The Scottish Wildlife Trust is calling on the public to take action and help prevent European nature laws from being weakened. 

Across Europe, including here in Scotland, vital laws protect our most precious wildlife and wild places. The conservation of Scotland’s most iconic species such as golden eagle, Atlantic salmon, dolphin and Scottish wildcat depend on these laws and we do too, for cleaner rivers, vital habitat for pollinating insects and natural places that we can enjoy and spend time in.

Without these European laws to protect the rarest and best of nature, Scotland and the World would be a poorer place.

Right now the European Commission  is reviewing these laws - the 'Nature Directives' - and asking people to give their opinion on them. So it's vital that as many of us as possible say that we feel strongly about this and don't want to see these laws weakened.

Across Europe all countries share two main nature laws - the Habitats Directive, which protects a range of important habitats and species, and the Birds Directive, which protects European wild birds. There is also a network of protected wild places - called Natura 2000 - stretching across Europe.

In Scotland, over 390 places are part of this network including Scottish Wildlife Trust Reserves such as Handa Island, Montrose Basin, Rahoy Hills, Carstramon Wood, and Loch Fleet and other special places such as the Firth of Forth, Caithness and Sutherland peatlands, Black Wood of Rannoch, River Tay and Moray Firth.

The Natura 2000 Network, in Scotland and across Europe needs all the protection it can get.

How you can help

The European Commission is asking for the opinion of people across Europe through an online consultation - so you can make your voice heard.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust, as part of The Wildlife Trusts is joining 100 other charities and environmental organisations across Europe to provide suggested responses to the consultation in support of the Nature Directives.

This will send a clear message to the European Commission that people feel strongly about this, wherever they live.

Details

SBTcoverThe final ‘Beavers in Scotland’ report from the beaver reintroduction project has now been submitted to Scottish Ministers. The report draws on 20 years of work on beavers, including information from the Scottish Beaver Trial, the Tayside Beaver Study Group, the Beaver-Salmonid Working Group, other projects organised by SNH and a range of international studies.

SNH has also published a further nine Commissioned Reports on beavers, including the SBT final reports for the hydrology and fish monitoring, and an interim woodland monitoring report. SEPA’s water chemistry monitoring final report for the SBT has also been published.

You can download the ‘Beavers in Scotland’ report, and all the other new and older beaver outputs, by going to this website:
www.snh.gov.uk/beavers-in-scotland

There is also a press release here:
http://snh.presscentre.com/News-Releases/Report-on-beavers-in-Scotland-goes-to-Minister-1c2.aspx

We will all now await a decision by Ministers on the future of beavers in Scotland.

Details

Shane WasikOur last evening lecturer before Christmas was Shane Wasik, of Basking Shark Scotland, a company who operate boats out of Oban during the summer season.

Shane spoke on ‘Interactions with Basking Sharks’ and told us that apart from giving visitors the opportunity of swimming with basking sharks, the second biggest fish in the world, BSS also photographed these gentle plankton-eating giants and collected data on their movements – there are many aspects of their lives still unrecorded.  He spoke about the group’s photographing for the first time smaller fish accompanying them, much as pilot fish do with other sharks. These proved to be a fish native to the Canary Islands. The photography was excellent, in particular the high quality video taken from above by photographic drone, and listeners learnt a great deal about this elusive creature. His photographs included other species such as the sunfish, the heaviest bony fish in the world, which is occasionally seen in Scottish waters, maybe riding in on ‘offshoots’ of the North Atlantic Drift. A thoroughly enjoyable and informative talk.

 

Details

The final report of the beaver reintroduction trial in Knapdale, Argyll has recently been published by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. You can find the report here, but be warned, it's a 16MB download. There's also an associated item on the SWT website here.

Details

Our members' Group is moving into the digital age with the launch of a dedicated website. This will give us the opportunity to expand on the information available on the main Scottish Wildlife Trust website, publish our programme of talks and walks, make our newsletters available to registered members and add photos, news and information about wildlife and conservation in Argyll and Lochaber.

Watch this space!

 

Details
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