no camping on loch lomond islands

Wed, Mar 28, 2012

It was with dismay yet again that I watched my Earl Grey and toast hit the floor as I stood and stared aghast at reports that the Loch Lomond National Park authorities want to ban camping on the Loch Lonond islands. According to the authorities, “…the four islands are considered special protection areas and are home to many rare species…”. I’d say wallabies are pretty damn rare in Scotland too but it didn’t stop them trying to massacre them. The authority are on record stating “Our role is to promote, conserve and enhance Scotland’s native species” with the emphasis being on native. But lots of people think this way. Prominent outdoors writers are all for bringing back wolves as they still consider them native when not a single wolf exists in Scotland outside a zoo. Since they were wiped out the environment has changed irreversibly and can no longer sustain them in the wild. In the meantime other species have found a foothold in their absence, such as wallabies and reindeer. Reindeer aren’t native. But where one species provokes oohs and aahs, another provokes the gun. So there is no consistency to the authorities argument in a common sense world.

The real problem is down to the proximity of Loch Lomond to Scotland’s biggest city and its hoards of Weegies who enjoy the bonnie banks of a weekend. I include myself when I lived there and I’ve seen the mess some of them leave and the intimidation one can feel when coming ashore after a day’s kayaking, having to beach next to a load of drunks burning plastic and cans on the beach. It’s no fun dragging your craft through jobby fields while having various bits of the beach thrown at you. Those are the idiots the park are targeting.

But aren’t the human wildlife just another part of the flora and fauna of the park? They have no more exclusive right to their habitat than wallabies for instance. Or ramblers, or campers. When a place is so close to such a major conurbation there has to be give and take for the sake of all concerned, including the things that live there, the wildlife.

I’d be wary of anything the park says as they’re essentially landowners and I remember very shortly after the park being created, one of the first things they did was cut down all the native trees round Pulpit Rock. I presume this was to allow motorists queuing at the lights on the narrow part of the road to view the rock without having to leave their vehicles. What sort of environmental management is that? Also, landowners have other motives. Take the Game Keepers Association for example, claiming pine martens are killing off capercaillie, while all the while they’re thriving. They just need the right environment. Not the sort of environment where all non commercial species are killed. An environment that lets harder to control predators in.

I do hope all the knee jerk reactions from the various outdoor bodies calm down a bit. There are so many groups involved in this with the most important being overlooked as usual. The wildlife.