The absence of walkers in the countryside during the foot and mouth crisis have led some to suggest it has allowed the land to flourish but according to Dave Hewitt it has also allowed time for some questionable work to be carried out away from the prying public eye.
From time to time during these past six months, various stories have appeared along the following lines - foot and mouth disease is a terrible blight but one unexpected and positive side-effect has been that the public's absence has given the countryside a chance to breathe, to flourish in a way not seen for decades.
There was a striking example on the main BBC TV news a few weeks ago: various flower-filled meadows and flitting birds were shown, a quango-ish land-agency bod was wheeled out to make the necessary noises and - ominously - the piece ended with an assertion that future "voluntary" closures might be considered given that this enforced one had proven so beneficial to the beleaguered landscape.
Now some of this is true, or at least half true. It's inevitable that if people are kept off the paths and hills - as has happened on a much more formal basis further south than it has in Scotland - then there will be changes and consequences. There is a field near where I live which, for a month in early summer, gave off a fantastic blaze of buttercup yellow, something which no one seemed able to recall from previous years. It was a lovely thing, evoking a real-or-otherwise vision of childhood, when all fields were like this and when some kind of gentle rural idyll permeated the national mood each sunny summer.
But of course the shining buttercups weren't due to any lack of trampling walkers. Nobody ever wanders across that field, it contains no paths and doesn't lead anywhere. No, the reason for the feast of flowers was that the field is normally used as sheep pasture and livestock restrictions through the spring meant that the beasts could not be moved to their buttercup-munching paddock from wherever it was they had wintered.
I mention this because it shows how things are not always quite what they seem in this strange, straggling crisis. There are a lot of hidden agendas and misrepresentations about, including those of the anti-access brigade for whom the dreaded lurgy has provided an opportunity to instigate all sorts of "improvements" and "benefits". It's been all too easy for them to casually demonise walkers by trotting out barely relevant scare-stories, confident that the more simplistic sections of the media will not offer any real, rounded view of such issues.
It is worse than that, though. At the same time that walkers and climbers have been linked with a crisis that really has nothing to do with them, so all manner of eco-unfriendly acts are being perpetrated out of public view, hidden behind the cloak of access closures. Ask around, speak to people on the ground and worrying stories emerge which suggest that all sorts of unethical and even illegal activities have been taking place these past six months, instigated by the land managers who habitually portray themselves as guardians of all that is clean-aired and good. Put another way, without the public around to keep an eye on them, they can get up to stuff.
The most high-profile incidents - and the ones most likely to hit the newspapers and websites - are the bird poisonings. There is nothing new in reporting that keepers and shepherds are less than keen on raptors. The birds swoop and nab grouse chicks and lambs, so the argument runs and there has been a long history of estates laying illegal poisoned bait for pretty much any bird with a hooked beak and talons. Cases come to court from time to time but prevention is better than prosecution and often the best deterrent is the presence of pesky walkers who are in a good position to notice any untoward activity by ruddy faced men in 4x4s.
It's no surprise to hear that there has been a surge in bird poisoning during foot and mouth, with fewer walkers around to catch the bait-layers. An RSPB source reports that half a dozen red kites have been found poisoned since the start of the outbreak and "there are bound to be others but obviously we don't know how many". The known cases have been in Inverness-shire (four), Stirlingshire (one) and in Perthshire (one) and all occurred during the most intensive period of access restrictions, March/April, which in turn habitually marks what the RSPB source terms "the usual pre-season poisoning period".
Relatively common raptors such as buzzards have most likely been poisoned aplenty but are harder to trace. They mostly fall unnoticed in a wood somewhere, whereas red kites are intensively monitored and tend to be radio-tracked and wing-tagged. As well as the Highland cases, there are also suspicions with regard to a Borders estate that was until recently closed to the public and to official inspectors alike - and there is little doubt that the access restrictions, whether directly linked with the poisonings or not, have greatly hindered the detection process. Certainly the Inverness-shire estate where the dead kites were found was, according to the source, "plastered with foot and mouth Keep Out notices".
