condi ons are best met with in our mountainous areas, areas much valued for their wild and remote nature in the same way that John Muir venerated Yosemite. So which is more important: keeping wildness in our
mountains, or mi ga ng global warming? Interes ngly a report published in WWF’s Arc c Bulle n a few years ago concluded that the main legacy of the Alaska oil industry would be the infrastructure le behind once the oil had all gone, such as
Top photograph: A recent small‐scale run‐of‐river hydro‐scheme up Glen Buidhe (above Loch Creran) on a route up the Munro Beinn Sgulaird. Bo om le : A new dam on a previously wild loch within the Wester Ross Na onal Scenic Area.
Bo om right: A new track already showing significant erosion. The construc on style of this track can only be described as ‘shoddy’. All hydro schemes necessitate access tracks. In Scotland’s wet climate, these are likely to erode unless extremely well built, with con nual clearance of cross‐drains and pipes (something that rarely happens in my experience). Wild
Land
News,
Autumn
2016
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