empirical ways.

 

[cutty sark]

ma hearts pumping pish fur them

 

[opticron1]

Same with the much vaunted "Community buy outs", basically tax payer funded exercises so the SNP/Greens can parade a bit of virtue signalling - as soon as the purchase is done, the lucky recipients begin to realise how much it costs to run an estate!
Considering the Government (sic) up here has absolutely no money left to play with, I think they'll be a few less buy outs for the foreseeable future - plenty of money to send inept ministers swanning off around the globe though!

 

[Heym SR20]

My cousin got an eviction notice, along with all the others who were tenants on estate that was put up for sale after the old laird died. His heirs thought it was a goldmine, it wasn’t. It was sold as a whole estate to a rewilding company and everybody was happy as they agreed to not evict anyone.

But the rewilding company has lots of debts it needs to service. There is little income to service such debt. Many of the tenants are now buying their properties at a very good (for them) market rate with mortgage being less than what they paid in rent so the rewilding company can service and repay some of the debt.

Not sure how the crowd funders of the rewilding company feel.

 

[old 30-06]

Rewilding is doing nothing. Doing nothing costs nothing. How can these charities go broke when doing nothing has no cost implication ?

 

[Caberfeidh]

Hmm I re visited Assynt Estate last October. I had not been back since we finished culling on there, which was a few years ago now. Apart from the new deer larder, (the old one we had to use is still standing) the whole place looked run down.
There was not a sole about anywhere, the front lawn, which used to be reasonably well kept, was nothing but a wild area. The lodge itself was looking pretty sad, although they appeared to have replaced most of the windows, which when we were there were mostly crital windows, and broken.

At the back of the lodge there is a wooden building put up, with nothing of any much inside, and again no one about.

Two argo cats sitting idle as well, and didnt appear to have been used much. The road up to the lodge was falling into a bad state. All in all a pretty sad state in my opinion.
I was quite surprised, as I expected some activity at that time of year, as this was early October, and the stag season should be in full swing on such a place. Not even a car present or a 4x4 to indicate some one around.

If this is what happens to an estate after re wilding is attempted, its a joke. Seems to me its re running down a place.

Are you referring to the Assynt Estate in Glencanisp which is now the Assynt Foundation? If so, the lodge has been leased to a hotelier whose name now escapes me but has, as far as I’m aware, nothing to do with the NC500. The rumour is that it is a long lease but the hotelier in question doesn’t want to start upgrading the building until the road has been repaired, it is a private road which has fallen into disrepair and the Council will not take over the maintenance until the repairs are complete. Some repairs have been carried out this year.

The larder you refer to is, I believe, the property of the JMT under the ‘community larder’ banner but from what I hear it is mainly used by the deer contractors for their carcasses. The argos are, I believe, the property of the Assynt Foundation but are used by the deer contractors.

The Assynt Foundation employs someone who is based in a steel building behind the lodge to look after the area in regards general foresting work and maintenance, maybe he was on holiday or you visited at a weekend.

From memory, the timber building, log cabin, you possibly allude to is referred to as the ‘artists studio’. I think it was built for someone who lived in the area for the purpose of art classes, from what I hear it has never been used for that purpose and is very much an under used resource as the villagers feel it is not central enough and the road is of poor quality. I believe there is some allotments in that area which are very much under used for the reasons mentioned.

I also feel that the area could benefit from a ‘helping hand’ as it appears that the person employed there is overwhelmed by the amount of work. The tracks leading to the bothy are now, allegedly impassable in the argo and trying to keep them serviceable is an uphill task, I haven’t been on the track for some years now and cannot confirm on its state of repair.

The walkers car-park which is located approximately a half mile before the lodge opposite the track taking you to the river is, apparently, taken over by campers either in transit type vans or mobile homes and the verges are ‘enter at own risk’ due to some of these campers utilising their cover for various degrees of toileting. A friend has seen people cooking breakfast/lunch on gas stoves outside on dry grass, I believe the employee mentioned the possible consequences of their actions which fell on deaf ears.

