(2021, published by Birlinn)
Drennan Watson
Restoring the biodiversity of degraded areas is often presented as withdrawing human management and let nature take its course but it is often much more complicated than that. Regeneration is about the work of the National Trust for Scotland to restore and enhance the biodiversity of some of their land on Mar Lodge Estate starting from its deforested and overgrazed state. It is written by one of their staff, Andrew Painting.
This could become a wade through the complexities of restoring biodiversity, but the book is well written and very readable end to end. It should be read by all with an interest in the Cairngorms and beyond. For those also whose interest lies in a wider field of biodiversity management, it well merits reading.
Basically, in its approach to this complicated business, it turns to the oldest technique of all “Tell them a story”. Its 16 chapters are basically a series of short stories that collectively cover issues from restoring the pine forest to rescuing scarce threatened plant species like the alpine sowthistle or safeguarding vulnerable species like the dotterel or the dunlin.
But stories need heroes, and the heroes are the author’s companions on
his expeditions on the estate 
from
dedicated volunteers to fulltime experts from institutions like the
Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. Each outing tells a tale and reveals the way or
ways species and habitats are restored or protected. Later heroes are
species like the dunlin or dotterel with their long term struggle to
survive. Underlying it is one quiet hero, the author, who does not,
however, take himself too seriously.
Collectively, the stories provide the reader with a breadth of insight into biodiversity management, the work of the Trust on Mar Lodge and the skills, hard work and ecological insight required for such management over a wider area. This is a book that is both very readable and well worth reading.
Bob Reid
Regeneration: A review, a memoir, a rejoinder and some resonances
The Linn of Dee was almost empty, the river a mere trickle. The absence of rainfall during the Indian summer of 2021 had left the river empty.
Worryingly empty. Hardly the torrent famously swum by visiting mountaineer Menlove Edwards when he was young. The unseasonal drought was climate-change related; I think to myself. The fenced, enclosed woodland on Creag Bad an Eas, just south of the Linn, jars with my senses. The enclosure is almost lush in comparison to the surrounding hillsides. "My ambition is to see blue throats there soon. It is perfect blue throat habitat”, Andrew Painting enthuses, as we briefly chat about the acquisition of Mar Lodge Estate. He is just as enthusiastic about the possibilities as I was 25 years ago. And he has written a new book – ‘Regeneration’ – about his two years’ experience of being an ecologist working on the estate. But more of that anon.
I’d called-by to meet Andrew since I was staying in Claybokie while attending the first ever ‘Braemar Summit’ – a seriously intense conference considering the big questions of the day – but particularly our climate crisis, the environment and the covid pandemic. My learning curve was steep as we listened to talks from Dames and Knights of the Realm, the odd MP, and several Nobel Laureates (three if I recall correctly). This all has relevance, but particularly as I met Charles Darwin’s great granddaughter at this event. We discussed Cairngorms, Mar Lodge and Glenfeshie.
Quietly minding my business one morning in Woodhill House, the Grampian Regional Council HQ in Aberdeen, where I worked from 1991 till 1996, I received a call from Magnus Magnusson, quizmaster and then Chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage. Would I like to attend a meeting about Mar Lodge Estate, he asked. The recent attempt to buy the estate by a few conservation bodies (including WWF, RSPB, SWT et al) had, for various reasons, failed. Perhaps there was another way. So, I did indeed meet with Magnus, along with Richard Cooke from the Association of Deer Management Groups and Captain Alwyne Farquharson of Invercauld from the (then) Scottish Landowners Federation. Their proposition was that an alternative, perhaps more ‘acceptable’ charitable buyer might succeed. They meant the National Trust for Scotland. The funding would have to be from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and to receive such public monies, Local Authority endorsement was necessary. Perhaps that explained my invitation. The balance of the purchase monies was to come from donations and one, the Easter Trust (at that stage anonymous) was to play a significant role.
