The main land uses are outdoor recreation including field sports and natural history, and wildlife conservation, forestry, water catchment, and some agriculture. The main conflicts are between downhill skiing development and all other interests, between deer stalking and most other interests, and between misplaced commercial afforestation and most other interests. Below we describe the main threats and the conflicts that have arisen.
The new road and ski lifts at Coire Cas on Cairn Gorm in 1960 brought an influx of people, jobs and prosperity to Speyside. These ski developments were closely linked to the planned development of the village of Aviemore as a major, all-year round tourist resort, complete with its own all-purpose complex of hotels, shops and recreation facilities known as the Aviemore Centre. Unfortunately, the ski developments also led to much damage, some of it avoidable. The bulldozing of ski pistes and removal of boulders denuded much ground of its plant life. Vegetation damage and soil erosion were already severe in the late 1960's, and soil erosion has now degraded much of Cairn Gorm. Some reseeding with lowland grasses has been done, but the results are poor at high altitudes.
The primary rule for land management in mountains is to protect watersheds by keeping the plant carpet intact; it alone holds in place the soil that supports all life. Further, undisturbed vegetation and soil soak up water after heavy rain and reduce the flow of surface water running off immediately to streams and rivers. If people break this rule, areas downstream suffer flooding and erosion due to increased surface run-off causing increased spates. Local communities are learning this lesson through disastrous experience in mountainous country from the Himalayas to the Andes. The warning signs have been clear at Cairn Gorm too. Violent floods have been increasingly frequent in recent years in the rivers of the massif. During September 1981, the tarmac road and bridge below the ski slopes were damaged by such a flood, and repaired at considerable public expense for the third time.
It is a common misconception that skiing cannot induce soil erosion because snow protects the ground below. However, research has shown that snow compaction by skis markedly increases soil erosion, as a result of greater water run-off and other detrimental effects. Ski edges cut vegetation protruding above the snow, and walkers' boots also damage plants and erode soil if more people trample the vegetation than it can withstand. Skiers and walkers at Cairn Gorm have done much damage. This involves bruising and dislodging of plants, a lower abundance or even locally a loss of certain plant species such as lichens and heaths, soil loosening and erosion on trampled patches, loose soil washed down to bury and kill vegetation further downhill, large quantities of blown grit partly burying the vegetation, and formation of erosion gullies up to a metre deep.
In addition, Coire Cas presents to its thousands of summer visitors a scene of clutter and ugliness, with its raw, unvegetated car-park verges, its thousands of boulders rolled downhill or sprayed with tar to make them less conspicuous, and its myriad pieces of broken wood, wire and other materials left behind by untidy workmen. In 1976, Mollie Porter collected 300 plastic sackfulls of litter plus several tons of heavier items from the ski grounds, the bulk of it construction debris, and by 1981 surveys showed that within a few years the slopes had already become cluttered again with thousands of bits of wire, wood and other rubbish.
As a result of all the damage by machines, skiers and walkers at Coire Cas, the many tracks, bulldozed pistes, gravel banks and eroded slopes can now be seen up to thirty kilometres away. These spreading effects scar the north face of the Cairngorms, one of Britain's finest views and one of great importance to Speyside's tourist industry.
The ski developments have also led to serious damage to hill birds. Attracted by food scraps and other litter, crows and gulls from the straths and moors invade ski areas, and now rob many eggs and chicks of ptarmigan and other hill birds on Cairn Gorm. The breeding success of ptarmigan on Cairn Gorm is now disastrously poor, and in addition many young and old die through flying into ski-lift wires. The local ptarmigan stock in Coire Cas, the most heavily developed ski slope, had become virtually extinct by summer 1981.
The Cairn Gorm ski developments have also had an impact far outside the ski grounds. Until recent years, the remoteness of the high Cairngorms protected them from overuse. However, the road and chair lift up Coire Cas made it easy for large numbers of people to visit the high plateau between Cairn Gorm and Ben Macdui, people who did not demand this easy access and who would mostly not have thought of going there before it was provided. Survey work shows that severe vegetation damage and soil erosion have spread along the routes of walkers and skiers on to the high plateau behind and deep into the most valuable and sensitive part of the National Nature Reserve and wilderness area. This consequence of ski developments has damaged other people's land in three counties, outwith the ground leased by the ski operators. Substantial parts of the plateau are now showing the features of degraded land that have long been so obvious on the ski slopes.
What makes this particularly worrying is that recovery of the damaged ground will be very slow because of the hostile climate for plant establishment. Fans of washed-out gravel formed during heavy rain in 1976 are still virtually with out plant life, and it is clear that recolonisation of eroded bare gravel by vegetation at these high altitudes will take many decades, and probably centuries.