I do like Glencanisp as it is a very scenic place and the walk to the bothy is great even if it sounds a great deal more challenging than it needs to be. As far as deer is concerned, it appears that the JMT vision of deer management has been implemented as ‘best practice’, which again is here say as I don’t know enough about the directors of the Foundation and their approach to the area.

 

[JockStalk]

Rewilding seems to involve poverty, dandelions, thistles and envy

 

[sikamalc]

Are you referring to the Assynt Estate in Glencanisp which is now the Assynt Foundation? If so, the lodge has been leased to a hotelier whose name now escapes me but has, as far as I’m aware, nothing to do with the NC500. The rumour is that it is a long lease but the hotelier in question doesn’t want to start upgrading the building until the road has been repaired, it is a private road which has fallen into disrepair and the Council will not take over the maintenance until the repairs are complete. Some repairs have been carried out this year.

The larder you refer to is, I believe, the property of the JMT under the ‘community larder’ banner but from what I hear it is mainly used by the deer contractors for their carcasses. The argos are, I believe, the property of the Assynt Foundation but are used by the deer contractors.

The Assynt Foundation employs someone who is based in a steel building behind the lodge to look after the area in regards general foresting work and maintenance, maybe he was on holiday or you visited at a weekend.

From memory, the timber building, log cabin, you possibly allude to is referred to as the ‘artists studio’. I think it was built for someone who lived in the area for the purpose of art classes, from what I hear it has never been used for that purpose and is very much an under used resource as the villagers feel it is not central enough and the road is of poor quality. I believe there is some allotments in that area which are very much under used for the reasons mentioned.

I also feel that the area could benefit from a ‘helping hand’ as it appears that the person employed there is overwhelmed by the amount of work. The tracks leading to the bothy are now, allegedly impassable in the argo and trying to keep them serviceable is an uphill task, I haven’t been on the track for some years now and cannot confirm on its state of repair.

The walkers car-park which is located approximately a half mile before the lodge opposite the track taking you to the river is, apparently, taken over by campers either in transit type vans or mobile homes and the verges are ‘enter at own risk’ due to some of these campers utilising their cover for various degrees of toileting. A friend has seen people cooking breakfast/lunch on gas stoves outside on dry grass, I believe the employee mentioned the possible consequences of their actions which fell on deaf ears.

I do like Glencanisp as it is a very scenic place and the walk to the bothy is great even if it sounds a great deal more challenging than it needs to be. As far as deer is concerned, it appears that the JMT vision of deer management has been implemented as ‘best practice’, which again is here say as I don’t know enough about the directors of the Foundation and their approach to the area.

As some on here know, I was contacted by the initial purchasers of the estate, after it was put up for sale by the Vestie family. The two main plsyers on the committee were Alistair Mckaskil who ran the local Butchers shop in Lochinver, and Bill Ritchie.

I had two meetings with the committee, first at the harbour, in the village hall place, the second in the summer after they had bought the estate. I joined them at the lodge in celebration, and we then invited them all back for a meal at the Inchnadamph hotel in the evening.

Staying at the lodge when we first started culling was an experience, no heating, windows falling out, and a request to use two garron ponies to bring in 200 Red deer. Needless to say the horses did not get a lot of use, and we used our quad bikes most of the time. The track out to sullage was almost impassable at that time. Most of the tracks had not been serviced properly. Still by the end of the first year we had taken over 180 head off the estate. The following year we did the same number again at around 186.
I made a considerable financial contribution the first year to the foundation. I thought this only fair as I had clients helping on the stags. Never did see any thank you for that, but never mind.

My visit this last year was tinged with sadness, as the whole place looked unkept, and under developed. No doubt the deer have been hammered, the JMT were on their backs regarding the deer on Assynt from the get go. Shame really, but I am grateful for the time I was given on the estate. Its the largest area I have had to cull on, and with the help of some good friends at the time, all from England, and we did the job and didnt leave ONE carcass out on the hill. Every beast was bought back into the larder, and that's some going on 44,000 plus acres. Some of this was only accessible by boat. Loch Assynt is fine on a calm day, but once the wind gets up its a no no.
One event we had was pushing off in a plastic boat on a clear day on Cam loch. By days end we had two stalkers, myself and another, plus two clients, and 3 good stags in plastic boat, with an 8hp engine...................there wasnt much free board

Good memories I can look back on.

