Under a cold, damp grey sky the muffled roar of water cascading down treeless hillsides, hewing its way through the granite bedrock, provides almost the only sound amid a glen of tranquillity.
Alladale Estate lies less than 25 miles and world away from the modern bustling city centre of Inverness, yet it is at the forefront of conservation and eco-tourism in Britain.
Alladale is a working 23,000 acre Highland estate providing luxury accommodation, deer stalking and fishing for a few hundred visitors a year, but owner and millionaire philanthropist Paul Lister has bigger plans. He aims to create Britain’s first ecological game reserve by turning the clock back more than 2,000 years.
Last week the Highland Council granted the estate a dangerous wild animal licence, meaning wild boar, elk, wolves, lynx and bears could soon be reintroduced.
Lister, the son of Noel Lister – the co-founder of the MFI furniture empire – has spent the last 20 years of his life dreaming of recreating Scotland’s remote wilderness from a time long before humans began altering nature for their own ends.
As the owner of Alladale he wants to transform his 23,000 acres, along with almost as much again from neighbouring landowners, into a reserve for indigenous flora, fauna and animals.
The new game reserve will be home to Caledonian pine, juniper, hazel and round birch along with the reintroduction of lichen and grasses.
Experts believe that if anybody can accomplish the reintroduction of the European grey wolf, which was hunted to extinction in Scotland in 1743, and the bear, which was driven out 900 years ago, it is Lister.
‘We received our dangerous animals licence last week and as soon as the foot and mouth regulations die down we’ll be bringing in two young elk from Sweden as part of the first step,’ said Hugh Fullerton Smith, a New Zealand-born wildlife expert and general manager of Alladale who was brought in to help set up the game reserve.
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
Loading ...
1 response so far ↓
1 Keir // Sep 18, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I would really like to see Wolves, Beavers and perhaps even Lynx reintroduced to Scotland. As much fun as all this sounds, it really will provide a natural and much needed function in helping to restore our landscape and keep it healthy. These animals provide an important link in the foodchain and maintaining the numbers of other animals which damage the landscape. Deer, Rabbits and many other animals contribute to a great deal of damage to trees, plants and other wildlife. There is nothing to stop them and there numbers are growing every year. Introducing predators would eventually balance the problem out, it is not an overnight solution, because most overnight solutions are only temporary solutions. It must be done in a natural way, and Wolves epecially should be a native species to this country.
The reintroduction of apex predators and a massive operation to replant our forests would go a long way to help the bare and scarred land recover. It would also help rarer species of plant, animal and fish increase in number. Trees play a large role in the maintanance of our lochs, so that would be a sensible place to begin the plantation of varied tree specied, not just pine.
People want a quick fix, but education, time and the reintroduction of animals vital to eco-system are the only solutions. Scotland should be a heavily forested country, and the land, rivers, lochs and plants depend on animals like Beavers, Wolves and Lynx to maintain them. The opportunity for tourism is also not to be ignored. People will come in great numbers to see such animals and landscapes.
So, just start educating the public now about these animals and start convincing government agencies, landowners and farmers that this is in fact the ONLY solution to repairing our landscape.
You must log in to post a comment.