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(tense foreboding music)
(air whooshing)

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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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(crow cawing)

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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(gun clanking)

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(crow cawing)

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(helicopter blades whirring)

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(deer bellowing)

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(crow cawing)

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- [Rory Kennedy] I've seen
pretty unethical practices

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about mass culling of deer

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that I think would turn
most people's stomachs,

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not just sportsmen.

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[Peter Fraser] They actually had seen

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a helicopter moving deer and
they kinda shoot an arena.

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There would've been at
least a dozen to 15 rifles.

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- [Dr. James Fenton] So
if we don't manage them,

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their numbers will grow.

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They'll track the habitat,

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and then they'll die miserable deaths.

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- [Peter Fraser] There must
have been about five, 600 deer

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in the circle, and it really was cruel.

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You could see the steam
coming off this deer.

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They were just utterly
stressed out to their mind.

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[Rory Kennedy] There's certainly been

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the use of helicopters to round up deer

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and effectively get 'em
into large segregations,

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where there's been multiple
shooters firing into the herds.

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The deer have been left to rot and sit

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and certainly grates
with the sporting ethics.

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- [David Balharry] The
human effort required

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to drag or carry stags out,

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or even the practicalities of using ponies

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to take them out in these situations

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is such that the carbon cost
associated with economic cost

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is so high.

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And then, you have to weigh that up

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against the biodiversity benefits

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from leaving carcasses on the hill.

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- [Peter Fraser] And of
course, there was a mass panic.

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It was a complete disgrace.

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It's just a case of killing deer.

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It's not management of deer, no.

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It's just killing deer.

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The roar of the stags in
the highland is now gone.

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(dramatic music)

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(birds chirping)
(waves crashing)

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So, this castle in Scotland is famous

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for holding out against
Oliver Cromwell's invasion

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after he chopped off the head of Charles I

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and we had crowned Charles II at Scone.

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- I'm here to explore the
plight of the rural folks

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that live in the Highlands

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and their relationship with wildlife.

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How does history affect
today's modern land use issues?

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Scholar's relationship with the lands

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encapsulated in that story.

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You've got conflict.

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You've got the relationship
between those and power

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and those in lowly position.

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You've got survival, greed,

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who owns resources and how
to protect what's yours.

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Picts settled along these outcrops,

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tribal peoples who lived with the land.

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The history and mythology
of the stone of destiny

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are all wrapped up in
the biblical struggle

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between Jacob and Esau.

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The conflict between hunter
gatherers working with the land

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and farmers controlling and managing it.

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And then when landless
vikings came looking for land,

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the Picts and Scots came together

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to forge what we call Scotland.

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Not long after that,

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Norman's crossed English channel.

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More second sons seeking
estates for themselves.

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And David I of Scotland brought them

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in feudal land tenure with them.

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The king owned the land and
the game that honed on it.

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A forest wasn't a place of trees.

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It was a royal hunting grounds.

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And he divided it amongst his nobility

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and that division between high
and low became starker still.

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But in the Highland, these tribal groups

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developed the clans who
belonged to the land.

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To them, they were clan lands.

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And so, the chief was
a steward of the lands.

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And so, you had like common
grazings and summer shillings

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and of course, you had
cattle raids and clan feuds

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when resources were scarce, yeah.

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And the Culloden changed all that.

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Culloden was where 10 groups
attached to the land ended.

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It wasn't just a battle
that was lost that day,

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but lifestyle.

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New landowners were brought in.

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Existing chiefs changed
from stewards who managed

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to landlords who rented the land.

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When this sort of sheep
is more profitable,

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the human tenants were displaced, cleared,

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and shipped across the Americas.

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And the connection between
people and land was broken.

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See, there's always been
tension for resources

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in these islands.

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Even to this day, the
English are always going,

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"Yeah, we subsidize you

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and we needed that money
for our own hospitals."

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And of course, the Scots was going,

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"Yeah, well you took our oil

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and we needed that for cooking chips."

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You know?

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It was just.

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(lively music)
(air whooshing)

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Walter Scott popularized highland culture.

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And Queen Victoria came
north, fell in love,

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and bought Balmoral over the hills there.

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The Victorian era brought trains

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and estates became a playground for toffs

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to come hunting, shooting, and fishing,

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reinforcing that separation

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between the people who owned the land

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and those who had belonged to.

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Much of our coastal and lowland areas

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were stripped to trees by humans.

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Based in secondhand Roman
chroniclers, popular history

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established a narrative of
the great forest of Culloden

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spanning the land.

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There's been a movement to rewild the land

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with age old trees, plants, and animals.

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While Scots now have the
right to roam the land,

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there is a group who feel targeted.

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The keepers, stalkers, and gillies,

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working for the landed gentry,

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whose relationship with the
land spans almost two centuries.

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They feel like they're in
the government's crosshairs.

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It's a way of life that may disappear.

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(dramatic music)

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- [Tom Opre] Scotland,
known for its rolling hills.

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It's glens. It's heather.

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But for many, the reality
is very different.

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Greenock on the river Clyde
was once a bustling port,

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handling tobacco, sugar,
rum from a global empire.

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In the Industrial
Revolution, this town rattled

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with the sound of some of the
world's first steam engines

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driving factories and mills.

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And back then, Clyde built

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was a mark of shipbuilding excellence.

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The highlands were being depopulated

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as the Scottish central
belt, factories, and mills

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soaked up the displaced,
often in poor housing

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and cramped conditions.

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And to this day, 70% of Scots

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live in this narrow and
industrialized central ban

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long after the shipyards
and mills fell silent.

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And this Central Belt dominates politics

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with Scotland's parliament
and affluent Edinburgh

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having autonomous control of domestic law.

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From highland life, these people

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are generations removed, a world away.

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But in Scotland, the difference

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is often just a matter of perception.

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Scotland today is in the midst
of a battle over land use.

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On one side are the so-called
conservation groups,

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politicians, and climate activists.

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On the other are landowners
and the rural communities

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impacted by the policy decisions.

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At the crux of the conflict
are sporting estates,

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which generate income that
fuels the rural economy

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through the recreational hunting of deer,

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grouse, and pheasants.

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- So we have a government
now, a Scottish government,

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that two ambitions.

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One is a breakup the union.

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The other is a breakup
of a sport in states.

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And they're making life so
unbearable and unmanageable,

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unworkable, that it's very
difficult to do our job

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the way it should be done.

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We are managing these areas of habitat

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for the benefit of very, very few people.

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They'll conveniently overlook

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the very large amounts of money

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that those very, very
few people will pay to do

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what they wanna do, what they hope to do,

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and aspire to do on those
bits of ground, which in turn,

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generates all sorts of
socio and economic factors.

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They just look at the downside,

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which is we're smashing things
up, we're suppressing it,

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we're doing bad stuff,
and we should be stopped.

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- We are in the midst of a
bit of a biodiversity crisis,

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a nature crisis.

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We are a country that
is traditionally thought

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to be rich in nature,

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but actually many of
our wildlife populations

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are suffering.

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We're also a very deforested country,

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quite a degraded country,
industrial agriculture,

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industrial forestry.

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- The habitat that you see
around here, the landscape,

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the animals that inhabit it,
and the way it's laid out

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is all the consequences of human choices.

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All the shepherds that came
to live in the Highlands

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came because the sheep were here.

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All the gamekeepers, and
gillies, and stalkers

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that were here to show
benefit to sportsmen

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from grouse, and salmon,
and deer came here

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and lived in the houses
that were built for them

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to support that activity and that habitat.

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The big challenge really

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is to manage our wildlife resources,

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our wider habitat resource
in a sustainable way

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and resolve many of the
big conflicts there are

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over how that management takes place

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and who makes the decisions.

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Trying to find middle ground in there

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and a workable solution

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is definitely problematic at times.

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The wildlife side of things,

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the actual sort of
wildlife conservation then

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can get completely lost
in the people politics.

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(bright music)

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One keeper is Alex Jenkins,

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who at age 38 is working his dream job

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at Edinglassie estate in Straton.

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- My job is to look
after the running estate.

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We're primarily a sporting
estate, a driven grouse moor.

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I manage the deer as well.

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I oversee a lot of the
grazing aspect to the estate,

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conduct all the muirburn,

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look after the roads, infrastructure,

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property side of things,

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and a bit forestry work as well.

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We also do a lot of conservation work

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on the in by ground for waders.

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We plant species rich grassland.

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Red grouse is one of our
indigenous grouse species.

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My whole year revolves

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around trying to hopefully
produce a surplus stock

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that we can take.

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When numbers are very low, we don't shoot.

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It's not in our interest to shoot.

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We count our grouse
twice a year every year

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and have done decades now,
if not a hundred years.

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Generally sitting over a hundred grouse

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to the kilometer square.

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And that's gonna allow me

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for a very moderate
shooting program this year.

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But we know from generations of experience

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when we can afford to
shoot and when we can't.

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It can be a hugely rewarding
way of life being a keeper.

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We're very fortunate

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that we get to work up
in these environments.

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- The majority of the
people that live here

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and their families have
been here for generations,

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very supportive and understanding.

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You feel like you belong.

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You don't feel like an outsider.

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(bright music)

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- I'm the last traditional
employed gamekeeper

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on an estate left on the Isle of Skye now.

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Skye used to have a
rich sporting tradition,

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with private estates
employing gatekeepers.

260
00:11:11,700 --> 00:11:13,660
Having gamekeepers on this estate

261
00:11:14,790 --> 00:11:17,910
means that not only is it
employment for local people,

262
00:11:17,910 --> 00:11:22,260
but the added a benefit to
the environment, to crafting,

263
00:11:22,260 --> 00:11:24,900
to farming communities is massive.

264
00:11:24,900 --> 00:11:27,690
I was born and raised and
brought up on a housing estate

265
00:11:27,690 --> 00:11:29,490
in the middle of a town city.

266
00:11:29,490 --> 00:11:30,323
So, I haven't got

267
00:11:30,323 --> 00:11:32,370
that kind of background with
gamekeepers in the family,

268
00:11:32,370 --> 00:11:34,290
but it's something that I've wanted to do.

269
00:11:34,290 --> 00:11:35,820
I always wanted to have that feeling.

270
00:11:35,820 --> 00:11:38,401
I needed to be out out on the hill.

271
00:11:38,401 --> 00:11:40,110
And I've been doing it now

272
00:11:40,110 --> 00:11:44,700
for just over 30 years
in a gamekeeper role.

273
00:11:44,700 --> 00:11:46,470
I think the most difficult part

274
00:11:46,470 --> 00:11:48,420
about being a wife to a gamekeeper

275
00:11:48,420 --> 00:11:51,390
is understanding what
they're going through I think

276
00:11:51,390 --> 00:11:53,460
because there's a lot of pressure.

277
00:11:53,460 --> 00:11:55,650
Not just Scott, but other gamekeepers

278
00:11:55,650 --> 00:11:57,600
may not want to tell their partners

279
00:11:57,600 --> 00:11:58,680
because of worrying them.

280
00:11:58,680 --> 00:11:59,513
So, there's always

281
00:11:59,513 --> 00:12:00,660
- that.
- Bobbie.

282
00:12:00,660 --> 00:12:01,969
There's always that sort of thought,

283
00:12:01,969 --> 00:12:03,560
you know, "Is he all right?"

284
00:12:03,560 --> 00:12:05,300
'Cause he spends a lot of
time on his own, you know?

285
00:12:05,300 --> 00:12:07,980
He is out on the hill on his
own, doing the deer count,

286
00:12:07,980 --> 00:12:10,800
doing the deer call, and
it must get quite lonely.

287
00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:14,310
So, I do worry about that side of things.

288
00:12:14,310 --> 00:12:18,450
- It is really hard to live
as a gamekeeper's wife.

289
00:12:18,450 --> 00:12:19,680
I'm warm.

290
00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:20,820
I know.

291
00:12:20,820 --> 00:12:24,240
I know that there are nights
when they don't come home

292
00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:26,760
for long time.

293
00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:31,410
I know that I'm bringing
up a family without them.

294
00:12:31,410 --> 00:12:33,210
They don't go to the schools.

295
00:12:33,210 --> 00:12:36,570
They don't get chance to go to the events

296
00:12:36,570 --> 00:12:39,180
that as the children are growing up.

297
00:12:39,180 --> 00:12:40,939
And so it is really, really hard.

298
00:12:40,939 --> 00:12:43,856
(mysterious music)

299
00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:48,060
At its core, this controversy

300
00:12:48,060 --> 00:12:49,890
is a clash of ideologies.

301
00:12:49,890 --> 00:12:53,580
A class warfare centered on
how we should manage the land.

302
00:12:53,580 --> 00:12:56,730
On one side, there's a commitment
to wildlife conservation

303
00:12:56,730 --> 00:12:59,880
for both financial gain
and cultural preservation.

304
00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:02,070
On the other, the rewilding movement

305
00:13:02,070 --> 00:13:04,860
advocates for letting
nature be truly wild,

306
00:13:04,860 --> 00:13:06,750
free from human management.

