SCOTLAND'S gamekeepers have asked a controversial ecologist to produce a strategy for the nation's moorland, which they fear could be under threat from plans to grow more trees.
Dr James Fenton claims the country's uplands are increasingly being overlooked and that heather "is being written out of our natural heritage".
Now he is being commissioned - "as a matter of urgency" - by the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) to devise a strategy for the moors.
In a message to members asking for money to pay for the new report, the SGA has said: "Whether your interest is in deer, grouse, wild birdlife, forestry or the conservation of natural and semi-natural vegetation, the SGA is seeking support in the way of donations to fund the production of the strategy."
Dr Fenton is former chief executive of the Falklands Conservation Team and a botanist for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and was for many years the National Trust for Scotland's ecologist.
Last year he argued a rhododendron "swarm" posed the country's biggest single ecological threat and called for the plants to be eradicated in the wild.
He also attacked the RSPB Scotland's plan to plant 100,000 trees in Speyside saying it could destroy the "Scottishness of our hills."
In the most recent article of the SGA's magazine The Scottish Gamekeeper, Dr Fenton writes that heather moors were previously seen as one of the country's main tourist attractions with postcards of purple heather, "often with a Scottie dog and/or Westie in the middle, surrounded by a tartan sash.
"In my youth it was common to see visitors returning back to England with a sprig of heather attached to the bonnet of their car, but this is a rare sight nowadays, if seen at all.
"It is as if moorland is slowly being made invisible, whether heather moors or the many other types of moor."
He argues that open moorland - grass moor, heather moor, wet heath, blanket peat - is the key habitat type of upland Scotland and action must be taken "to conserve the Scotland we love and cherish."
The Scottish Forestry Strategy has a target of 25% of Scotland under trees with 10,000 hectares planned of new planting a year.
But Dr Fenton said: "Moorland is the only realistic place where new trees can be planted. Forestry, of course, has its place but there is no Moorland Strategy to counter-balance the Forestry Strategy or guide new planting away from key areas of moorland. "
The SGA says it is not seeking to prepare a document with a 'no trees' policy but to frame a policy which recognises the 'special nature' of moorland.
The Scottish Government is currently drawing up a National Peatland Plan and a spokeswoman said moorlands were among the habitats protected through the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.
She added: "With Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and stakeholders, the Scottish Government has been developing a peatland plan which will be published shortly.
"This will set out the multiple benefits our peatlands provide and the importance of protecting them, good management and, where required, restoration. The National Peatland Plan places soil management in the context of other land uses."
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