My abiding memories are all about the early, intense work trying to accommodate the management objectives of the various partners. Without being exhaustive, we had the NTS Unna Principles, we had the SNH Management Agreement objectives, we had the faintly secret ambitions of the Easter Trust (the Salvesen Family) and we had the conditions that would be attached because of Heritage Lottery funding. The arguments all crystalized around the words suggesting Mar Lodge Estate would be run ‘as a traditional sporting estate’ – and the degree to which that was appropriate, or not, for the public, the lottery punters, and the taxpayers injecting funding via SNH management grants. The words were vigorously contested and the alternative ‘as a Highland sporting estate’ became enshrined instead amongst the establishing principles for land management at Mar Lodge.
I authored those words and well remember justifying them on the basis that ‘change’ was essential for the estate to progress and achieve the publicly funded ambitions. Maintaining ‘traditions’ would simply hinder the changes that were necessary for the project to succeed. This was not cocking a snoot at the history, simply pointing out that we couldn’t do things the way they’d always been done. A good example has been the way that Dee salmon fishing has gone from ‘one for the pot’ to ‘catch and release’ in only a few seasons – for the good of all. Another would be the agreement NTS reached to discontinue ptarmigan shooting. I hear you wince, dear reader, but sadly ptarmigan are still a quarry species in Scotland in spite of being such a vital climate change indicator species.
The high-level policy consensus meant all the partners involved would have to compromise and moderate or change their behaviours. The record of the first decade at Mar Lodge was encouraging and this approach was indeed beginning to succeed and gain traction. The stalkers were achieving significant deer reductions, though influxes of deer from neighbouring estates still caused problems. Mar Lodge Estate was demonstrating, quite literally in the grandest of manners, that a successful balance could be struck between 1) nature conservation, 2) public access and 3) sporting use on the estate. Whilst this was clearly something to be proud of, it was also challenging to certain other interested parties. The thought – “if the National Trust can do this at Mar Lodge… why can’t it be rolled out across Scotland?” – whilst manna for some, was a bridge too far for plenty of others.
From 1996 till 2006 there was a management committee of the various interests. I served on that group along with several other NTS senior members, SNH, a representative of Braemar Community and several NTS staffers. The records of that decade form a considerable archive and perhaps Andrew Painting will be allowed in due course to write volume two of his book covering those formative years. Formal, external input from various conservation and community interests has been non-existent since 2006 and I have often wondered who speaks up for the average lottery punter. Possibly it is the Cairngorm National Park.
A supposedly Independent Review was commissioned in 2010 reporting in 2011 due to concerns from neighbouring estates. Many of us from Deeside gave evidence. The Review chaired by David Windmill eventually concluded that the integration of the three core objectives could not be done without greater recourse to what I will call, ‘more traditional’ land management approaches. What a capitulation.
Amongst these approaches was, of course, the erection of more fences. It had been a serious consideration to remove most if not all these fences around the woodland enclosures at the start of the project. They are bad for capercaillie, bad for black grouse, and bad for landscape. Adam Watson and Dick Balharry spoke to visiting groups (of which there were many) and wrote extensively about the damage such fencing did and how excessive deer numbers were, in reality, the problem. You can either keep the deer out, or you can lessen the number of deer. The latter course had been the direction NTS had been travelling. In the late 90s there was nowhere else you could go to see if this would work. NTS would be taking part in an experiment, based at least in part on the experience and hunch of Watson and Balharry. History will show that they were right and the experience of Glenfeshie, and the widening acceptance via Cairngorm Connect is now testament to their beliefs. But the doughty neighbours on Deeside were highly critical and actively contrived to challenge this view.
If truth be known, fences are just a stopgap to allow traditional land management practices to persist. 25 years since acquisition, the fences on Creag Bad an Eas are still there, as testament to the old ways. New enclosures have appeared elsewhere on Mar Lodge Estate, even in the Lairig Ghru itself. Of course, arguments continue between land managers and conservationists, perhaps nowhere more vigorously than on upper Deeside. As I sat with Andrew Paining considering this debate, David Frew, the estate manager at MLE leaned-in to say hello and add his view. He’s another wise head on young shoulders. He said ‘Bob, if we take those fences down, the neighbours' deer, running at twenty-seven deer per square kilometre, will just destroy the place.’ Goodbye blue throat ambitions. I am aware that the deer density in Glenfeshie is now less than five per square kilometre. Those who have visited Glenfeshie can see the remarkable regeneration on view. Biodiversity monitoring shows remarkable bounce back from a plethora of key species. We are also aware that the Cairngorm National Park is now beginning to ask whether the present densities of deer in the Dee Catchment are remotely acceptable. Time will tell.