307
00:13:06,750 --> 00:13:10,470
The epicenter of this clash,
grouse moors and red deer.

308
00:13:10,470 --> 00:13:12,660
Grouse moors often are misunderstood,

309
00:13:12,660 --> 00:13:16,020
but they're a vital ecosystem
supporting endangered species.

310
00:13:16,020 --> 00:13:19,260
Although historical evidence
challenges this claim,

311
00:13:19,260 --> 00:13:22,110
red deer accused of causing deforestation,

312
00:13:22,110 --> 00:13:23,820
has become a focal point.

313
00:13:23,820 --> 00:13:26,640
It's a battle between
carefully woven tapestries

314
00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:29,460
and the allure of leaving
nature's canvas untouched

315
00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:31,200
by human hands.

316
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,120
For me, rewilding is anything

317
00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:35,340
that counteracts more dewilding.

318
00:13:35,340 --> 00:13:38,250
Anything that joins up
and enriches habitats

319
00:13:38,250 --> 00:13:40,890
rather than further
fragment and degrade them.

320
00:13:40,890 --> 00:13:42,510
Anything that results in more nature

321
00:13:42,510 --> 00:13:44,400
and not less nature.

322
00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:46,740
- It is a fact that we
have lost certain species

323
00:13:46,740 --> 00:13:49,920
from our country over decades, centuries.

324
00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:51,900
It's also a fact that everything existed

325
00:13:51,900 --> 00:13:52,980
before we were around

326
00:13:52,980 --> 00:13:55,632
in a rather better way than it does now.

327
00:13:55,632 --> 00:13:57,660
It's not our prerogative to say

328
00:13:57,660 --> 00:13:59,460
whether trees will grow there or not.

329
00:13:59,460 --> 00:14:01,320
We just want to create
the right environment

330
00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:03,180
if the trees want to grow.

331
00:14:03,180 --> 00:14:04,980
But when things start getting gritty,

332
00:14:04,980 --> 00:14:06,780
and granular, and confused,

333
00:14:06,780 --> 00:14:08,580
and we don't have a lot
of the data we need,

334
00:14:08,580 --> 00:14:11,700
it's very easy just to
be overruled by the tree.

335
00:14:11,700 --> 00:14:13,080
I mean, the trees look great.

336
00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:15,150
We kind of have this sort
of innate association

337
00:14:15,150 --> 00:14:17,520
that there should be trees
because we love trees,

338
00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:20,550
because they're sort of
built into our understanding

339
00:14:20,550 --> 00:14:22,590
of what nature and wildlife should be.

340
00:14:22,590 --> 00:14:24,960
It's not as simple as just
the more trees we have,

341
00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:25,800
the better we're gonna do,

342
00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:27,600
the better things are gonna be for us.

343
00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:29,790
People blame the introduction of sheep

344
00:14:29,790 --> 00:14:31,380
for getting rid of the trees.

345
00:14:31,380 --> 00:14:32,700
But the sheep weren't introduced

346
00:14:32,700 --> 00:14:35,760
till during the Highland
Clearances after 1750.

347
00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:38,610
And woodland was only
about 45% of the landscape

348
00:14:38,610 --> 00:14:39,443
before sheep came along there.

349
00:14:39,443 --> 00:14:44,443
There's a famous Scottish
geologist way back in 1866,

350
00:14:44,490 --> 00:14:45,840
James Geikie.

351
00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:47,430
And he concluded then that the woodlands

352
00:14:47,430 --> 00:14:48,802
had died out naturally.

353
00:14:48,802 --> 00:14:51,630
And all the evidence looking
at tree remains in peat.

354
00:14:51,630 --> 00:14:54,690
And the (indistinct)
evidence shows that woodland

355
00:14:54,690 --> 00:14:58,380
has been declining for the
last four to 5,000 years

356
00:14:58,380 --> 00:15:00,630
or 7,000 years in some places.

357
00:15:00,630 --> 00:15:03,870
The rewilding word is incredibly loaded

358
00:15:03,870 --> 00:15:08,304
with lots of connotations,
whether justified or not.

359
00:15:08,304 --> 00:15:11,910
But one of the connotations
might be that in some way

360
00:15:11,910 --> 00:15:13,740
the rewilding word is anti-people,

361
00:15:13,740 --> 00:15:16,200
anti-community, anti something.

362
00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:19,838
We are more than capable of
looking after our natural assets

363
00:15:19,838 --> 00:15:21,990
and having vibrant communities

364
00:15:21,990 --> 00:15:24,060
living in amongst those areas.

365
00:15:24,060 --> 00:15:26,520
Without this I idea
that it's one or other.

366
00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:28,440
At the moment, it's one that,

367
00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:31,230
it's a word that I find
unhelpful in terms of the debate

368
00:15:31,230 --> 00:15:32,700
because it's polarized.

369
00:15:32,700 --> 00:15:35,910
- I would prefer we talk
about ecological restoration,

370
00:15:35,910 --> 00:15:39,660
or nature restoration, or
even peatland recovery.

371
00:15:39,660 --> 00:15:40,500
That's what I want to see.

372
00:15:40,500 --> 00:15:43,200
I want to see our wetlands, our peatlands,

373
00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:46,230
our forests, our rivers
restore to ecological health.

374
00:15:46,230 --> 00:15:49,950
But if you choose to
label it rewilding, okay,

375
00:15:49,950 --> 00:15:53,490
you immediately enter a
whole series of debates,

376
00:15:53,490 --> 00:15:56,670
like was this wild at land
wild in the first place,

377
00:15:56,670 --> 00:15:59,160
'cause you're implying it was, right?

378
00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:01,710
And excuse me, my ancestors lived here.

379
00:16:01,710 --> 00:16:05,670
You know, this is a degraded
environmentally habitat,

380
00:16:05,670 --> 00:16:07,740
but it's also a depopulated environment.

381
00:16:07,740 --> 00:16:08,573
Are you actually saying

382
00:16:08,573 --> 00:16:10,590
we should all live in a nature reserve?

383
00:16:10,590 --> 00:16:12,807
So, those were the kind
of responses to that.

384
00:16:12,807 --> 00:16:16,260
And in my view, it's set
up a fairly unhelpful

385
00:16:16,260 --> 00:16:19,473
and unproductive debate,
which needn't have been.

386
00:16:20,340 --> 00:16:22,227
There's a big difference between trees

387
00:16:22,227 --> 00:16:24,210
and a woodland ecosystem.

388
00:16:24,210 --> 00:16:26,460
Our tree cover is something like 18%.

389
00:16:26,460 --> 00:16:28,890
The average across Europe is about 37%.

390
00:16:28,890 --> 00:16:30,390
So, trees plays a part in it,

391
00:16:30,390 --> 00:16:33,900
but as does heather, blaeberry, wood ants,

392
00:16:33,900 --> 00:16:36,570
badgers, otters, all of these species

393
00:16:36,570 --> 00:16:38,820
are components in a system.

394
00:16:38,820 --> 00:16:42,120
And it's the system, it's the
functionality of the system

395
00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:45,120
that we as rewilders want to improve.

396
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:48,358
- It's been known for a long
time that you get an ice age,

397
00:16:48,358 --> 00:16:51,150
then you get the climate changes
warms up after an ice age,

398
00:16:51,150 --> 00:16:53,850
and then plants colonize.

399
00:16:53,850 --> 00:16:55,050
The soils are quite rich

400
00:16:55,050 --> 00:16:58,380
from more than glacial mixing of the soil.

401
00:16:58,380 --> 00:17:01,530
And woodland expands

402
00:17:01,530 --> 00:17:04,470
and that's what's called
the mesocratic phase.

403
00:17:04,470 --> 00:17:06,000
But in this part of all, it rains,

404
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:07,860
and it rains, and it rains.

405
00:17:07,860 --> 00:17:09,900
And after 10,000 years of rain,

406
00:17:09,900 --> 00:17:12,840
the nutrients get leached out of the soil.

407
00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:17,160
It becomes too acidic for
earthworms, so you get podzols.

408
00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:18,630
You often get an iron pan,

409
00:17:18,630 --> 00:17:20,880
a solid layer of iron
precipitating out in the soil,

410
00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:22,650
which is impenetrable.

411
00:17:22,650 --> 00:17:25,380
So in fact, the soil deteriorates

412
00:17:25,380 --> 00:17:26,860
and the climate may deteriorate

413
00:17:26,860 --> 00:17:29,400
after the middle phase of an interglacial,

414
00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:32,610
you get the mesocratic phase,
then the oligocratic phase.

415
00:17:32,610 --> 00:17:35,639
And that means that the
woodland declines naturally

416
00:17:35,639 --> 00:17:39,330
and you get more acid moorland
and heathland and peat bog.

417
00:17:39,330 --> 00:17:43,530
So at this stage, we about
10,000 years after interglacial,

418
00:17:43,530 --> 00:17:45,030
you expect woodland have declined

419
00:17:45,030 --> 00:17:46,860
and moorland to become dominant.

420
00:17:46,860 --> 00:17:49,760
And that for an open landscape
with (indistinct) woodland

421
00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:52,470
is a natural feature you'd expect.

422
00:17:52,470 --> 00:17:54,960
But every time you plant trees

423
00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,060
on Scottish upland vegetation,

424
00:17:57,060 --> 00:17:58,740
you're resulting a loss of biodiversity

425
00:17:58,740 --> 00:18:00,960
'cause you're reducing the area

426
00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:03,600
of natural habitat in Scotland.

427
00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:05,460
So, you can't plant trees really,

428
00:18:05,460 --> 00:18:09,210
or certain commercial trees
without losing biodiversity.

429
00:18:09,210 --> 00:18:10,830
So, and also the landscape.

430
00:18:10,830 --> 00:18:14,700
So not only damage in the
soils, dubious climate impact,

431
00:18:14,700 --> 00:18:17,340
you also change a natural landscape

432
00:18:17,340 --> 00:18:19,152
into an artificial landscape.

433
00:18:19,152 --> 00:18:21,690
And windthrow is a huge problem.

434
00:18:21,690 --> 00:18:24,090
A lot of the new native wooden
plantations been put up.

435
00:18:24,090 --> 00:18:24,923
will just blow over.

436
00:18:24,923 --> 00:18:27,090
A lot fo economic use for the trees.

437
00:18:27,090 --> 00:18:28,410
And in 50 or 60 years time,

438
00:18:28,410 --> 00:18:31,830
you end up with a huge lot
of wind blown plantations

439
00:18:31,830 --> 00:18:33,480
and no use to anybody,

440
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,640
having destroyed a natural open landscape

441
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:37,380
in the process of creating them.

442
00:18:37,380 --> 00:18:39,120
The trees are there just now.

443
00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:41,700
All we're saying is just
like the trees grow.

444
00:18:41,700 --> 00:18:43,380
So if you reduce the grazing pressure,

445
00:18:43,380 --> 00:18:45,030
we don't need to plant trees.

446
00:18:45,030 --> 00:18:47,100
This notion that the climate

447
00:18:47,100 --> 00:18:49,413
is such that trees don't
want to grow in Scotland,

448
00:18:49,413 --> 00:18:51,510
it's a construct that people

449
00:18:51,510 --> 00:18:53,397
are working quite hard to create.

450
00:18:53,397 --> 00:18:55,380
But the problem with the argument

451
00:18:55,380 --> 00:18:58,020
is that, well, what happens
if the trees are there

452
00:18:58,020 --> 00:18:58,860
and they just want to grow?

453
00:18:58,860 --> 00:18:59,820
Nobody's planting them.

454
00:18:59,820 --> 00:19:01,740
You're just reducing the
deer grazing pressure

455
00:19:01,740 --> 00:19:03,390
and the trees are starting to grow.

456
00:19:03,390 --> 00:19:04,350
What then?

457
00:19:04,350 --> 00:19:05,670
And is it not slightly unusual

458
00:19:05,670 --> 00:19:07,800
that Scotland is almost
unique across Europe

459
00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:09,810
and it doesn't have a natural tree life?

460
00:19:09,810 --> 00:19:11,490
That's not to do with
our climate or anything.

461
00:19:11,490 --> 00:19:13,823
That's just to do the
fact it's been overgrazed.

462
00:19:13,823 --> 00:19:16,406
(lively music)

463
00:19:17,610 --> 00:19:20,820
- Land reform is being debated
by the Scottish government.

464
00:19:20,820 --> 00:19:23,940
The arguments come down
to who owns the land

465
00:19:23,940 --> 00:19:27,840
and who has the right to
determine its best use.

466
00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:30,180
We had hardly heard of land reform.

467
00:19:30,180 --> 00:19:33,660
We had, but it seemed to be
something very, very distant,

468
00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:36,450
promoted by a very, very small minority.

469
00:19:36,450 --> 00:19:40,020
I would say their
motivation is neo-Marxist.

470
00:19:40,020 --> 00:19:42,450
I mean, they want to see the breaking up

471
00:19:42,450 --> 00:19:43,920
of large land holdings.