 

[slider]

Lots of "Wildlands" projects have been banking on income form carbon credits to balance the book.
(Very) Predictably the form of crypto currency has fallen flat and never reached anywhere near the values that were mooted 2 or 3 years ago

 

[ContinShots]

Same with the much vaunted "Community buy outs", basically tax payer funded exercises so the SNP/Greens can parade a bit of virtue signalling - as soon as the purchase is done, the lucky recipients begin to realise how much it costs to run an estate!
Considering the Government (sic) up here has absolutely no money left to play with, I think they'll be a few less buy outs for the foreseeable future - plenty of money to send inept ministers swanning off around the globe though!

Community buyout existed long before the SNP was in power, let alone the Greens. It was a Labour/Libdum policy. Plenty to criticise the Scottish government about (and thank feck the Greens are out of it now), but misrepresenting truth about the roots of land reform don't help anyone and just gives the opposition more ammunition. Labour pushed land reform hard in the early 2000s and the truth is that the SNP did really very little over and above what Labour did, they just continued it. And god help Scotland if Labour gets in next. They're even more townie than the SNP and they're just as anti-gun and anti-country life. I can see things getting worse, not better. At least under Slamind the SNP had quite a few rural MSPs who actually understood rural life, whereas I can't think of a single Labour MSP or candidate who's ideal of rural Scotland is anything more than Hunter wellies and a map that goes as far north as Perth. Truth is, Scotland just doesn't have any political parties that get rural life, even the tories have a huge number of townies in their ranks.

 

[Malxwal]

Community buyout existed long before the SNP was in power, let alone the Greens. It was a Labour/Libdum policy. Plenty to criticise the Scottish government about (and thank feck the Greens are out of it now), but misrepresenting truth about the roots of land reform don't help anyone and just gives the opposition more ammunition. Labour pushed land reform hard in the early 2000s and the truth is that the SNP did really very little over and above what Labour did, they just continued it. And god help Scotland if Labour gets in next. They're even more townie than the SNP and they're just as anti-gun and anti-country life. I can see things getting worse, not better. At least under Slamind the SNP had quite a few rural MSPs who actually understood rural life, whereas I can't think of a single Labour MSP or candidate who's ideal of rural Scotland is anything more than Hunter wellies and a map that goes as far north as Perth. Truth is, Scotland just doesn't have any political parties that get rural life, even the tories have a huge number of townies in their ranks.

The inherent skewed Socialism, and it's blurred marbling with history and blaming the English for everything, is a big problem. Christ knows what kids get taught either at home or at school that perpetuates this backwards attitude.

 

[opticron1]

Community buyout existed long before the SNP was in power, let alone the Greens. It was a Labour/Libdum policy. Plenty to criticise the Scottish government about (and thank feck the Greens are out of it now), but misrepresenting truth about the roots of land reform don't help anyone and just gives the opposition more ammunition. Labour pushed land reform hard in the early 2000s and the truth is that the SNP did really very little over and above what Labour did, they just continued it. And god help Scotland if Labour gets in next. They're even more townie than the SNP and they're just as anti-gun and anti-country life. I can see things getting worse, not better. At least under Slamind the SNP had quite a few rural MSPs who actually understood rural life, whereas I can't think of a single Labour MSP or candidate who's ideal of rural Scotland is anything more than Hunter wellies and a map that goes as far north as Perth. Truth is, Scotland just doesn't have any political parties that get rural life, even the tories have a huge number of townies in their ranks.

Indeed......and I do despair what the next batch of feckless MSP's are like - all of them seem to go through the School/Uni/SPAD/Researcher route before having a constituency bestowed on them. That's of course after we've seen what antirural rubbish emanates from Westminster after the General Election later this year.......