Scotland – a tick-infested tundra
photo: Andrei Taranchenko via flickr
Scottish Natural Heritage published a report last month which showed that ‘nature’ tourism is worth at least £1.4 billion to the Scottish economy. This includes contributions from activities such as walking, bird watching and canoeing. It also (rightly) includes hunting.
All of which one might think would be welcomed by all those involved in managing Scotland’s countryside. Well, no….
Alex Hogg, of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association who, in his blog on 8 October wrote
But who would go on a walking or cycling holiday if the heather was long and rank or if there weren’t managed paths and routes through dense woodland? Would there be any birds to watch if foxes and other vermin were left to multiply and devastate all ground-nesting birds? And how much weight (if any) is given to the importance of seeing people working in the environment and adding to the rich culture of the countryside?I know for sure that if farmers, shepherds, gamekeepers and stalkers weren’t out there putting in the hours, Scotland’s landscape would resemble a tick-infested tundra which would be a massive turn off for tourists. And that would be an end to the valuable revenue they bring to remote areas.
Amazing.
Watch Iain Stewarts programme on why Scotland became the desert that it is…http://tinyurl.com/358lx7p…
It is not natural much as many would have us believe! I am amazed that the BBC allowed it to be screened, given their present anti Scottish, pro Unionist establishement hysteria.
Tourism need not be, and should not be the only life blood, relevant though it is.
The “Flow” country should be pronounced as in plow, not as we hear it pronounced on the BBC, as in the flow of a river, it is from the Norse language. I speak as a native of the Flow country and used to listen to the old Crofters, Shepherds and Gamekeepers talking in Gaelic about it.