472
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,350
Scotland is a wild
country, a lot of mountain,

473
00:19:46,350 --> 00:19:49,890
a lot of moorland, and
you need large areas

474
00:19:49,890 --> 00:19:52,980
in order to be able to manage
them viably and efficiently.

475
00:19:52,980 --> 00:19:56,670
- Who pays to stop, or
prevent, or disincentivize

476
00:19:56,670 --> 00:19:58,800
the farmer from ripping up a forest

477
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,790
or, you know, filling in
an a peat bog or whatever?

478
00:20:02,790 --> 00:20:06,900
Those systems are benefiting
the whole of society

479
00:20:06,900 --> 00:20:09,600
and therefore, the whole of
society has to contribute

480
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:10,980
to the maintenance of those systems

481
00:20:10,980 --> 00:20:12,450
or the preservation of those systems.

482
00:20:12,450 --> 00:20:14,730
And that includes the business sector.

483
00:20:14,730 --> 00:20:17,040
And if we can get to a situation

484
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:21,390
where we have the private
sector fueling nature recovery,

485
00:20:21,390 --> 00:20:24,000
but what gets spat out at the other end

486
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:25,440
is community benefit.

487
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:26,520
And that might be money.

488
00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:27,390
It might be jobs.

489
00:20:27,390 --> 00:20:28,800
It might be recreational opportunities.

490
00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:30,690
It might be ecosystem services.

491
00:20:30,690 --> 00:20:34,170
If we can get that conveyor
belt flowing more freely,

492
00:20:34,170 --> 00:20:36,900
then I think we've gotta,
maybe not a perfect situation,

493
00:20:36,900 --> 00:20:40,170
but a situation that's
moving towards rewilding

494
00:20:40,170 --> 00:20:43,200
a nature recovery becoming an
economically viable land use.

495
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,320
We're not there yet, but that
is the direction of travel.

496
00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:47,970
So, I think the problem with rewilding

497
00:20:47,970 --> 00:20:49,590
is to put it in a nutshell,

498
00:20:49,590 --> 00:20:52,770
it embraces a lot of concepts

499
00:20:52,770 --> 00:20:56,010
which are problematic

500
00:20:56,010 --> 00:20:58,350
and come into conflict with each other.

501
00:20:58,350 --> 00:21:01,080
And some of the more
modern advocates of it

502
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:02,100
are people who are coming in,

503
00:21:02,100 --> 00:21:05,550
buying a lot of land
and restoring forests.

504
00:21:05,550 --> 00:21:08,879
But these people often
tend to be very wealthy

505
00:21:08,879 --> 00:21:11,610
and they immediately bring
with them the baggage

506
00:21:11,610 --> 00:21:13,950
associated with the whole
debate around land ownership,

507
00:21:13,950 --> 00:21:17,670
because they're buying large
areas of land to rewild.

508
00:21:17,670 --> 00:21:20,598
So again, that makes
this debate complicated

509
00:21:20,598 --> 00:21:25,470
because people who don't want
foreigners, or wealthy people,

510
00:21:25,470 --> 00:21:27,720
or people buying large areas of land,

511
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,510
find themselves critical of an endeavor,

512
00:21:30,510 --> 00:21:32,370
which in other terms

513
00:21:32,370 --> 00:21:34,410
were it to be done by other people maybe

514
00:21:34,410 --> 00:21:36,330
if it were to be done by themselves maybe

515
00:21:36,330 --> 00:21:38,898
would be regarded as quite positive.

516
00:21:38,898 --> 00:21:41,481
(lively music)

517
00:21:42,510 --> 00:21:43,800
Across the millennia,

518
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:45,510
the patterns of land use in Scotland

519
00:21:45,510 --> 00:21:48,150
have sculpted the tapestry
of the rural highlands.

520
00:21:48,150 --> 00:21:50,250
Today, a collective yearning exists

521
00:21:50,250 --> 00:21:52,830
to enhance Scotland's biodiversity,

522
00:21:52,830 --> 00:21:55,920
yet finding consensus on the precise goals

523
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:58,200
remains a formidable challenge.

524
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,920
It's a delicate dance
between preserving tradition

525
00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:04,920
and forging a sustainable future.

526
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,500
You see an effort to
target heather moorland

527
00:22:07,500 --> 00:22:09,360
and plant trees on it.

528
00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:10,193
And then, we look

529
00:22:10,193 --> 00:22:13,560
at marginal agricultural
lands at lower elevations,

530
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:16,590
where there's actual biodiversity loss.

531
00:22:16,590 --> 00:22:19,833
Why doesn't the rewilding
movement target these lands?

532
00:22:21,970 --> 00:22:26,070
- Again, I don't think
rewilding is targeting,

533
00:22:26,070 --> 00:22:29,370
as you put it, a given
habitat or a given land use.

534
00:22:29,370 --> 00:22:31,470
I think there are some extremes.

535
00:22:31,470 --> 00:22:33,447
You might argue that driven grouse moors

536
00:22:33,447 --> 00:22:38,250
are one such extreme, where
the intensity of the management

537
00:22:38,250 --> 00:22:41,310
in some cases is undoubtedly detrimental.

538
00:22:41,310 --> 00:22:42,600
Maybe not to red grouse,

539
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:44,130
but to a whole range of other species.

540
00:22:44,130 --> 00:22:47,790
And there's, you know, routine
calling of stokes, weasels,

541
00:22:47,790 --> 00:22:50,280
foxes, corvids on those estates.

542
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:52,590
One of the challenges in Scotland

543
00:22:52,590 --> 00:22:56,580
or in rural places really
across Europe is depopulation,

544
00:22:56,580 --> 00:22:59,550
especially young people
leaving rural areas

545
00:22:59,550 --> 00:23:00,930
to go and work in the city.

546
00:23:00,930 --> 00:23:02,550
It's completely understandable.

547
00:23:02,550 --> 00:23:05,130
We believe that rewilding
is not a silver bullet,

548
00:23:05,130 --> 00:23:07,890
but if we get it right, it
brings benefits for nature,

549
00:23:07,890 --> 00:23:09,600
it brings benefits for climate,

550
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:11,960
but crucially, it also
brings benefits for people.

551
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:14,520
(mellow music)
(water whooshing)

552
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,970
- If you have a look at the
biodiversity within these areas,

553
00:23:17,970 --> 00:23:20,130
they're often far greater
than anywhere else.

554
00:23:20,130 --> 00:23:23,520
And I dunno why people

555
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,520
don't seem to understand why that is.

556
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:29,220
And unfortunately, I think
it comes all the way down

557
00:23:29,220 --> 00:23:32,940
to this emotional aspect that
people just want to believe

558
00:23:32,940 --> 00:23:34,830
that yes, nature will just prevail.

559
00:23:34,830 --> 00:23:37,482
We don't need to do
anything. That's not the case

560
00:23:37,482 --> 00:23:40,065
(gentle music)

561
00:23:42,540 --> 00:23:45,420
- On sporting estates
specializing in grouse shooting,

562
00:23:45,420 --> 00:23:47,700
one of the critical
roles of the gamekeepers

563
00:23:47,700 --> 00:23:50,670
to manage the land in a way that maximizes

564
00:23:50,670 --> 00:23:54,750
the number of grouse available
each year for the hunt.

565
00:23:54,750 --> 00:23:57,843
The Glorious Twelfth is the
first day of grouse season.

566
00:23:58,860 --> 00:24:01,560
The sporting estates support
various rural businesses,

567
00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:04,860
including Pam Blackhall,
who has run Wm Blackhall,

568
00:24:04,860 --> 00:24:08,850
makers of fine kilts and
tailoring for three generations.

569
00:24:08,850 --> 00:24:10,878
You are wanting a new suit

570
00:24:10,878 --> 00:24:12,284
- or is it-
- Yes, please.

571
00:24:12,284 --> 00:24:13,617
I just...

572
00:24:13,617 --> 00:24:14,584
Just a pair of breaks.

573
00:24:14,584 --> 00:24:16,670
A pair of breaks this year, please, Pam.

574
00:24:16,670 --> 00:24:18,114
And I'm needing a new hat and I-

575
00:24:18,114 --> 00:24:18,947
[Pam Blackhall] Would you like a cap,

576
00:24:18,947 --> 00:24:19,780
- right?
- Yes, please.

577
00:24:19,780 --> 00:24:20,760
- [Pam Blackhall] Let
just take a note to that.

578
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:24,720
- A lot of the tweets are
designed for camouflage.

579
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,450
So, there's historically they
were supposed to blend in

580
00:24:27,450 --> 00:24:30,420
with the, you know,
the heather, the rocks.

581
00:24:30,420 --> 00:24:34,260
- The business has been
going for 101 years now,

582
00:24:34,260 --> 00:24:39,260
and I've been doing it myself since 1992.

583
00:24:39,420 --> 00:24:44,420
My father took over
from his father in 1966.

584
00:24:44,463 --> 00:24:49,380
And my grandfather started
the business in 1921.

585
00:24:49,380 --> 00:24:51,033
I probably have a pool

586
00:24:51,033 --> 00:24:55,680
of about 35 to 40 different estates

587
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:56,513
that I work for.

588
00:24:56,513 --> 00:24:57,900
(sewing machine wheezing)

589
00:24:57,900 --> 00:25:00,420
And normally in a year,

590
00:25:00,420 --> 00:25:04,020
I will do possibly up to about 28 states

591
00:25:04,020 --> 00:25:06,900
outta that 35.

592
00:25:06,900 --> 00:25:11,250
So, it's quite a lucrative
business to be honest,

593
00:25:11,250 --> 00:25:13,609
as long as everybody keeps going.

594
00:25:13,609 --> 00:25:16,020
(upbeat music)

595
00:25:16,020 --> 00:25:18,020
So the day starts for me pretty early.

596
00:25:19,020 --> 00:25:22,410
I think most head keepers
would be the same.

597
00:25:22,410 --> 00:25:25,109
You don't get much sleep the night before.

598
00:25:25,109 --> 00:25:25,942
(people chattering)

599
00:25:25,942 --> 00:25:26,775
Morning boys, how are you?

600
00:25:26,775 --> 00:25:27,608
- Good.
- Yeah.

601
00:25:27,608 --> 00:25:28,441
[Gamekeeper] So, how's the game?

602
00:25:28,441 --> 00:25:29,274
- Pete.
- Alex.

603
00:25:29,274 --> 00:25:30,840
- I look like him almost,
but yeah, how you doing?

604
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:31,673
[Gamekeeper] It's all good.

605
00:25:31,673 --> 00:25:33,556
[Alex Jenkins] Yeah, good, good. Baller.

606
00:25:33,556 --> 00:25:34,389
[Gamekeeper] Hi.

607
00:25:34,389 --> 00:25:35,222
[Alex Jenkins] Hi.

608
00:25:35,222 --> 00:25:36,055
What regiment are you boys?

609
00:25:36,055 --> 00:25:38,580
Eh (faintly speaking)

610
00:25:38,580 --> 00:25:39,630
Oh, a bit whole different.

611
00:25:39,630 --> 00:25:40,463
Yeah, yeah.

612
00:25:40,463 --> 00:25:41,370
Yeah, yeah. Cool.

613
00:25:41,370 --> 00:25:42,203
Done A bad being.

614
00:25:42,203 --> 00:25:43,036
Nice.

615
00:25:43,036 --> 00:25:43,869
Yeah.

616
00:25:43,869 --> 00:25:45,248
Seasoned beaters like half.

617
00:25:45,248 --> 00:25:46,200
[Gamekeeper] Nice.

618
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:47,940
[Alex Jenkins] Good stuff, guys.

619
00:25:47,940 --> 00:25:50,550
- At Edinglassie estate,
organizing a driven grouse shoot

620
00:25:50,550 --> 00:25:51,660
is no small feat.

621
00:25:51,660 --> 00:25:54,720
Alex oversees 30 beaters
driving wild red grouse

622
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:59,340
toward eight guns or hunters
stations and butts or blinds.

623
00:25:59,340 --> 00:26:01,380
The typical day involves six drives,

624
00:26:01,380 --> 00:26:02,520
and on a larger estate,

625
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:04,830
birds may be pushed in two directions

626
00:26:04,830 --> 00:26:06,930
during back-to-back drives.

627
00:26:06,930 --> 00:26:08,780
22 and a half old, 90 (indistinct).

628
00:26:09,864 --> 00:26:13,800
Okay, (faintly speaking).

629
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:16,860
- Alex and his beekeepers
meticulously sort the grouse

630
00:26:16,860 --> 00:26:18,420
after a day's work.

631
00:26:18,420 --> 00:26:20,850
The young birds find
their way to game dealers,

632
00:26:20,850 --> 00:26:22,980
distributing them to
restaurants and markets

633
00:26:22,980 --> 00:26:24,720
across the UK.

634
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,300
Each gun takes home a brace or two,

635
00:26:27,300 --> 00:26:29,970
while beaters and support
staff depart with a brace

636
00:26:29,970 --> 00:26:31,095
for their own tables.