It is in this context Andrew Painting’s book Regeneration should be read. Shall we agree that the Mar Lodge neighbours are ‘well known’ for their views and influence? Occasionally referred to as the Upper Deeside Mafia, they include Mar Estate, Invercauld Estate (with whom I met with Magnus Magnusson), Balmoral Estate, Glen Tanar, Tulchan Estate, and the Salvesen family estate at Findrack & Tillyfour. I may have missed a few. Early in ‘Regeneration’ Andrew Painting observes that Mar Estate remains in Royal hands – a point that passed me by at the time of acquisition. So, for me to suggest that this group of folk is ‘influential’ should be irrefutable. What remains open for question is the degree to which that influence is wielded and has affected the history, practices, and outcomes on Deeside and at Mar Lodge Estate. As if to emphasise those thoughts Andrew Painting states in his introduction to Regeneration: ‘I could write that what has emerged at Mar Lodge is a demonstration project of what can be achieved when groups with different interests and different ideas about our landscapes work together, somewhat harmoniously, for the common good. But as we shall see, it is fairer to say that the truth of the matter is much more complicated than that.’ [p5]
The rest, as they say, is ‘history’ and to some extent is covered in the later chapters. His decameron of sixteen stories about each of the significant species under threat at Mar Lodge is a tour de force of ecological and anthropological writing. I couldn’t put Regeneration down and read it twice within a week. My copy is side-lined with copious comment and counter arguments. Only rarely does Andrew slip into what I would label ‘defence of the National Trust’, his employers. NTS of course deserve a great deal of credit for letting an employee, who is obviously a talented writer, have a free hand in what he says. Warts and all.
In respect of the wider context of conservation in Scotland, Andrew is less well placed to comment. At the time of acquisition, I stood up and made a speech at the NTS AGM. There was a great deal of scepticism and nervousness abroad among the NTS membership. Should they really acquire such a huge estate in the Cairngorms? When I spoke, I vigorously challenged this scepticism and suggested that here was an incredible opportunity to redeem a great deal of the NTS’s rather tarnished conservation credentials in Scotland. At the end of this review, memoir, and resonance there is a rejoinder I must make – a memo to self. Get involved once more and use the time retirement offers to get the NTS back on a firmer route forward than one that is so beholden to the neighbours. There are fortunately only a few places in the book where it seems to me the NTS management has had a hand in what Andrew has said. A Trust ‘humbled’ by the David Windmill review is not one I would wish to be a member of. In the long run such comment will, I am sure, be regarded as retrograde.
At the launch of the book, I rather challengingly asked Andrew whether Mar Lodge Estate should be part of the neighbouring Cairngorm Connect project. Chris Packham recently described this as his ‘favourite conservation project above all’. Perhaps the answer was ‘above the pay grade’. The book launch was chaired by photographer and The Big Partnership entrepreneur Peter Cairns, who clearly but politely scoffed at the suggestion. The NTS should absolutely aspire to such a prospect. Though it is clear to me that with NTS having a foothold in the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership [ECMP - six sporting estates plus the NTS covering 140,000ha of the Dee Catchment] such a prospect remains a long way away.
Meanwhile, please go and buy the book. Andrew Painting is presently editing Regeneration for its paperback release. Maybe I will pass across the 1995 – 2005 archive I have kept in my garage that covers the first attempts to achieve those big conservation ambitions. He might enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed reading his book.
A comment by the editor – In summary, read this book!
Please let the webmaster know if there are problems with viewing these pages or with the links they contain.