Damage to soils and vegetation also puts at risk the whole life-base of the insects and birds dependent on them, and has serious long-term implications for water catchment and the scenic qualities of the area. This increasing degradation therefore gravely threatens the best example of a natural arctic-like environment in Britain.
Clearly this plateau cannot withstand its present level of use. The Nature Conservancy Council {now SNH}, the government agency for nature conservation in Britain, manages the reserve but cannot control the mounting damage there, as it does not control the main access points or own the plateau.
The proposed Lurcher's Gully developments, if allowed, would make these problems even worse. A public road and ski lifts would spoil Coire an Lochain and Coire an t-Sneachda, two of Britain's finest corries, whose value for scenery, wildlife, scientific and educational interest, and wilderness always far surpassed that of Coire Cas and Coire na Ciste even before ski developments there. The already irremediable problems of soil erosion and land degradation on Cairn Gorm would spread west to damage large tracts of the most valuable parts of the Cairngorms, and would reduce the splendid quality of remoteness found at Loch Avon, Braeriach and other parts hitherto inaccessible and relatively unscathed. To preserve such places for future generations, experience in many countries abroad has shown that it is critical to maintain a careful balance between ease of access and the land's ability to withstand human pressure.
Inside the National Nature Reserve and near it, on Deeside and Speyside, many old pines and birches die each year. In few places are they replaced, because red deer eat the tree seedlings in the forest and on the moorland above. Unless we fence off larger areas and reduce the excessively high deer stocks, many of the finest relics of ancient pine and birch forest will be in danger of extinction. Nearly sixty years have passed since Seaton Gordon drew attention to this but very little has been done. This remains one of the chief problems for wildlife conservation in Scotland and in the Cairngorms in particular.
A few natural pine woods in Scotland are well protected, such as Glen Tanar in mid-Deeside, but most in the Cairngorms lack this protection. Much of the natural woodland on the north side of the massif, the heartland of the Old Caledonian Forest in Britain, has been ploughed and planted, sometimes with introduced Sitka spruces and lodgepole pines. There are extensive plans for more in the near future. It was because of these grave threats that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds bought part of Abernethy Forest, and so saved some of this outstanding woodland for the nation. However, the area of natural forest ploughed or threatened now far exceeds the area being fully protected.
On the west side of the Cairngorms and on Deeside there are similar examples, even within "National Scenic Areas" specially selected by the Countryside Commission for Scotland and of major importance to the local tourist industry. Some of them lie even within the National Nature Reserve. Our birch woods, which greatly enhance scenery and wildlife, have suffered too. On the eats slopes around Braemar and Corgarff, natural old birch woods with juniper have been underplanted densely with spruces, which will soon shade out and kill the birch.
Modern plantation forestry destroys the natural characteristics of the native pine and birch woodland. Moreover it is not necessary for perpetuating the forest, as natural regeneration could have been attained by fencing out red deer. This is not a criticism of modern forestry as such. It is simply a recognition that in certain ancient woodland, highly esteemed for their historic, scenic, recreational and wildlife values, the needs of commercial forestry must come second.
Private landowners and forestry companies cannot be wholly blamed for destroying these native woodlands and the adjacent moorland. Much of private forestry in Britain is controlled and financed by the government and its Forestry Commission through grants, tax concessions and advice. This system must, therefore, take major responsibility for the damage to some of the finest natural woodlands in the Cairngorms, with money provided by the British Taxpayer.
On the lower hills, large tracts at a time have been burned to remove rank heather and make way for more nutritious younger shoots for red deer. Often fifty hectares at a time go up in smoke, and occasionally even bigger areas because of inadequate supervision. On steep slopes big fires tend to accelerate soil erosion and scree formation. Some conflagrations lit is dangerously dry weather burn much of the peaty soil, leading to a serious long-term loss of fertility. On occasion , fires are even started in, or left unattended to burn through open parts of the line forest, killing old trees. This also destroys many seedlings there and on adjacent moorland, thus reducing the regeneration and extension of the forest. On some lower hills used as grouse moor, small patches of young trees are often deliberately burned out, and medium-sized trees felled and left to rot.
Burning in itself can help tree regeneration by removing the thick heather and thus providing a good seed-bed, but this works only if there are few deer, sheep and cattle. The combination of burning plus heavy grazing of the seedlings is fatal.
The key land use differs in different places, with walking obviously most important in one, protection of wildlife in another, downhill skiing in another, forestry in another, and so on. However, when such land uses clash in the Cairngorms, too often the conflict has been settled without regard to the prime land use. The most powerful groups or individuals, who own the land or control the planning, simply do what they want.
