Rural Community Gateway

Having predators is part of a heathly eco system. And so not having them distrubs the balance. For example no predators, means too many deer which then eat too many young tree seedings and so it goes on. Toursim would be hugely boosted in the highlands having wolves. As a start I would favour a re-introduction of Lynx which would help people understand this natural balance needed. Then wolves.

I would urge people to read the studies on these re-introductions here and in other countries. To summarized them up in a just a few words is difficult but in essence it's alot easier and more benefical than people here currently think.

Here's hoping it happens one day!

Sheila is quite right that this topic needs more comment / discussion. Mostly IMHO because it touches on rural development and economic viability in fragile areas, but, of course, also because serious land access and animal husbandry issues are raised.

What is so often missed is that Alladale hopes to become an economic dynamo bringing large numbers of paying tourists. Should that happen the spin off would be great and a model established which could be used elsewhere. There are precedents to emulate on other continents as Lister says. Hundreds of jobs and some environment rehabilitation are some of the gains.

Problems abound; bureaucratic, access limitation, protection of farming stock, etc. Few projects offer no obstacles and few projects ask a greater shift of mindset. These are no reason to throw the whole thing up as impossible.

I am quite surprised that nobody has commented on this item.
I was amazed when I watched the documentary and surprised when it has now been followed up be a series about the Estate which seems to be very one sided as although Estate employees make comments about lack of support from the local community to what they regard as reinvigorating the local area, I haven't seen any locals, apart from the Estate employees making comment.
My concern about the proposal is that although it is a large estate its not large enough to develop the new ecosystem required to reintroduce all these species. The proposal to have a large electrified enclosure goes against all policies on right of access and I'm not totally convinced that there would be no escapees.
I took my grandchildren to Kincraig Wildlife Park last week, we had a great day, one of the highlights was watching the wolves being fed. Each wolf gets 6 to 7 lbs of meat daily but if in the wild they could consume 18 lbs at one sitting. Although they wouldn't be likely to kill each day and the amount of meat required would depend on the size of the pack, it would require quite a large herd of deer/goats/moose to sustain the pack.
I would be very interested to hear other people's thoughts on this proposal or is it simply the case that the idea is so bizarre that nobody thinks it will ever happen?

Sheila Fletcher