637
00:26:31,095 --> 00:26:33,678
(gentle music)

638
00:26:35,070 --> 00:26:38,370
The famed Glorious Twelfth
marks the start of grouse season

639
00:26:38,370 --> 00:26:40,470
upholding a longstanding tradition

640
00:26:40,470 --> 00:26:43,560
of featuring this quarry
in the finest restaurants

641
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:45,099
across Scotland.

642
00:26:45,099 --> 00:26:46,500
The grouse to me is the holy grail.

643
00:26:46,500 --> 00:26:48,390
It's the holy grail of what we do here.

644
00:26:48,390 --> 00:26:49,920
It's heap in history.

645
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,800
It's something that we're
really proud to do here

646
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:53,700
in the restaurant.

647
00:26:53,700 --> 00:26:56,970
Every year, we celebrate
it, the Glorious Twelfth.

648
00:26:56,970 --> 00:26:58,560
People come from all over the world

649
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:00,210
to eat the grouse on the 12th,

650
00:27:00,210 --> 00:27:01,800
but we don't take it
for granted, you know?

651
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,500
The work that goes into, you know,

652
00:27:04,500 --> 00:27:06,360
keeping the grouse to shooting the grouse,

653
00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:09,210
to protecting the grouse, to
keeping the traditional alive,

654
00:27:09,210 --> 00:27:10,043
you know?

655
00:27:10,043 --> 00:27:11,850
So someone like Andy going to pick it up

656
00:27:11,850 --> 00:27:13,530
from the shoot, the goat, the gamekeepers

657
00:27:13,530 --> 00:27:16,080
looking after the grouse
through the tough times

658
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,770
from when the exit hatched to now.

659
00:27:19,770 --> 00:27:22,260
It's part of the journey
and it goes hand in hand

660
00:27:22,260 --> 00:27:25,560
with what we do here and our
philosophy of nature to plate.

661
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:27,240
The young birds of
which are really tender.

662
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:28,110
This is what we're after.

663
00:27:28,110 --> 00:27:28,980
This is the holy grail.

664
00:27:28,980 --> 00:27:31,080
This is when you eat it, it's like butter.

665
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:32,757
It's tender. It's absolutely delicious.

666
00:27:32,757 --> 00:27:35,490
(gentle music)

667
00:27:35,490 --> 00:27:37,320
Grouse moors on shooting estates

668
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:39,030
undergo intense management,

669
00:27:39,030 --> 00:27:41,610
a crucial responsibility
of the gamekeeper,

670
00:27:41,610 --> 00:27:44,400
sparking debates about the land's usage.

671
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:46,770
However, many argue that it's hard

672
00:27:46,770 --> 00:27:49,260
to justify using this land this way,

673
00:27:49,260 --> 00:27:52,050
but science tells us a different story.

674
00:27:52,050 --> 00:27:55,440
- Grouse moor management provides
the habitat for the grouse

675
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,300
and reduces the predation level

676
00:27:57,300 --> 00:28:00,510
and the disease risk for grouse.

677
00:28:00,510 --> 00:28:02,820
But that also means that other species

678
00:28:02,820 --> 00:28:05,790
that enjoy the same
habitats, such as the waders,

679
00:28:05,790 --> 00:28:09,300
like curlew, they're
having the same benefits.

680
00:28:09,300 --> 00:28:11,370
Well, we're gonna do a grouse count

681
00:28:11,370 --> 00:28:14,010
so that we can look at how many young

682
00:28:14,010 --> 00:28:16,110
and how many old grouse
there are on this bit.

683
00:28:16,110 --> 00:28:18,360
And it's a bit of ground
that we count every year.

684
00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:22,530
I walk along the transact and
the dog quarters in front.

685
00:28:22,530 --> 00:28:25,050
So, the dog will be hunting with the wind

686
00:28:25,050 --> 00:28:26,400
looking for grouse.

687
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,890
And whenever any grouse flush,

688
00:28:28,890 --> 00:28:32,730
we need to write down how
many old and how many young,

689
00:28:32,730 --> 00:28:35,460
because all the data I collect
obviously goes straight

690
00:28:35,460 --> 00:28:38,820
to the estates and they compare
it with previous counts.

691
00:28:38,820 --> 00:28:40,740
But from our point of view

692
00:28:40,740 --> 00:28:43,080
as the Game and Wildlife
Conservation Trust,

693
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:44,280
we're collecting this data,

694
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,740
so that we can look at long-term trends

695
00:28:46,740 --> 00:28:49,680
and compare the kind of management
that's done on the grouse

696
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,517
with, you know, what impact
it is on the grouse themselves

697
00:28:52,517 --> 00:28:55,593
and on other wildlife that
shares the same habitats.

698
00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:59,970
- If it's more about
less animals being shot,

699
00:28:59,970 --> 00:29:03,030
would you have a problem with grouse mores

700
00:29:03,030 --> 00:29:05,610
if they weren't so intensively managed?

701
00:29:05,610 --> 00:29:09,510
I mean, the purpose is not
to shoot large bag limits.

702
00:29:09,510 --> 00:29:12,210
So, I struggle still to get to

703
00:29:12,210 --> 00:29:15,600
is that there's any biodiversity benefit

704
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,430
from grouse moors of any sort.

705
00:29:17,430 --> 00:29:19,440
Large areas of land are being given award

706
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:21,120
for the management of a single species

707
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,670
for the very privileged few to benefit.

708
00:29:23,670 --> 00:29:26,340
- [Tom Opre] How do you justify
the loss of biodiversity

709
00:29:26,340 --> 00:29:29,880
if we don't intensively
manage these hill sites?

710
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,430
I struggle to get my head around

711
00:29:32,430 --> 00:29:34,680
even the basis of the argument.

712
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:35,903
It's what they're sort of saying

713
00:29:35,903 --> 00:29:39,543
is that we have offshoot
benefits from managing for grouse

714
00:29:39,543 --> 00:29:41,400
and we're gonna amplify those,

715
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,790
and then claim that somehow if
we didn't manage for grouse,

716
00:29:44,790 --> 00:29:46,706
those species wouldn't exist.

717
00:29:46,706 --> 00:29:49,263
And you think that's
difficult to understand

718
00:29:49,263 --> 00:29:51,060
that argument actually.

719
00:29:51,060 --> 00:29:53,430
If grouse shooting had never existed

720
00:29:53,430 --> 00:29:56,190
and in 2023 in a climate emergency,

721
00:29:56,190 --> 00:29:57,750
in a biodiversity emergency,

722
00:29:57,750 --> 00:30:00,990
somebody suggested it as
a sustainable land use

723
00:30:00,990 --> 00:30:03,900
for the future, it would be laughed at.

724
00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:05,700
It would be completely dismissed.

725
00:30:05,700 --> 00:30:09,210
And yet, here we have roughly 12, 15%

726
00:30:09,210 --> 00:30:11,010
of Scotland's entire land area

727
00:30:11,010 --> 00:30:13,050
devoted to driven grouse shooting.

728
00:30:13,050 --> 00:30:13,920
Driven grouse shooting

729
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,783
was not really a big
environmental problem as such.

730
00:30:17,783 --> 00:30:19,620
What it was a problem,

731
00:30:19,620 --> 00:30:24,206
however, was in the extent
to which they killed anything

732
00:30:24,206 --> 00:30:27,840
that predated on grouse and grouse chicks.

733
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,300
- [Tom Opre] The issue of
predator control on grouse moors

734
00:30:30,300 --> 00:30:32,190
is steeped in controversy.

735
00:30:32,190 --> 00:30:35,580
Historically, gamekeepers
and crofters were notorious

736
00:30:35,580 --> 00:30:37,860
for targeting various raptor species

737
00:30:37,860 --> 00:30:40,140
that threatened grouse and lambs.

738
00:30:40,140 --> 00:30:44,130
The killing of raptors was
outlawed in 1954 in Scotland

739
00:30:44,130 --> 00:30:46,200
through the Protection of Birds Act.

740
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:50,490
However, the actions of a few
rogue keepers who defy the law

741
00:30:50,490 --> 00:30:53,823
cast a shadow over the
reputation of all keepers.

742
00:30:54,810 --> 00:30:56,836
Gamekeepers have come to symbolize

743
00:30:56,836 --> 00:31:01,620
the injustice in land ownership
or the perceived injustice.

744
00:31:01,620 --> 00:31:04,920
There's links as well that we
can't avoid of raptor crime.

745
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:07,980
And in the past, gamekeeping
models in the country

746
00:31:07,980 --> 00:31:11,130
were responsible for killing a
lot of our predatory species,

747
00:31:11,130 --> 00:31:12,690
but I really think that's very detached

748
00:31:12,690 --> 00:31:14,520
from the model today.

749
00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:15,353
And I think we need to get over that.

750
00:31:15,353 --> 00:31:17,310
There's the historical vestige there

751
00:31:17,310 --> 00:31:19,830
that is really challenging
for wildlife management.

752
00:31:19,830 --> 00:31:23,656
- We know from a major study
published five years ago

753
00:31:23,656 --> 00:31:28,650
on satellite tagged eagles
was that applying an analysis

754
00:31:28,650 --> 00:31:33,450
of the fate of these eagles,
these birds were disappearing.

755
00:31:33,450 --> 00:31:34,283
That's all they were doing.

756
00:31:34,283 --> 00:31:38,340
They were disappearing at
far, far higher intensities

757
00:31:38,340 --> 00:31:40,530
on areas used for driven grouse moors.

758
00:31:40,530 --> 00:31:43,740
And that is all proven by data.

759
00:31:43,740 --> 00:31:46,050
And that proves that raptor persecution

760
00:31:46,050 --> 00:31:49,710
is still happening on driven grouse moors.

761
00:31:49,710 --> 00:31:51,063
It's just an nonsense.

762
00:31:52,500 --> 00:31:54,510
I mean, we've had harriers
breed and draft on

763
00:31:54,510 --> 00:31:55,343
in recent years.

764
00:31:55,343 --> 00:31:58,770
We've got in numerous buzzard nests.

765
00:31:58,770 --> 00:32:01,680
I mean, a lot of the
eagles that were taken

766
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,680
to repopulate Ireland, for example,

767
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:06,003
came from sporting estate.

768
00:32:06,990 --> 00:32:08,910
This was 20 years ago.

769
00:32:08,910 --> 00:32:11,700
We had enough surplus eagles to ship out

770
00:32:11,700 --> 00:32:13,740
to reintroduction programs,

771
00:32:13,740 --> 00:32:16,110
but they hunt on these moors for a reason.

772
00:32:16,110 --> 00:32:18,180
You know, there's plenty of prey.

773
00:32:18,180 --> 00:32:19,440
This is down to our management.

774
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,260
This is because we're
controlling the legal predators

775
00:32:22,260 --> 00:32:25,465
that we can, like the fox, stokes, crows.

776
00:32:25,465 --> 00:32:29,043
And that's why you see so
many raptors on grouse moors.

777
00:32:29,043 --> 00:32:32,610
- There's evidence on a regular
basis that is it going on.

778
00:32:32,610 --> 00:32:35,100
Is it going on all estates? No.

779
00:32:35,100 --> 00:32:38,340
Is it any more appropriate or moral

780
00:32:38,340 --> 00:32:41,610
to shoot stout or to shoot a golden eagle?

781
00:32:41,610 --> 00:32:43,639
Golden eagle is illegal to shoot

782
00:32:43,639 --> 00:32:46,980
and society rightly recoils in horror,

783
00:32:46,980 --> 00:32:49,987
but stouts are somehow dispensable.

784
00:32:49,987 --> 00:32:52,350
(gentle music)

785
00:32:52,350 --> 00:32:54,840
Traditionally, you know, birds of prey

786
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:56,010
was seen as competition.

787
00:32:56,010 --> 00:32:59,370
So particularly on grouse
moors back in Victorian times,

788
00:32:59,370 --> 00:33:01,410
any predator there that was
competition for the grouse

789
00:33:01,410 --> 00:33:02,610
was eliminated.

790
00:33:02,610 --> 00:33:04,590
You know, we know that
that's part of the history.

791
00:33:04,590 --> 00:33:06,270
A couple hundred years ago,

792
00:33:06,270 --> 00:33:08,580
numbers were, you know, much reduced

793
00:33:08,580 --> 00:33:10,950
due to mostly to human
influence persecution

794
00:33:10,950 --> 00:33:12,060
across Scotland.

795
00:33:12,060 --> 00:33:15,240
When legal protection came
in about 50, 60 years ago,

796
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:17,880
numbers have begun to increase
across most of Scotland,

797
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,250
but in the South we weren't
seeing that increase.

798
00:33:20,250 --> 00:33:22,860
There was a very small
isolated residual population

799
00:33:22,860 --> 00:33:25,830
of just three pairs, so six, seven birds

800
00:33:25,830 --> 00:33:28,050
and they weren't producing
enough young for the population

801
00:33:28,050 --> 00:33:29,280
to kind of increase on its own.