For example, the Nature Conservancy Council own only 12% of the Cairngorms National Nature Reserve, and manage the rest only under short-term agreements with landowners. Although Britain's biggest reserve (almost 26000 hectares), it has not protected many of the area's valued features. Most people assume that once a reserve has been declared, all the problems are over, but this is far from the case when the Nature Conservancy Council do not own that reserve. Forestry plantations have been set up inside the Cairngorms reserve, while much natural woodland has continued to decline because of overgrazing of seedlings by numerous deer. Many vehicle tracks have spread on open hillsides right up to the edge of the reserve, and in places well inside it. Bulldozed to make deer stalking easier, these tracks are often badly made, cause soil erosion, and can be seen miles away. Many people complain that they spoil magnificent views and intrude far into former wilderness areas. Some have obliterated attractive footpaths even inside the Nature Reserve, including famous old rights of way used for centuries. They are still being made inside the reserve (autumn 1981), despite prolonged public criticism, as a walk up Glen Feshie and Gleann Einich will show.
The Forestry Commission's own Glen More Forest Park has scenery, wildlife, and an unrivalled variety of outdoor recreational opportunities that are major tourist attractions. The Badenoch and Strathspey Local Plan emphasises its value to Speyside. It includes a fine remnant of the Old Caledonian Forest. Nevertheless, much of the open ground between the old trees has been planted with foreign species, thus giving native trees little chance to regenerate. Yet the Commission gave this area special designation as the "Glen More Forest Park", where amenity and wildlife conservation would be expected to have high priority. Their woodland management in such an outstanding area has paid inadequate attention to these woods.
Above the woods, the Forest Park extends over open hills up to the edge of the Cairngorm plateau, including the proposed ski grounds in the northern corries west to Lurcher's Gully. Despite the Forest Park designation, the Commission were forced by the Secretary of State for Scotland to cede the land above the woods to the Highlands and Islands Development Board, who in turn leased part of it the Cairngorm Chairlift Company. Although this upper area remains part of the Forest Park, clearly the Commission have little or no control over developments and damage there.
The Highland Board's section includes most of the moorland and hill ground on Cairn Gorm and the northern corries, including the present ski area. Though managed by the Cairngorm Chairlift Company, extensions to the ski developments have been greatly assisted by the Board. Despite the very high scenic, scientific and recreational value of the northern corries and their continued designations as part of the Forest Park, the Board has been one of the main proponents behind the Lurcher's Gully ski proposals. These proposals are completely out of place in an area of such high quality. Downhill skiing developments conflict with all other interests, and have a disastrous and perhaps permanent impact on the fine scenery, whereas all other recreational users cause relatively little damage.
The "World Conservation Strategy" emphasised the drawback of organisations having "mandates which charge the same agency with both the exploitation and the protection of the resource". The Highland Board's management provides a local example. The legislation that established the Board in 1965 included a clause requiring them to "have regard to the desirability of preserving the beauty of the scenery in the Highlands". Yet it is now revealed that the Board have not acted on the environmental advice given by highly experienced land-use consultants whom they themselves had commissioned to study their Cairn Gorm Estate, have not collected appropriate data, such as snow-lie records, on this land as suggested by the consultants, and have no management programme for it.
By some commercial interests on Speyside, the Cairngorms are too often regarded simply as an industry. It is an industry developed do far with inadequate regard to the limits of its resources. In summer, up to 1000 people in a day use the chair lift and then climb to the top of Cairn Gorm, and up to a fifth of these walk more than three kilometres beyond. The brochure of the Highlands and Island Development Board "Holiday Ideas '81" contains nearly nine pages of adventure and "natural history" holidays under the heading " Unspoiled - This Magnificent Land of Wildlife and Natural Beauty". Nearly half of the mountain activity holidays are sited in or specifically promise visits to the Cairngorms, even for the purpose of seeing the rare wildlife which is widely known to be so susceptible to disturbance. The Board appears to see no conflict between extolling and exploiting wildlife and scenery in an area on the one hand, and on the other hand backing developments leading to worse damage to wildlife and scenery in the same area, than has occurred on any other Scottish mountain this century.
The outdoor attractions of these mountains are also advertised and promoted by the Scottish Tourist Board, Forestry Commission, Scottish Youth Hostel Association, Scottish Sports Council, local tourist organisations, Community Councils, speculative housing developers, and many private establishments. All this is not to say that recreational outdoor activities or holidays are undesirable.
It does indicate the heavy pressures on the area and the need for a better balance, to ensure the attractions of the area, advertised as tourist draws, are not damaged by overutilization and thus become lost to future generations.
The Cairngorms have become a de facto National Park. They possess all the assets of a National Park, are exploited and used as one, and come under the human pressure of one, but do not receive the protection and management that a National Park would require.
