LISTEN TO THE COUNTRY FOLK ... WE KNOW OUR LAND BEST
As rural workers prepare to protest...
LAST week my young granddaughter was doing a school project about the Countryside Code. When the teacher asked, ‘Who knows what a stile is?’, she was the only one who put up a hand. Sadly, many children in Scotland are completely detached from the countryside that makes our nation so unique. Worse still, so are many of our politicians. This is why we feel we must make a stand in our online protest on Friday.
That those in power at Holyrood lack understanding of rural working life is not only depressing but deeply concerning. Matters such as deer management, fish farming, access abuse, species reintroduction and conservation and fox control affect our daily lives. But our voices are not listened to.
I live 1,000ft up a hill. The only month there is no ground frost is
July. I have lived all my life in the countryside, first in the West, then in Argyll, and now in the Borders. My father was a shepherd and the land was treated like a family home.
The countryside was my father’s passion and it passed to me. I worked in forestry then went into gamekeeping, which I still do 40 years later.
Some people must wonder why rural workers do what they do. There are times you can’t help wondering that yourself, when the taps are frozen in the kennels from November to April and the wind knocks you over as soon as you open the front door.
It certainly isn’t the money – I remember the pittance of agricultural wages when I was younger.
Rather, it is a way of life, a different perspective on living passed down by generations but, sadly, gradually being airbrushed from Scottish life.
I don’t understand city living. But I think people making major decisions about rural working life have a duty to walk a day in our shoes.
The narrative is that our communities need so-called ‘green jobs’ – more mountain biking, more access, more ‘clean air breaks’ at Airbnbs, more ‘nature solutions’.
That’s all well and good. But what about rural workers who for centuries have ensured the land is somewhere nice to visit for a weekend break?
Nature cannot just be only for Instagram photos.
Shepherds, gamekeepers, deer managers and fishing ghillies are not transient visitors. We are here, sending our children to the community schools, adding a voice to community councils in damp village halls.
Rural workers are the folk helping the fire service, the farmers coming to the rescue with a tractor to clear snowdrifts. Yet our opinions don’t seem to matter.
The Scottish Government looks set to extend deer control seasons, which were established to protect the animals’ welfare.
This will mean deer managers having to kill those carrying viable calves – which has very real mental health implications for these workers.
The Government pays lip service to treating deer as an iconic species but their agencies in forestry are shooting them all year round and at night. They are treated like a pest.
Yet, when it comes to the political issue of fox control, the situation is very different. We asked MSPs to see trained scenting dogs being used in fox control but only one turned up.
The Scottish Government then signalled a change to the law which will have negative implications for livestock at lambing time and will see more predation of conservation-listed wading birds by foxes – birds which the Scottish Government is using taxpayers’ money to save.
We see similar issues with ‘species reintroductions’. On rivers and on farms, beavers are causing major problems. The Government was heavily pressurised by environment NGOs to protect the rodents, even though the Tay beavers were illegally released. They buckled and pushed the problem onto land managers.
Hill farmers on Skye are also seeing stock predation by sea eagles which have a fine taste in lamb. Those farmers weren’t properly consulted.
High-profile conservation schemes are failing. The capercaillie is a case in point. In some of the last remaining woods, predator control has been abandoned and the capercaillie are dwindling. Taxpayer cash keeps getting paid and no new prescriptions are offered. The public deserve better.
Another key reason we are protesting concerns fish farms. Three years ago, two cross-party committees indicated that major changes were needed to better regulate fish farming.
We are not opposed to good fish farming operations but the Government has not kept its part of the bargain. Fish farms are endangering already declining salmon populations and this is threatening ghillie jobs.
Finally, more needs to be done to stop access abuse. The Government and its agencies are good at championing access but seem paralysed when it is abused and people damage habitats and property. Our members are getting legal predator control tools stolen or vandalised on a weekly basis but nothing is done.
The constant drive towards more access is driving rural folk demented. Dogs are allowed to rampage at breeding time, playing havoc with ground nesting birds and livestock.
The countryside is sold as a haven for a stress-free life – well, it doesn’t exactly make for stress-free life for the rural workforce.
I have given my days to rural working life. I believe in it. My wife and I have brought up a family within it.
I just want a better deal from the Government and a better understanding, so future generations can know the pleasures that I have had.
Those in power at Holyrood lack understanding of rural life