It's not just poisoning however. Reports have come in from across the UK of footpaths being "cropped over" during the outbreak. With no walkers to worry about, the farmer plants his spring crop wall-to-wall across the field, disregarding the presence of paths. This might not be seen as quite as serious as the bird-poisoning but the idea of rights of way being put out of commission the instant the public's back is turned is depressing in terms of the us-and-them feel to the access debate generally. It's to be hoped that the Ramblers will compile a register of such cases once the crisis is over.
Then there are the fences that have suddenly sprung up - one was a major topic of discussion during the Pentlands "reclaim the hills" event in June - while trees have also been felled. Again in the Pentlands, local walker/runner Alan Hogg had a nasty shock when he set out to explore what was and wasn&£8217;t open. "Many of the minor roads around here have been closed," he wrote in May, "so I decided it was time to go for a long run and check out the current situation. I found only one small stretch of about 1 1/2 miles that still had foot and mouth barriers up - but surprise surprise, what did I find when I went along it but serious tree-felling in two areas. Also, a new hardcore track had been built off the public road."
This could of course have been legitimate, formally agreed work - but then again it could have been something more furtive and less democratic. As Hogg noted, "They are so worried about foot and mouth that they have chosen this time to get all the contractors in. Strange. I suspect the continuing closure is to get the logs and other obvious signs of work away before anyone notices. A few hundred yards away from this closed stretch of tarmac road I was "allowed" to run round one of the reservoirs on the edge of the Pentlands on paths beside fields full sheep. Interestingly contrasting risk assessments."
The barriers blocking the public road carried notices from the Pentland Ranger Service and East of Scotland Water but as neither gave contact numbers Hogg phoned the local police. They declined to re-open the road, stating that, "It's MAFF, so we can't do anything".
Mention of tracks being dug leads into another story, perhaps the most saddening of all. In late July Calum MacRoberts headed into one of the least populated parts of Scotland, the huge empty area between the Cluanie and Glen Carron roads, where a famous and fine old pass leads across from Attadale to Loch Monar and Glen Strathfarrar. MacRoberts expected the usual peace and solitude but what he found were bulldozers parked at Loch Calavie. "They have stormed a trail through from Bendronaig Lodge to Pait," he wrote. "Another fine old path obliterated and now just a memory."
Various agencies were immediately notified, initially via the Mountaineering Council of Scotland but it was of course too late - the deed was done, the ditches dug. Indeed, it's sadly typical that when the Scottish Natural Heritage area officer, Steve Varwell from Portree, was informed by the MCofS, it appeared to be the first he knew of it. Varwell did however quickly contact Simon Fraser, the Highland Council planner in Portree, so at least the devastation is now known within the official system - although quite what will happen remains to be seen, with the likely consequences being summed up in the words "nothing" and "much".
Despite being one of the most remote and wild parts of the UK, upper Monar is neither a Site of Special Scientific Interest nor a National Scenic Area and so the estate - West Monar and Pait - was under no obligation to contact SNH (although it might have needed to contact Highland Council - this seems unclear at present). The council's structure plan includes a presumption against tracks in wild areas - but as has been the problem in many places, if a track is dug for agricultural or forestry-related reasons then it qualifies as a "permitted development". Digging a "sporting" track - for shooting, stalking and fishing - is not allowed, although there has long been suspicion (as will surely happen at Pait) that a great many "agricultural" tracks serve no real purpose beyond easing the passage of wealthy sporting clients who are either too lazy or too unfit to pursue their quarry on foot.
Quite whether the idea of obliterating the Pait path was actively linked with the foot and mouth restrictions will probably never be known but even if there was no formal connection here then this has without doubt been a propitious period for those who would do such things. Far fewer people have been around and there has a climate of closure and access-restriction whereby such things have been attracting less censure than in normal times. Hence it's far easier for the guys with diggers, chainsaws and poison-laced carcasses to go about their work unobserved.
So next time you see a report arguing that access restrictions lead to a greater and more healthy biodiversity within our landscape, think about it a little more. There is a much darker side to the story that is tending to be lost amid all the simplicity and paranoia.
Dave Hewitt
27/8/2001
(Anyone concerned about the bulldozing of the Pait path could do worse than contact Simon Fraser, Area Planning and Building Control Manager, Highland Council, King's House, The Green, Portree, Skye, IV51 9BS.)