802
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:30,900
So, we decided to do a translocation

803
00:33:30,900 --> 00:33:34,140
to bring chicks from nest in
the Highlands and islands down

804
00:33:34,140 --> 00:33:35,100
into the south of Scotland,

805
00:33:35,100 --> 00:33:36,840
just to kind of boost that population.

806
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,360
We take a chick from a nest of twins,

807
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:40,890
taking one, leaving one behind.

808
00:33:40,890 --> 00:33:42,600
We actually work with a qualified vets,

809
00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:44,550
who comes with us to every nest.

810
00:33:44,550 --> 00:33:45,930
They'll do a health check on both birds

811
00:33:45,930 --> 00:33:47,130
and make sure that we are taking

812
00:33:47,130 --> 00:33:49,260
really strong healthy
chicks for translocation.

813
00:33:49,260 --> 00:33:50,490
They remain completely wild.

814
00:33:50,490 --> 00:33:52,200
We are feeding them from behind a screen.

815
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,270
So, we're giving them natural
food that they'd expect.

816
00:33:54,270 --> 00:33:56,820
Things like rabbits and
bits and bobs like that.

817
00:33:56,820 --> 00:33:58,200
And they stay in the Avery and they grow

818
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,210
until they're, you know,
would naturally fledge.

819
00:34:00,210 --> 00:34:02,100
So, they're full adult size.

820
00:34:02,100 --> 00:34:04,980
We have released 20
juvenile golden eagles.

821
00:34:04,980 --> 00:34:07,470
Some of the older birds are
now four, five years old.

822
00:34:07,470 --> 00:34:09,510
They are pairing up,
settling on territories.

823
00:34:09,510 --> 00:34:12,180
So, we're now looking at
probably five new territories,

824
00:34:12,180 --> 00:34:13,800
which is brilliant progress

825
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:15,630
in kinda five, six years that we've had.

826
00:34:15,630 --> 00:34:18,990
Out of the 20 or so birds
that we've translocated,

827
00:34:18,990 --> 00:34:21,960
I'd say 18 or 19 of
them have come from land

828
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:22,890
managed for shooting.

829
00:34:22,890 --> 00:34:25,140
So typically, grouse moors and stalking.

830
00:34:25,140 --> 00:34:26,910
We've not lost any birds to persecution.

831
00:34:26,910 --> 00:34:28,470
If you look at the tag
data from our eagles,

832
00:34:28,470 --> 00:34:29,640
they are spending a lot of time

833
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:30,930
in areas managed for shooting.

834
00:34:30,930 --> 00:34:33,660
I think without those areas,
we wouldn't have the prey base.

835
00:34:33,660 --> 00:34:35,820
We wouldn't have the available
habitat for golden eagle.

836
00:34:35,820 --> 00:34:37,760
So I think it's really, really
kind of key important part

837
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:39,150
to having them there.

838
00:34:39,150 --> 00:34:40,770
The issues that we have had

839
00:34:40,770 --> 00:34:42,300
have been unrelated to persecution.

840
00:34:42,300 --> 00:34:43,620
You know, we've even had tags fall off

841
00:34:43,620 --> 00:34:44,820
and found them on grouse moors.

842
00:34:44,820 --> 00:34:46,860
So, I think jumping to those conclusions

843
00:34:46,860 --> 00:34:49,320
that it's automatically
persecution, I think, is unhelpful.

844
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,210
The keeper support is really important.

845
00:34:51,210 --> 00:34:52,980
So yeah, they have that
incredible knowledge

846
00:34:52,980 --> 00:34:53,910
of their ground.

847
00:34:53,910 --> 00:34:55,620
They often know where
their eagles are nesting

848
00:34:55,620 --> 00:34:56,790
and how they're doing.

849
00:34:56,790 --> 00:34:58,290
And in terms of collection, you know,

850
00:34:58,290 --> 00:34:59,730
we really couldn't do it without keepers.

851
00:34:59,730 --> 00:35:02,070
They're helping to often take the team out

852
00:35:02,070 --> 00:35:04,290
to the nest in ATVs or four by fours,

853
00:35:04,290 --> 00:35:06,000
which helps us access very quickly

854
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,650
and get the chicks back
very quickly as well.

855
00:35:07,650 --> 00:35:09,540
Much of the food we're
getting for our young eagles

856
00:35:09,540 --> 00:35:10,620
is provided by keepers.

857
00:35:10,620 --> 00:35:12,720
So, we're getting foxes,
rabbits, squirrels,

858
00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:13,553
that kind of thing.

859
00:35:13,553 --> 00:35:14,386
And nearly all of that

860
00:35:14,386 --> 00:35:15,930
is coming from keepers
in the south of Scotland.

861
00:35:15,930 --> 00:35:17,806
So, the support has been
absolutely fantastic.

862
00:35:17,806 --> 00:35:19,890
And welcoming us, welcoming the eagles,

863
00:35:19,890 --> 00:35:22,680
you know, sharing
sightings, things like that.

864
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:24,300
You know, shooting estates welcoming us

865
00:35:24,300 --> 00:35:25,680
with, you know, with artificial areas,

866
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:26,760
like the one behind me,

867
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:28,470
I see that partnership
with shooting estates

868
00:35:28,470 --> 00:35:30,538
as one of the real
successes of this project.

869
00:35:30,538 --> 00:35:33,121
(mellow music)

870
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,300
Taking the life of a raptor in Scotland

871
00:35:36,300 --> 00:35:38,850
now carries severe consequences.

872
00:35:38,850 --> 00:35:41,820
An automatic prison
sentence and unlimited fines

873
00:35:41,820 --> 00:35:45,030
with both landowner and the
employee held accountable.

874
00:35:45,030 --> 00:35:48,750
The risk is palatable, making
it a choice few, if any,

875
00:35:48,750 --> 00:35:50,130
would consider.

876
00:35:50,130 --> 00:35:53,760
For gamekeepers managing
ground predators is integral

877
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:56,550
to the success of wild
red grouse populations

878
00:35:56,550 --> 00:35:59,430
and yields unintended positive effects

879
00:35:59,430 --> 00:36:02,280
on ground nesting waders and raptors.

880
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:04,890
However, government efforts to license

881
00:36:04,890 --> 00:36:07,890
and restrict specific
predator control methods

882
00:36:07,890 --> 00:36:11,370
presents challenges for keepers
in executing their duties.

883
00:36:11,370 --> 00:36:14,700
The control of foxes with
snares is deemed crucial.

884
00:36:14,700 --> 00:36:18,030
In 2023, the Scottish government
proposed a complete ban

885
00:36:18,030 --> 00:36:21,150
on their use, raising
concerns about how gamekeepers

886
00:36:21,150 --> 00:36:24,090
will continue to fulfill their roles.

887
00:36:24,090 --> 00:36:27,270
- So, I'm targeting
targeting the fox here.

888
00:36:27,270 --> 00:36:29,880
And so as the fox walk wanders down here,

889
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,820
it'll pick up and round the neck here

890
00:36:32,820 --> 00:36:34,710
and it's just a restraining device.

891
00:36:34,710 --> 00:36:36,120
It's not a killing device.

892
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:38,070
I have to check these every 24 hours,

893
00:36:38,070 --> 00:36:39,780
well within a 24 hour period.

894
00:36:39,780 --> 00:36:41,130
So every day.

895
00:36:41,130 --> 00:36:44,670
So if it's a non-target
species, a hare for example,

896
00:36:44,670 --> 00:36:46,620
I can just, I can let it go.

897
00:36:46,620 --> 00:36:51,270
These are pretty heavily
legislated in Scotland these days.

898
00:36:51,270 --> 00:36:52,920
They have to be set in a certain way,

899
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,050
designed in a certain way.

900
00:36:55,050 --> 00:36:59,250
I have to have my own unique
snaring number attached to it,

901
00:36:59,250 --> 00:37:01,590
so folk know that I've set these snares.

902
00:37:01,590 --> 00:37:03,720
Everybody that undertakes
snaring in Scotland now

903
00:37:03,720 --> 00:37:07,050
has to be trained and
we have to keep record.

904
00:37:07,050 --> 00:37:09,120
The detriment is to those species

905
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,720
that are literally eliminated
to allow red grouse

906
00:37:12,720 --> 00:37:15,540
to produce a harvest for the shooters.

907
00:37:15,540 --> 00:37:18,030
If you're a crow, or a fox,
or a stout, or a weasel,

908
00:37:18,030 --> 00:37:21,210
it's detrimental 'cause you
have your head blown off.

909
00:37:21,210 --> 00:37:24,090
- The studies we've
done have clearly shown

910
00:37:24,090 --> 00:37:27,180
that wader breeding
success is much greater

911
00:37:27,180 --> 00:37:29,040
when there's grouse moor management,

912
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:31,650
particularly the predator control aspect.

913
00:37:31,650 --> 00:37:35,010
So, the birds of here
are at higher densities

914
00:37:35,010 --> 00:37:36,270
when there's grouse moor management,

915
00:37:36,270 --> 00:37:38,370
as well as breeding much better,

916
00:37:38,370 --> 00:37:41,190
which means that populations
are likely to be robust enough

917
00:37:41,190 --> 00:37:44,500
to continue and hopefully
even increase into the future.

918
00:37:44,500 --> 00:37:46,320
(brooding music)

919
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:48,690
Gamekeepers employ a strategic approach

920
00:37:48,690 --> 00:37:50,340
to Heather moorland management

921
00:37:50,340 --> 00:37:53,520
utilizing low intensity
burning in small patches,

922
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:55,500
typically less than half an acre.

923
00:37:55,500 --> 00:37:58,920
This practice efficiently
clears old or overgrown heather,

924
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:02,160
fostering a mosaic pattern
of new growth buds.

925
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:03,930
From this rejuvenated growth,

926
00:38:03,930 --> 00:38:06,960
young grouse find a
vital primary food source

927
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:09,750
ensuring a sustainable ecosystem.

928
00:38:09,750 --> 00:38:12,780
- Once the heather gets
old and degenerate,

929
00:38:12,780 --> 00:38:15,720
it loses a lot of its feed value.

930
00:38:15,720 --> 00:38:17,820
So, we look to rotationally
burn it on a cycle.

931
00:38:17,820 --> 00:38:20,307
Now, that cycle's roughly
about 20 years up here

932
00:38:20,307 --> 00:38:22,800
and we take the surface
of the vegetation off

933
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:24,630
only just the heather.

934
00:38:24,630 --> 00:38:27,240
it leaves the understory
of the mosses, et cetera.

935
00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:30,483
Removing that old vegetation
results in new growth.

936
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:33,330
- [Tom Opre] One common
argument against muirburn

937
00:38:33,330 --> 00:38:36,360
is its impact on peat,
crucial carbon storage

938
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:37,950
deep in the heather moorland.

939
00:38:37,950 --> 00:38:41,610
However, my firsthand observation
challenges this notion.

940
00:38:41,610 --> 00:38:44,760
The mirror burn I witnessed
moves swiftly across the land,

941
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:46,950
leaving a chocolate bar buried in the soil

942
00:38:46,950 --> 00:38:49,140
beneath the heather untouched.

943
00:38:49,140 --> 00:38:52,080
The candy remained as fresh
as the day it was made

944
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:54,000
demonstrating the keepers precision

945
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:56,100
and targeting specific vegetation

946
00:38:56,100 --> 00:38:58,732
without compromising the
surrounding environment.

947
00:38:58,732 --> 00:39:01,290
(suspenseful music)

948
00:39:01,290 --> 00:39:03,510
- If you're trying to
conserve global biodiversity,

949
00:39:03,510 --> 00:39:06,750
the full range of plants,
animals on the planet

950
00:39:06,750 --> 00:39:09,480
need to conserve the
variety of natural habitats

951
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:10,770
across the world.

952
00:39:10,770 --> 00:39:12,453
And that means heather moorland.

953
00:39:12,453 --> 00:39:14,370
Heather moorland is an ancient landscape

954
00:39:14,370 --> 00:39:16,110
between a thousands of years old

955
00:39:16,110 --> 00:39:18,360
and burning doesn't stop it
being a heather moorland.

956
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:20,910
It just adds diversity of pattern to it.

957
00:39:20,910 --> 00:39:24,570
- Those landscapes is actually
what brings in huge amounts

958
00:39:24,570 --> 00:39:27,210
of tourists to Scotland in particular

959
00:39:27,210 --> 00:39:29,250
because of this unique
habitat that we have.

960
00:39:29,250 --> 00:39:31,860
And I think we do value it as a nation.

961
00:39:31,860 --> 00:39:34,980
And I think that's been forgotten
with this whole argument

962
00:39:34,980 --> 00:39:38,190
of planting the trees and it's more money

963
00:39:38,190 --> 00:39:42,234
and focusing on the carbon
sequestration side of things.

964
00:39:42,234 --> 00:39:45,234
(suspenseful music)

965
00:39:46,530 --> 00:39:47,850
I'm in Kinrara,

966
00:39:47,850 --> 00:39:50,730
an old grouse shooting
and stalking estate.

