Beaver shooting must stop. Scottish Wild Beaver Group Press Release.

European beaver feeding © Laurie Campbell

News of the shooting of beavers in Tayside by some farmers has led to an outcry from supporters, conservationists, and animal lovers everywhere. Of especial concern is the fact that, while an overdue decision from Scottish Government to adopt the protection due to the species under the European Habitats Directive, there is not even a closed season and the females can therefore be shot pregnant or lactating, killing kits slowly by starvation.

SWBG call for an immediate moratorium on shooting in advance of an early decision to enshrine EU legal protection of the species in Scotland.

Louise Ramsay, Co-Chair of SWBG says: “We flew a

Initiative with Kew Gardens to Protect Scotland’s Trees Takes Root

Juniperus communis (Common juniper)

With a host of new pests and diseases attacking the UK’s native treescape, a new consortium of Scottish organisations, working with Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, are tackling the threat, as part of the UK National Tree Seed Project.

The UK does not currently have comprehensive and genetically representative seed collections of native tree populations for research and use in practical conservation. The UK National Tree Seed Project, launched in 2013, seeks to fill the gap and will make seed collections available for researchers working on challenges facing UK woodlands and forestry such as pests and diseases and climate change.  The Project

Emergency tree rescue appeal launched for West Affric woodlands

Trees for Life team inspecting a section of
damaged fence in West Affric

Conservation charity Trees for Life has launched an emergency rescue appeal to protect tens of thousands of young trees on West Affric from grazing deer.

A new generation of trees – many planted by Trees for Life volunteers – has become established on West Affric over the past 20 years, after Trees for Life and the National Trust for Scotland created a series of 10 fenced exclosures. The exclosures – areas from which large grazing animals are excluded – were designed to boost the recovery of native woodland by preventing the pressure of browsing deer.

But recent damage to the fences has left many of these trees vulnerable to grazing by deer, and Trees for Life

Minke whale baby boom off Scotland’s west coast? Highest number of young recorded since surveys began

Juvenile minke whale alongside HWDT’s research
yacht Silurian - copyright Kerry Froud

Sightings of juvenile minke whales off Scotland’s west coast increased in 2015 to the highest ever recorded within a survey season, during marine research expeditions carried out by Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust – indicating either a significant increase in actual numbers or an influx of minke whales from elsewhere.

The charity’s 2015 research season also recorded the highest annual number of common dolphin sightings since its expeditions began, with 723 individuals observed over 63 encounters. The common dolphin was once uncommon in the Hebrides, but the trust’s encounter rate

In Memory of Kali - 6th January 2005 to 22nd July 2015

9 weeks on the doorstep at Scatwell

Kali had been my constant companion for ten and a half years when at the end of June this year she suddenly started having fits.

Epilepsy drugs seemed to work for about three weeks and then the seizures started again with a vengeance and three days later she had gone.

I still haven't quite come to terms with her passing which is why it's taken me three months to post this collection of pictures taken throughout her life.

She was one of the most gentle, even tempered, friendly and attentive beings I have ever had the privilege to know.

She was always a lady even when confronted with people or dogs she obviously didn't take to. Everybody liked her and I absolutely loved her.

I do not want her to be forgotten.

9 weeks and discovering snow for the first time.