Scottish Wild Land Group 40th Anniversary

This year is the 40^th anniversary of the Scottish Wild Land Group (SWLG), of which I have been an inactive member for many years (I should really do something about that). The group has just published the 100^th issue of its excellent journal Wild Land News, which is always worth reading. Its free to members or £1 where sold (Tiso’s shops amongst other outlets).

This issue contains the background and main findings of a new and important report – The State of Wild Land in the Scottish Highlands – that’s been prepared for the Scottish Wild Land Group in association with the Scottish Mountaineering Trust and the Cairngorms Campaign.

The full report can be downloaded from the News page on the SWLG website, where it was published in February. There is much detail and many visuals in the 140 pages, and I haven’t finished taking it all in yet. Suffice to say that this is a sobering analysis that shows that wild land is being steadily diminished.

The SWLG is Scotland’s oldest and only volunteer-run wild land charity. That it’s still going after forty years deserves praise and is also sad. Such a group shouldn’t be needed. Let’s hope it isn’t for too much longer.