967
00:39:50,730 --> 00:39:53,520
It has been purchased by
a Scottish beer company

968
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:55,740
that wishes to be the first beer company

969
00:39:55,740 --> 00:39:57,600
to be carbon neutral.

970
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,690
Unfortunately, when you
talk to the scientist,

971
00:40:00,690 --> 00:40:04,680
what you see behind me not
only destroys what the UN says

972
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:06,780
is an ecosystem of concern,

973
00:40:06,780 --> 00:40:09,900
but also creates many other issues.

974
00:40:09,900 --> 00:40:12,420
- I mean, what we have at
the moment is this real rush

975
00:40:12,420 --> 00:40:14,760
into the whole carbon market,
carbon trading market.

976
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,929
And that we will risk losing
altogether a range of species,

977
00:40:17,929 --> 00:40:20,587
you know, in this sort
of carbon gold rush.

978
00:40:20,587 --> 00:40:22,050
(deer bellowing)

979
00:40:22,050 --> 00:40:22,920
There's another debate,

980
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:24,990
which is that we want to offset carbon.

981
00:40:24,990 --> 00:40:27,240
I've got a super tank of oil
on the way to New Zealand.

982
00:40:27,240 --> 00:40:28,890
I want to decarbonize it. How do I do it?

983
00:40:28,890 --> 00:40:31,230
Well, I plant some trees
in some other country

984
00:40:31,230 --> 00:40:32,910
and I sell the carbon credits for it.

985
00:40:32,910 --> 00:40:35,070
And then, I've decarbonized
and made money.

986
00:40:35,070 --> 00:40:37,020
We can't just go short term

987
00:40:37,020 --> 00:40:39,330
and say there's short term economic goals.

988
00:40:39,330 --> 00:40:41,220
That we need to meet our political goals

989
00:40:41,220 --> 00:40:43,010
that we're trying to get to and damage

990
00:40:43,010 --> 00:40:45,570
our very natural assets
that we've only got once.

991
00:40:45,570 --> 00:40:47,400
Once we've damaged them or destroyed them,

992
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:48,600
we don't get 'em back.

993
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:53,600
- Peatland is the greatest
sequestration vessel for carbon.

994
00:40:53,970 --> 00:40:57,010
And actually planting woodland
on peatland, deep peat,

995
00:40:57,010 --> 00:40:58,290
is counterproductive.

996
00:40:58,290 --> 00:41:01,110
It actually releases more
carbon than it sequesters.

997
00:41:01,110 --> 00:41:02,569
The big corporates will enter the market.

998
00:41:02,569 --> 00:41:05,490
They will buy their carbon
or create their carbon,

999
00:41:05,490 --> 00:41:08,280
and then exit the market again
quite quickly thereafter.

1000
00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:10,770
And what they'll leave
us with is uncertain.

1001
00:41:10,770 --> 00:41:14,100
- I think we should make it
illegal to sell carbon credits.

1002
00:41:14,100 --> 00:41:16,380
We should be restoring these ecosystems

1003
00:41:16,380 --> 00:41:18,210
because it's a good thing to do,

1004
00:41:18,210 --> 00:41:19,680
because it sequesters carbon,

1005
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:21,270
because it helps cool the planet,

1006
00:41:21,270 --> 00:41:24,173
and we shouldn't be getting
messed up at offsetting schemes.

1007
00:41:25,230 --> 00:41:26,063
[Tom Opre] I was invited

1008
00:41:26,063 --> 00:41:28,500
by wildlife photographer Neil McIntyre

1009
00:41:28,500 --> 00:41:31,530
and his son-in-law Ed
Jaundrel, a gamekeeper,

1010
00:41:31,530 --> 00:41:34,710
to see carbon sequestration
schemes in action.

1011
00:41:34,710 --> 00:41:38,220
Neil's brother was a second
generation keeper on Kinrara,

1012
00:41:38,220 --> 00:41:40,680
but when the estate was
purchased by the brewery,

1013
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:42,360
all the keepers were fired.

1014
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:45,303
What they showed me on the
old estate blew my mind.

1015
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,360
- Well, it was a, I
would say more than that,

1016
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:51,030
it was a very typical, we call
a typical highland estate.

1017
00:41:51,030 --> 00:41:52,530
Had a bit of everything.

1018
00:41:52,530 --> 00:41:54,720
Yeah, grouse very much so.

1019
00:41:54,720 --> 00:41:56,370
But a, you know, decent deer stocking,

1020
00:41:56,370 --> 00:41:59,850
a roll stocking, and it
just looks horrendous

1021
00:41:59,850 --> 00:42:01,250
to be honest with you.

1022
00:42:01,250 --> 00:42:04,560
It beats me how that's
conducive to conservation

1023
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,590
or you know, it's just
mind boggling really

1024
00:42:07,590 --> 00:42:10,008
with the damage they've
done in that place.

1025
00:42:10,008 --> 00:42:12,030
- You know, you used
to drive up this road,

1026
00:42:12,030 --> 00:42:14,610
these rocky knolls will
be full of kestrels.

1027
00:42:14,610 --> 00:42:17,520
Further out we go, we'd see eagles.

1028
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:20,190
But if it's all been fenced off
and they're culling the deer

1029
00:42:20,190 --> 00:42:24,240
and let's say the hares,
there's no food source valley

1030
00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:25,620
for any of these predators now.

1031
00:42:25,620 --> 00:42:29,450
So, there's no real reason for
these birds to be back here.

1032
00:42:29,450 --> 00:42:31,170
(suspenseful music)

1033
00:42:31,170 --> 00:42:32,003
- [Neil McIntyre] The
sheer volume of trees

1034
00:42:32,003 --> 00:42:33,870
that are getting parked in,

1035
00:42:33,870 --> 00:42:34,950
you know, they're not for, you know,

1036
00:42:34,950 --> 00:42:36,360
they're for carbon capture.

1037
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:37,332
So they're the forests

1038
00:42:37,332 --> 00:42:40,200
that are gonna be supposedly
there forevermore.

1039
00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:41,580
But what a missed opportunity as well

1040
00:42:41,580 --> 00:42:43,560
to actually to create nice forests,

1041
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:45,390
you know, just a little bit of thought.

1042
00:42:45,390 --> 00:42:47,700
Have some open bits,
you know, just have it,

1043
00:42:47,700 --> 00:42:50,760
just, you know, you could
have the native trees in it,

1044
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:52,530
- [Ed Jaundrel] You know,
there was always exposed peat

1045
00:42:52,530 --> 00:42:53,700
out in the hill,

1046
00:42:53,700 --> 00:42:56,010
but now there's more
exposed peat on this estate

1047
00:42:56,010 --> 00:42:58,290
than ever before.

1048
00:42:58,290 --> 00:43:02,010
And it's gonna take at least 10 years,

1049
00:43:02,010 --> 00:43:04,440
five years to 10 years to
get them trees established

1050
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:06,917
and to get that heather
to grow back under it.

1051
00:43:06,917 --> 00:43:09,660
And it eventually it will die back

1052
00:43:09,660 --> 00:43:11,640
when it's all got a canvas of pain

1053
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:13,983
and no light getting to all these,

1054
00:43:15,180 --> 00:43:16,647
you know, plants and everything.

1055
00:43:16,647 --> 00:43:18,180
And that's the end of that.

1056
00:43:18,180 --> 00:43:21,060
And if there was a fire
here sit by a barbecue

1057
00:43:21,060 --> 00:43:24,957
or anybody, it would
go up through the moor.

1058
00:43:24,957 --> 00:43:28,770
But when all that's one
big bunker for fuel load,

1059
00:43:28,770 --> 00:43:31,413
you'll never get this out ever.

1060
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,190
- The example you've mentioned
not too far from here,

1061
00:43:35,190 --> 00:43:37,950
I would argue is not a
particularly good example.

1062
00:43:37,950 --> 00:43:40,033
I think their motivations
are questionable,

1063
00:43:40,033 --> 00:43:42,968
but equally we work with corporate bodies

1064
00:43:42,968 --> 00:43:44,370
who have no agenda.

1065
00:43:44,370 --> 00:43:45,390
They don't want greenwash.

1066
00:43:45,390 --> 00:43:47,057
They just want to give back to nature

1067
00:43:47,057 --> 00:43:50,130
and in many cases, give back
to local communities as well.

1068
00:43:50,130 --> 00:43:51,330
So, we need to make sure

1069
00:43:51,330 --> 00:43:55,547
that the motivation of these
investors is well placed.

1070
00:43:55,547 --> 00:43:57,720
And it is true to say that in some cases

1071
00:43:57,720 --> 00:43:59,190
that's not the case.

1072
00:43:59,190 --> 00:44:00,023
It's been realized

1073
00:44:00,023 --> 00:44:01,830
there were a lot of plantations of trees

1074
00:44:01,830 --> 00:44:06,390
of non-native conifers,
biological part of this instance

1075
00:44:06,390 --> 00:44:08,760
in the peat bogs in the
north, very north of Scotland,

1076
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:10,740
what's called the flow country.

1077
00:44:10,740 --> 00:44:14,430
And research shows there
that the water content

1078
00:44:14,430 --> 00:44:16,693
of the soil goes down,
it dries out the soil

1079
00:44:16,693 --> 00:44:18,690
and the peat oxidizes away.

1080
00:44:18,690 --> 00:44:20,970
That carbon's released into the air.

1081
00:44:20,970 --> 00:44:22,560
So, it's known for quite a long time now

1082
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:25,800
that planting trees on deep
peat isn't good for the climate

1083
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,620
'cause an order magnitude
more carbon stored in the peat

1084
00:44:28,620 --> 00:44:30,030
than the trees.

1085
00:44:30,030 --> 00:44:32,973
So, there's now a government
of not planting on deep peat,

1086
00:44:33,810 --> 00:44:37,350
but there's no policy by not
planting on shallow peat.

1087
00:44:37,350 --> 00:44:41,520
Peat is a dead plant remains
as the plants remains decay.

1088
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:43,140
You know, the peat gets thicker
and thicker and thicker,

1089
00:44:43,140 --> 00:44:46,290
being a store of carbon
for 5,000 years or more.

1090
00:44:46,290 --> 00:44:48,180
Trees are cut down after 60 years.

1091
00:44:48,180 --> 00:44:51,450
They can't store more than
60 years worth of carbon.

1092
00:44:51,450 --> 00:44:55,440
So if you have a shallow
peat and plant trees on that,

1093
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:56,273
you're stopping that,

1094
00:44:56,273 --> 00:44:58,337
going to be a huge
terrestrial store of carbon.

1095
00:44:58,337 --> 00:45:00,360
'Cause that much organic matter

1096
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,300
covering the landscape
stores as much forest,

1097
00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:04,710
sorry, stores as much carbon

1098
00:45:04,710 --> 00:45:07,960
as a 60 year rotation spruce forest.

1099
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,370
(birds chirping)
(water roaring)

1100
00:45:11,370 --> 00:45:12,600
The Highlands of Scotland

1101
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:14,850
and the sporting estates
play a crucial role

1102
00:45:14,850 --> 00:45:17,640
in sustaining the incomes
of rural communities,

1103
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:19,620
Beyond direct staff employment,

1104
00:45:19,620 --> 00:45:22,230
these estates contribute
to the local economy

1105
00:45:22,230 --> 00:45:24,330
through various spinoff benefits.

1106
00:45:24,330 --> 00:45:26,550
Thanks to the businesses in the area

1107
00:45:26,550 --> 00:45:28,230
and the guests they attract.

1108
00:45:28,230 --> 00:45:30,180
However, rewilding advocates

1109
00:45:30,180 --> 00:45:33,810
argue that even more robust
job opportunities could arise

1110
00:45:33,810 --> 00:45:36,360
from the managing of restored ecosystems

1111
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:38,518
and the resulting boost in tourism.

1112
00:45:38,518 --> 00:45:39,780
(lively music)

1113
00:45:39,780 --> 00:45:42,160
If you look at the land that we own

1114
00:45:43,094 --> 00:45:46,320
as a John Muir Trust or even
the those that are involved

1115
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:48,000
in the environmental sector,

1116
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:50,117
the employment base per
acre is higher than it is

1117
00:45:50,117 --> 00:45:52,170
in the sporting estates.

1118
00:45:52,170 --> 00:45:55,230
So, those are not jobs in
the sort of tourism sector.

1119
00:45:55,230 --> 00:45:56,640
Those are jobs in land management.

1120
00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:57,990
These are high quality jobs.

1121
00:45:57,990 --> 00:45:59,130
We've seen it on Skye

1122
00:45:59,130 --> 00:46:03,420
this whole kind of tourism boom,

1123
00:46:03,420 --> 00:46:06,450
where often many of these operators

1124
00:46:06,450 --> 00:46:08,250
are coming out with Skye,

1125
00:46:08,250 --> 00:46:11,350
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen

1126
00:46:12,750 --> 00:46:13,800
coming here.

1127
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:16,470
Those people are not
linked to that landscape.

1128
00:46:16,470 --> 00:46:18,483
They're not managing that landscape.

