REACHING FOR THE FUTURE
CONTENT SPONSORED BY CRAGHOPPERS
SILENCE FEELS DIFFERENT when you are in the Caledonian pine forest. It is loaded with expectation. Will the quiet be broken by the call of a tawny owl, or the scurrying of a red squirrel? Will you be stopped in your tracks by a strutting capercaillie, or a pine marten as it dashes up a tree? Though you may not see the elusive residents of the woods around you, just knowing they are there enriches your experience. It adds a layer of wildness.
We may not like to admit it, but the vast majority of the UK, including the Scottish Highlands, has been squeezed dry of most of its nature. Centuries of intensive agriculture, forest clearance and urban development have put humans first almost everywhere. This is not just hyperbole. A WWF report in 2020 named the UK as one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth – 189th out of 218 countries. It is a hard pill to swallow.
When I think of places that give me hope, however, it is Glen Feshie in the Cairngorms that comes to mind. Here, a vision for a wilder kind of future is being tested – and it is working. I jumped at the chance when my brother Alex asked if we could visit Glen Feshie again. Like many people, the Coronavirus pandemic had robbed him of