It is often forgotten that Aviemore and other Speyside villages are
mainly summer resorts, whose prosperity depends primarily on summer
visitors and their preferences. Most visitors comprise people with various
summer interests outdoors, including hill walkers, ramblers, mountaineers,
wildlife enthusiasts, educational parties and others. Together, they far
outnumber downhill skiers, and provide the main base for the local
economy. Surveys of visitors' attitudes in Speyside show clearly that it
is the scenery, the quiet, the wilderness, the fascinating wildlife - in
other words the area's unspoilt features - that attract most people. The
attractiveness and economic value of wildlife are well illustrated by the
100,000 people who, in 1978 alone, visited the RSPB's hide at Loch Garten
to see the ospreys at their nest. The importance of scenery has been shown
well by other surveys of tourism in Scotland. For example,
One cannot repeat too often that the most important factor in
attracting campers and caravanners - and a vast number of other visitors
- to Scotland, is the beauty of the unspoilt scenery. This is the
country's greatest asset; it is also the asset that can be so easily be
irretrievably lost.
The number of visitors to the Scottish Highlands reached a peak in 1973 but has declined alarmingly and erratically since. In a declining market, the ability to attract customers back is vital. The protection of the scenic and other natural features that are well known to be the main attraction to tourists is therefore now of greater importance than ever to the local economy.
Other countries, notably in the European Alps, have suffered from damaging mistakes and have learned that failure to protect mountain areas under intensive tourist pressures leads to land degradation, disruption of rural economies, and social problems. At the Lurcher's Gully Public Inquiry in 1981, Dr F.H.Schwarzenbach, internationally-known Swiss planning expert on mountain tourism and himself a successful manager of a ski area and hotel, explained how tourism has an inherent tendency to overdevelop. Once past an optimum level, it becomes self-destructive. He also explained how an increasingly dominant centre as Aviemore can damage the prosperity and social well-being of surrounding smaller communities, as have been found at Davos in Switzerland and tourist resorts elsewhere. Some of the smaller Speyside villages have already suffered from this and have increasing unemployment, now made worse by their being bypassed by the new A9 trunk road. From best figures available, Aviemore possessed 10% of the tourist beds in hotels and guest houses in upper Speyside in 1963, 29% in 1968, and approached a top-heavy 40% in 1980. In a survey in August 1978, upper Speyside above Grantown had 304,000 visitor nights, an estimated half of them in the Aviemore - Glen More area alone. If present planned new accommodation is built at Aviemore, this over-concentration would be even worse. It would be tragic if Scotland failed to profit from the prior experience of lands where such mistakes have already been made.
The planning authority for an area has the responsibility to ensure that tourist developments are not unbalanced or sited where the environment cannot withstand them or where they would damage other local communities. Yet by promoting the proposed skiing developments in the northern corries of Cairn Gorm, the planning authority - Highland Regional Council - are encouraging further concentration at Aviemore, which would draw more visitors from the surrounding communities. Further, the cost-benefit analysis by which the council selected the northern corries rather than Drumochter or other potential ski grounds gave no serious consideration to the snow-holding capacities of the different sites, or to the greater costs at Cairn Gorm of intrusion on a remote and fragile environment, the defacement of summer landscapes, the likelihood of soil erosion and flood damage to roads and bridges, or conflict with other economically important forms of recreation. Such lop-sided approach endangers local prosperity in the long run.
The public and private bodies involved in managing the Cairngorms or with a strong interest in this include six central government bodies, two Regional Councils, three District Councils, several private landowners, the Cairngorm Chairlift Company, the Cairngorm Recreation Trust, the Reindeer Company and the armed services. Most are in conflict. The two Regional Councils - Highland Regional Council on the Spey side of the massif, and Grampian Regional Council on the Dee and Banffshire sides - disagree fundamentally on how to treat this area. Lacking clear central guidance on overall objectives, the six government agencies pursue a variety of overlapping and often conflicting functions. Five of the six clashed at the 1981 Public Inquiry. Few of these organisations consult the area's recreational users. Without clear aims and means for managing the Cairngorms, long, costly conflicts have been inevitable, and will get worse in the years ahead.
Clearly, the chief drawbacks of past planning for the Cairngorms are the
lack of any national guidelines for selecting the least damaging sites for
downhill skiing development, and the failure to produce a co-ordinated
management plan.
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The Future of the Cairngorms was published in 1982 by the North East Mountain Trust. It describes one of Britain's foremost natural resources and last great wilderness areas, and tells of their increasing degradation through unwise land use and bad planning. We hope that the book will stir the reader to a concern over the threatened future of these grand old hills that have meant so much to so many over the years.
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SCIO Scottish Charity No SC 008783