1129
00:46:19,410 --> 00:46:21,120
They're coming here now

1130
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:25,650
in this supposedly devoid
landscape and they're enjoying it.

1131
00:46:25,650 --> 00:46:28,200
They are seeing deer.
They are seeing eagles.

1132
00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:30,930
They're seeing this wealth of wildlife.

1133
00:46:30,930 --> 00:46:34,380
They love to see the heather
in bloom on the grouse moors.

1134
00:46:34,380 --> 00:46:37,020
So, they're coming here now on mass

1135
00:46:37,020 --> 00:46:40,380
and there is a huge amount
of wealth there, agreed.

1136
00:46:40,380 --> 00:46:43,143
But direct jobs on the ground,

1137
00:46:44,460 --> 00:46:45,910
that's not the case just now.

1138
00:46:47,155 --> 00:46:48,660
You know what COVID showed us

1139
00:46:48,660 --> 00:46:49,920
and what broadband has shown us

1140
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:53,040
is that people want to
live in these rural areas.

1141
00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:55,680
You can communicate with
the rest of your sector,

1142
00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:56,640
whatever that sector is.

1143
00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:00,060
It doesn't really matter through
broadband connections now.

1144
00:47:00,060 --> 00:47:02,760
And you can be living in some
of the most spectacular places

1145
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:03,660
in the world.

1146
00:47:03,660 --> 00:47:06,420
The concept that we need to in some way

1147
00:47:06,420 --> 00:47:10,170
have extractive industries
based on our land

1148
00:47:10,170 --> 00:47:12,960
is kind of moved that part
a sort of an old paradigm

1149
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:14,373
has been a big shift there.

1150
00:47:15,390 --> 00:47:16,860
The sporting estates in this area

1151
00:47:16,860 --> 00:47:18,450
is what's keeping it going.

1152
00:47:18,450 --> 00:47:21,150
Everything gets poured
back into the community

1153
00:47:21,150 --> 00:47:24,750
- For jacket, waistcoat,
breaks, and a cap,

1154
00:47:24,750 --> 00:47:27,450
including the cloth, you are speaking

1155
00:47:27,450 --> 00:47:29,763
about 900 to a thousand pounds.

1156
00:47:30,690 --> 00:47:33,360
And we've been dependent on gamekeepers

1157
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:38,360
for possibly 50 to 60% of the business.

1158
00:47:38,700 --> 00:47:42,360
I would fear that possibly
I couldn't stay open

1159
00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:46,380
without shooting, hunting, and fishing.

1160
00:47:46,380 --> 00:47:47,760
You know, the manufacturer of our guns

1161
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,480
supports the community and the industry.

1162
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:54,210
We obviously provide all
the shooting facility

1163
00:47:54,210 --> 00:47:56,969
that supports the local community.

1164
00:47:56,969 --> 00:48:01,020
That comes through in terms of supporting

1165
00:48:01,020 --> 00:48:05,730
the local estates with their
ammunition, with their guns.

1166
00:48:05,730 --> 00:48:09,390
And also, you know, the shooting
parties that come into us

1167
00:48:09,390 --> 00:48:11,190
are staying in the local community.

1168
00:48:11,190 --> 00:48:12,450
They're staying in Dunkeld.

1169
00:48:12,450 --> 00:48:13,890
They're eating in our restaurants.

1170
00:48:13,890 --> 00:48:15,300
They're drinking in our pubs.

1171
00:48:15,300 --> 00:48:17,400
They're bringing revenue into the economy,

1172
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:19,500
into the locals pockets
at the end of the day.

1173
00:48:19,500 --> 00:48:22,740
To be blunt, it would
decimate the country.

1174
00:48:22,740 --> 00:48:24,123
It decimate the Highlands.

1175
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:27,044
So, we got the fishing clients

1176
00:48:27,044 --> 00:48:29,820
and they tend to come in groups

1177
00:48:29,820 --> 00:48:32,730
of maybe between four, six, or eight.

1178
00:48:32,730 --> 00:48:36,360
And they'll typically
be up here for a week.

1179
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:38,193
Then, you've got the stalking side.

1180
00:48:39,300 --> 00:48:40,980
They're gonna be in
smaller groups, you know.

1181
00:48:40,980 --> 00:48:42,749
We've got maybe two or four.

1182
00:48:42,749 --> 00:48:43,582
They're coming up here.

1183
00:48:43,582 --> 00:48:44,850
They're gonna spend a
lot of money on the hill

1184
00:48:44,850 --> 00:48:46,470
and they want comfort, and they want food,

1185
00:48:46,470 --> 00:48:47,790
and they wanna enjoy themselves.

1186
00:48:47,790 --> 00:48:49,710
They're getting away for a couple of days.

1187
00:48:49,710 --> 00:48:53,370
So, it's they spend good money.

1188
00:48:53,370 --> 00:48:55,740
If the government were to ban shooting,

1189
00:48:55,740 --> 00:49:00,090
it's gonna really make our
life a lot more difficult here.

1190
00:49:00,090 --> 00:49:02,220
But I feel like we are bringing back

1191
00:49:02,220 --> 00:49:05,259
that type of shooting lodge type place.

1192
00:49:05,259 --> 00:49:08,460
And to lose those sort of traditions

1193
00:49:08,460 --> 00:49:11,340
and to lose those places be a real shame.

1194
00:49:11,340 --> 00:49:13,650
But you're talking probably losing

1195
00:49:13,650 --> 00:49:17,280
30 to 40% of my revenue
within the next year.

1196
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:18,990
You know, people wanna see the wildlife.

1197
00:49:18,990 --> 00:49:22,440
They wanna see the rich biodiversity,

1198
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:25,110
but what they're not realizing
is the people on the ground,

1199
00:49:25,110 --> 00:49:27,840
They're the ones that are actually helping

1200
00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:29,460
the biodiversity here.

1201
00:49:29,460 --> 00:49:32,460
You know, these guys are the
important conservationists.

1202
00:49:32,460 --> 00:49:34,950
You know, they're the ones
that keep the wildlife

1203
00:49:34,950 --> 00:49:36,300
going here.

1204
00:49:36,300 --> 00:49:37,650
And you can drive along the roads

1205
00:49:37,650 --> 00:49:39,050
and the hillside, and lay-by,

1206
00:49:39,050 --> 00:49:43,140
are full of people in camper
vans, parking for free,

1207
00:49:43,140 --> 00:49:46,143
and camping right next
to the roadside for free.

1208
00:49:47,130 --> 00:49:50,040
You can replace it with
other forms of tourism,

1209
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:51,420
but will they provide the jobs?

1210
00:49:51,420 --> 00:49:53,233
And that's the million dollar question.

1211
00:49:53,233 --> 00:49:55,816
(mellow music)

1212
00:49:59,670 --> 00:50:02,400
- The Isle of Muck is the
home to Gallanach Lodge,

1213
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:04,980
a sporting estate born
when a laird's daughter

1214
00:50:04,980 --> 00:50:07,830
sought a means to remain
on her island home,

1215
00:50:07,830 --> 00:50:09,300
where the aristocratic model

1216
00:50:09,300 --> 00:50:11,550
favored her older brother's family.

1217
00:50:11,550 --> 00:50:13,080
Beyond summer tourism,

1218
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:16,410
the sporting estate model
extended the tourism season

1219
00:50:16,410 --> 00:50:18,570
from September through January,

1220
00:50:18,570 --> 00:50:21,090
generating income for 10 families

1221
00:50:21,090 --> 00:50:24,210
and preserving a way
of life on the island.

1222
00:50:24,210 --> 00:50:27,360
- All right folks, we're
gonna redraw this morning.

1223
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:29,176
So, we're numbering eight, right to left.

1224
00:50:29,176 --> 00:50:30,145
With that look, I'll wait.

1225
00:50:30,145 --> 00:50:32,963
- You gonna come back.
I'll come back to you.

1226
00:50:32,963 --> 00:50:34,650
[Gamekeeper] I always get what's left.

1227
00:50:34,650 --> 00:50:36,300
Numbering right to left,

1228
00:50:36,300 --> 00:50:38,820
we'll move up two pins each drive please.

1229
00:50:38,820 --> 00:50:41,785
I'm gonna shoot three drives this morning.

1230
00:50:41,785 --> 00:50:44,760
(gun booming)
(mellow music)

1231
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:48,120
The island economy is
largely based around farming,

1232
00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:50,580
tourism, and fishing.

1233
00:50:50,580 --> 00:50:54,480
And what we offer, I guess,
is a sort of sporting tourism

1234
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:57,360
from red stag stocking,
Billy goat stocking

1235
00:50:57,360 --> 00:50:59,520
on the Isle of Rum behind us here.

1236
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:01,230
We're spending somewhere in the region

1237
00:51:01,230 --> 00:51:04,890
of about 70 to 90,000 pounds
a year just on boat charters

1238
00:51:04,890 --> 00:51:07,830
to either bring people from
the mainland out to the island

1239
00:51:07,830 --> 00:51:10,277
or to bring people from
between Muck and Rum here.

1240
00:51:10,277 --> 00:51:12,330
We are also using a local boat

1241
00:51:12,330 --> 00:51:15,120
to extract the deer
off the island as well.

1242
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:17,160
The number of guests we
bring onto the island

1243
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:19,920
is obviously directly
related to the number of deer

1244
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:20,753
we're shooting.

1245
00:51:20,753 --> 00:51:21,630
So the more deer we shoot,

1246
00:51:21,630 --> 00:51:23,700
the more people we bring onto the island,

1247
00:51:23,700 --> 00:51:25,830
which has a knock on
effect to Rums economy,

1248
00:51:25,830 --> 00:51:27,540
to the local economy there.

1249
00:51:27,540 --> 00:51:30,150
Without the hunting season, we
couldn't really survive here.

1250
00:51:30,150 --> 00:51:31,949
We need the hunting in the winter months

1251
00:51:31,949 --> 00:51:34,500
to get through the year.

1252
00:51:34,500 --> 00:51:38,310
- So, we fish predominantly
lobster and langoustine

1253
00:51:38,310 --> 00:51:40,980
close into the shore,
around about the island,

1254
00:51:40,980 --> 00:51:44,010
and sell as much as we can locally.

1255
00:51:44,010 --> 00:51:45,330
Until we opening the lodge

1256
00:51:45,330 --> 00:51:47,400
and having guests all through the winter,

1257
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:50,100
we now have a mark to have
local seafood and stuff

1258
00:51:50,100 --> 00:51:50,933
on the menu.

1259
00:51:50,933 --> 00:51:53,040
The thing what a lot
of people don't realize

1260
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:54,780
it's not just the shooting.

1261
00:51:54,780 --> 00:51:58,050
It's all the other businesses
that are connected to that.

1262
00:51:58,050 --> 00:52:00,210
So, there's B&B's on the mainland.

1263
00:52:00,210 --> 00:52:01,500
There's the ferry transport.

1264
00:52:01,500 --> 00:52:02,880
It's kind of the wider impact

1265
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:04,500
that people don't kind of see for here,

1266
00:52:04,500 --> 00:52:06,420
especially it seeing the
people getting pulled in

1267
00:52:06,420 --> 00:52:09,510
to help clean the lodge
and all the other things.

1268
00:52:09,510 --> 00:52:12,600
All those little things,
all those jobs were just,

1269
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:16,080
and that would impact
probably 2,000 of the families

1270
00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:17,220
on the island.

1271
00:52:17,220 --> 00:52:19,590
- I think out of something
like 1,200 applicants,

1272
00:52:19,590 --> 00:52:22,260
we were chosen to come
and run the tea room.

1273
00:52:22,260 --> 00:52:24,660
And this is now coming into
the end of our third year.

1274
00:52:24,660 --> 00:52:26,794
And also we get the shoot lunches here.

1275
00:52:26,794 --> 00:52:29,400
So, we have the tourist in the summer.

1276
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:33,510
Come near September,
again, it slows right down.

1277
00:52:33,510 --> 00:52:35,820
And if the lodge weren't
doing shoot parties

1278
00:52:35,820 --> 00:52:38,193
through the winter up till January,

1279
00:52:39,810 --> 00:52:42,270
then we would probably close down.

1280
00:52:42,270 --> 00:52:43,740
When I was first here,

1281
00:52:43,740 --> 00:52:47,640
we had power in the morning

1282
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:48,777
and then off all day.

1283
00:52:48,777 --> 00:52:52,350
And power at the nighttime
till about half past 11.

1284
00:52:52,350 --> 00:52:54,783
No internet apart from satellite internet.

1285
00:52:55,860 --> 00:52:58,680
So, it has made a heck
of a difference with Toby

1286
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:01,260
setting up the hotel definitely.

1287
00:53:01,260 --> 00:53:04,290
They've turned it into
like a global phenomenon.

1288
00:53:04,290 --> 00:53:06,000
We were getting people from Sweden.

1289
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:08,970
We're getting people from South Africa.

1290
00:53:08,970 --> 00:53:11,140
We're getting people from all over Europe

1291
00:53:12,002 --> 00:53:13,980
and further afield.

