Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

“Wildlife, tourism and education will suffer if rangers axed”

Post Thumbnail

Wildlife, education and tourism will suffer if Highland Council opts to axe its ranger service.

That is the dire warning from the Scottish Countryside Rangers Association (SCRA).

The body has contacted Highland Council’s convener and chief executive ahead of a budget meeting next month to try to persuade them to drop proposals to stop funding rangers.

It points out that the council’s rangers have delivered well-respected services at the Highland’s most popular sites for more than 40 years, as part of Scotland’s internationally-admired network of rangers.

At its height, Highland Council had 30 ranger posts and this has already dwindled to 12 due to cuts.

Highland Council Rangers work at hotspots such as Glen Nevis, the Great Glen and West Highland Ways, as well as beaches along the newly-promoted NC500 route through Assynt, the north coast and Caithness.

John Mayhew, SCRA President, said: “Without rangers there would be no-one at these special places to welcome and advise visitors and provide interpretation.

“Many schools in the Highland Council area would not be able to call on the rangers’ local knowledge and skills in leading groups of young people outdoors to complement the teachers’ role in outdoor learning which is a requirement of the Curriculum for Excellence

“Rangers would no longer monitor wildlife as part of the council’s biodiversity obligations, which is an important task. For example, it was the local ranger who spotted the invasive American signal crayfish at Ballachulish Quarry, preventing it becoming more widespread and expensive to eradicate.”

Ramblers Scotland has also written to Highland Council to express its concern that stopping funding Rangers would have “significant negative impacts for Highland residents and visitors”.

Highland Council has slashed £135million of its spending since 2011. Last month local authority chiefs revealed plans to axe a further £24million in the coming year, including more than 120 job losses in departments such as street cleaning, grass cutting, the employability team and ranger service.

A spokeswoman for Highland Council said: “Proposals for budget savings will be put to Highland Council on February 16. No decisions will be made until that time.”