A Highland estate has recruited a new team of rangers as it begins a major rewilding project near Loch Ness.
The four-strong team will work on the 1,262-acre Bunloit Estate. It was bought last year by Jeremy Leggett, a solar energy entrepreneur and former scientific director at Greenpeace.
Senior ranger Scott Hendry will start this month, joining David Tulloch, Nicola Williamson and Daniel Holm.
Maggie English, a geography and politics student, also joins as a part-time research assistant.
Model in land management vision
The rangers will work on deer management, tree planting, forestry, biodiversity and carbon surveys, as well as estate maintenance.
The Bunloit Rewilding Project‘s vision is to create a model in land management, boosting biodiversity, carbon sequestration and job creation.
Scott worked as a countryside ranger in the Great Glen while studying part-time for a BSc in environmental science.
He is involved with the Scottish Badgers charity and the Highland Raptor Study Group.
Daniel, who has an MSc in conservation biology, has planted nearly one million native trees. He has worked on invasive species removal and has established a two-acre food forest.
David was self-employed for 10 years, managing deer in over 200,000 acres of the Highlands.
He said: “Rewilding for me brings a challenge, and that challenge is not for the faint hearted. If anything, it is that challenge that excites me about being part of this project, for the good and the bad.”
Nicola has an MSc in ecology and conservation and experience as a ranger and agricultural officer.
‘We can do things differently’
She added: “We are all suffering from ‘shifting baseline syndrome’, what we perceive as a healthy ecosystem is out of kilter with reality.
“Bunloit will not change the world. But the ethos, the holistic and wide-spreading scope of the project, hopes to show how economically we can do things differently. And environmentally we must.”
The estate wants to convert a rundown barn into a meeting place for rangers and visiting scientists.
The move attracted objections from Glen Urquhart Community Council and four local households.
They include concerns about increased traffic on the Bunloit Hill access road.
Mr Leggett said the impact of the barn conversion on traffic would be “minimal”.
It also wants to build a wood school which would create four jobs and 15-20 apprenticeships annually.