1292
00:53:13,980 --> 00:53:15,660
- There's a lot of
management that's going on

1293
00:53:15,660 --> 00:53:16,560
to do with the shooting.

1294
00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:19,020
That we've seen lots of other birds coming

1295
00:53:19,020 --> 00:53:20,760
and you know, for the children

1296
00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:22,770
they're growing up interested in.

1297
00:53:22,770 --> 00:53:25,980
Even things like when they're
waiting to go beating,

1298
00:53:25,980 --> 00:53:27,780
you know, Hughes always
looking at the heather

1299
00:53:27,780 --> 00:53:29,640
and seeing what kind of
different grouses there are.

1300
00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:30,473
Do you know what I mean?

1301
00:53:30,473 --> 00:53:33,030
They're kind of, it's
another way of looking

1302
00:53:33,030 --> 00:53:35,640
at all the things around us, I suppose.

1303
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:37,020
So, there's the financial impact,

1304
00:53:37,020 --> 00:53:40,260
but there's also all the
other management things

1305
00:53:40,260 --> 00:53:42,600
that are going on that
have a positive impact.

1306
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:45,210
It's a different connection to
the environment around them.

1307
00:53:45,210 --> 00:53:46,890
So, they're already
connected through farming,

1308
00:53:46,890 --> 00:53:48,754
but this is a different angle.

1309
00:53:48,754 --> 00:53:51,337
(upbeat music)

1310
00:53:58,725 --> 00:54:00,210
So, all these stag heads

1311
00:54:00,210 --> 00:54:03,667
are ones that have called with the girls.

1312
00:54:03,667 --> 00:54:05,430
You know, I've got four daughters now

1313
00:54:05,430 --> 00:54:09,210
and they've all been kind
of involved and immersed

1314
00:54:09,210 --> 00:54:11,010
in the world that I'm in.

1315
00:54:11,010 --> 00:54:12,597
When we're out with the stags

1316
00:54:12,597 --> 00:54:15,174
and the hinds in each season,

1317
00:54:15,174 --> 00:54:18,270
I enjoy seeing them in between the trees.

1318
00:54:18,270 --> 00:54:20,940
So each bit of more of a challenge to spy

1319
00:54:20,940 --> 00:54:23,610
and glass across to them.

1320
00:54:23,610 --> 00:54:25,140
The reason why I want to be a gamekeeper

1321
00:54:25,140 --> 00:54:29,160
is I like being outside and
like amongst the environment.

1322
00:54:29,160 --> 00:54:31,917
Well, when I go to school,
they just say to me

1323
00:54:31,917 --> 00:54:34,867
and my sister, they go,

1324
00:54:34,867 --> 00:54:37,380
"Why does your dad shoot so many deer?"

1325
00:54:37,380 --> 00:54:40,357
And I do, I just put
them right and just say,

1326
00:54:40,357 --> 00:54:41,910
"My dad shoots them in season.

1327
00:54:41,910 --> 00:54:43,710
He doesn't shoot them outta season.

1328
00:54:43,710 --> 00:54:45,120
He has to color for each year."

1329
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:47,160
And they go, "Oh, but that's so cruel.

1330
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:49,350
Your dad just kills animals
for the sake of it."

1331
00:54:49,350 --> 00:54:52,530
And he doesn't, he has to manage them.

1332
00:54:52,530 --> 00:54:54,270
- Yeah, I couldn't really
see him doing anything else.

1333
00:54:54,270 --> 00:54:55,350
I've been with him for 30 years

1334
00:54:55,350 --> 00:54:58,740
and it's all he's ever done
and it's all he wants to do.

1335
00:54:58,740 --> 00:55:01,530
He has returning guests
year after year after year

1336
00:55:01,530 --> 00:55:02,940
that come back.

1337
00:55:02,940 --> 00:55:04,680
It's not just always for the sport,

1338
00:55:04,680 --> 00:55:07,170
it can just be to spend a day in the hotel

1339
00:55:07,170 --> 00:55:08,520
or a couple of nights in the hotel

1340
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:09,930
and you know, they'll
get in touch with Scott

1341
00:55:09,930 --> 00:55:11,130
'cause they've become friends.

1342
00:55:11,130 --> 00:55:13,140
The people that sort of,

1343
00:55:13,140 --> 00:55:14,520
they've got a place in
your heart, you know.

1344
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,430
You're out all day on the hill
with them or maybe longer.

1345
00:55:17,430 --> 00:55:19,110
The girls have quite a
bit of stick at school

1346
00:55:19,110 --> 00:55:20,250
off certain people.

1347
00:55:20,250 --> 00:55:23,550
And it's hard really
sometimes to take it in

1348
00:55:23,550 --> 00:55:27,625
because these children at
school that take it out on them

1349
00:55:27,625 --> 00:55:29,580
have also got dads that are crofters

1350
00:55:29,580 --> 00:55:32,040
and dads that work the land themselves.

1351
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:34,410
So, they'll have a go at the girls

1352
00:55:34,410 --> 00:55:35,467
and just say, you know,

1353
00:55:35,467 --> 00:55:38,187
"All your dad does is go out
and kill foxes," you know?

1354
00:55:38,187 --> 00:55:39,210
And it's hard for the girls

1355
00:55:39,210 --> 00:55:40,410
because they've been brought up with it.

1356
00:55:40,410 --> 00:55:41,490
They've seen it.

1357
00:55:41,490 --> 00:55:44,580
They go out with Scott onto the hill

1358
00:55:44,580 --> 00:55:47,052
and they'll be there with him, you know,

1359
00:55:47,052 --> 00:55:50,042
while Scott uses a firearm to, you know,

1360
00:55:50,042 --> 00:55:51,630
to call the beast.

1361
00:55:51,630 --> 00:55:54,750
So, they'll see it from
as soon as it's shot

1362
00:55:54,750 --> 00:55:55,980
to actually being cooked

1363
00:55:55,980 --> 00:55:58,530
and put on a plate in front
of them and they eat it.

1364
00:55:58,530 --> 00:56:00,623
They love it because they
know where it comes from.

1365
00:56:00,623 --> 00:56:03,360
There's so many kids at their
school that don't even know

1366
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:05,190
where a piece of meat comes from.

1367
00:56:05,190 --> 00:56:06,090
They're just so used to seeing it

1368
00:56:06,090 --> 00:56:08,240
in a cellophane wrapper
at the supermarket.

1369
00:56:09,420 --> 00:56:10,353
A wee boy look.

1370
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:12,353
We staggy.

1371
00:56:14,292 --> 00:56:17,375
(speaking in Gaelic)

1372
00:56:20,310 --> 00:56:23,010
- Ah, clan, the Mackenzie's
intrinsically linked

1373
00:56:23,010 --> 00:56:24,000
to the red deer.

1374
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:25,560
So, I've always thought it's nice for us

1375
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:27,537
to say something like that

1376
00:56:27,537 --> 00:56:29,580
and it's not a done thing
in the Gaelic world.

1377
00:56:29,580 --> 00:56:31,442
There's never any, you know,

1378
00:56:31,442 --> 00:56:35,011
it's our little link
to our ancestors past.

1379
00:56:35,011 --> 00:56:37,080
(mellow music)
(water guggling)

1380
00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:39,240
The red deer or the red stag

1381
00:56:39,240 --> 00:56:42,420
is the most iconic symbol
of the Scottish Highlands.

1382
00:56:42,420 --> 00:56:44,970
But today, they're under the gun.

1383
00:56:44,970 --> 00:56:47,760
Red deer in Scotland
have become a dilemma.

1384
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:49,950
Favorited for stalking by sportsmen

1385
00:56:49,950 --> 00:56:51,960
and sightings of the monarch of the glen

1386
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:53,790
are desired by tourist.

1387
00:56:53,790 --> 00:56:55,890
Those within the rewilding effort

1388
00:56:55,890 --> 00:56:59,100
have put crosshairs on
this iconic species.

1389
00:56:59,100 --> 00:57:02,070
Red deer are woody browsers
during the winter months

1390
00:57:02,070 --> 00:57:03,930
and can cause significant damage

1391
00:57:03,930 --> 00:57:06,450
if they're concentrated onto an area

1392
00:57:06,450 --> 00:57:08,760
filled with young tree plantings.

1393
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:11,940
No one really knows how
many deer exist on the land

1394
00:57:11,940 --> 00:57:14,040
nor can they agree on how many

1395
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:15,810
or how few need to be culled

1396
00:57:15,810 --> 00:57:18,420
to allow for healthy ecosystems.

1397
00:57:18,420 --> 00:57:20,880
Each side has put up their battle lines,

1398
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:23,790
but the government has
budgeted 30 million pounds

1399
00:57:23,790 --> 00:57:27,390
to hire contractors to kill
deer over the next year.

1400
00:57:27,390 --> 00:57:30,540
- So, we have a situation
where the grazing pressure,

1401
00:57:30,540 --> 00:57:34,050
primarily through red deer and sheep,

1402
00:57:34,050 --> 00:57:38,640
is preventing the regeneration
of the woodland habitats.

1403
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,040
And not only woodland,
but habitats in general.

1404
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:45,180
And it's keeping them in a
suppressed, degraded situation.

1405
00:57:45,180 --> 00:57:48,150
- I think it's often
portrayed that red deer

1406
00:57:48,150 --> 00:57:51,240
are naturally a woodland animal.

1407
00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:54,090
I think that helps push

1408
00:57:54,090 --> 00:57:56,940
this kind of narrative

1409
00:57:56,940 --> 00:57:59,100
of huge woodland expansion.

1410
00:57:59,100 --> 00:58:01,680
Deer are a woodland animal.

1411
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:03,722
They're not meant to
live in the open hill.

1412
00:58:03,722 --> 00:58:06,540
And give them a wood,
they'll head into the wood.

1413
00:58:06,540 --> 00:58:08,130
That's where they wanna live.

1414
00:58:08,130 --> 00:58:11,310
So, the big challenge today
is to get numbers down

1415
00:58:11,310 --> 00:58:13,950
to more sustainable levels,
so that plant communities

1416
00:58:13,950 --> 00:58:16,890
and other wildlife
communities can flourish.

1417
00:58:16,890 --> 00:58:19,500
But also to get them back
into their native habitat,

1418
00:58:19,500 --> 00:58:20,610
which is woodland.

1419
00:58:20,610 --> 00:58:22,230
- There's been no trees
over most of the highlands

1420
00:58:22,230 --> 00:58:23,730
for 2,000 years.

1421
00:58:23,730 --> 00:58:24,990
If the deer survive that,

1422
00:58:24,990 --> 00:58:26,550
you can't tell me they're woodland animals

1423
00:58:26,550 --> 00:58:28,500
because they're not living in woodlands.

1424
00:58:28,500 --> 00:58:32,520
But if you are in a wet,
cold, stormy climate and snowy

1425
00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:34,620
and you want shelter, where
the first place you go to

1426
00:58:34,620 --> 00:58:35,730
is trees.

1427
00:58:35,730 --> 00:58:38,400
They have a wide ecological altitude.

1428
00:58:38,400 --> 00:58:41,088
Like wolves, in fact, they can
be woodland or open ground.

1429
00:58:41,088 --> 00:58:43,290
And if they're eating more
nutritious vegetation,

1430
00:58:43,290 --> 00:58:45,630
they're bound to be
bigger and more robust,

1431
00:58:45,630 --> 00:58:48,630
especially if you've keep
the populations very low

1432
00:58:48,630 --> 00:58:50,250
by shooting or hunting.

1433
00:58:50,250 --> 00:58:52,080
- So, deer management
is one of these things

1434
00:58:52,080 --> 00:58:54,660
where people view it as shooting deer.

1435
00:58:54,660 --> 00:58:55,973
For about six months of the year,

1436
00:58:55,973 --> 00:58:58,110
that is part and parcel of what we do.

1437
00:58:58,110 --> 00:59:00,510
It's not a matter of having
a kind of key number of deer

1438
00:59:00,510 --> 00:59:02,040
that we're aiming for the area.

1439
00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:04,350
It's we're looking at
impact that they're having

1440
00:59:04,350 --> 00:59:06,750
and making our management
choices based on that.

1441
00:59:06,750 --> 00:59:07,800
There are parts of the highlands

1442
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:09,413
where, yeah, potentially
you've got too many deer.

1443
00:59:09,413 --> 00:59:10,720
There's also large parts of the highlands

1444
00:59:10,720 --> 00:59:12,450
where you don't have enough deer.

1445
00:59:12,450 --> 00:59:14,430
There's bits and pieces
of historic Gaelic culture

1446
00:59:14,430 --> 00:59:16,710
that were here, the original
sort of indigenous people

1447
00:59:16,710 --> 00:59:17,543
that were here.

1448
00:59:17,543 --> 00:59:19,470
Deer gave them food,
and clothing, and heat,

1449
00:59:19,470 --> 00:59:21,690
and like all sorts of valuable

1450
00:59:21,690 --> 00:59:22,740
between human beings and deer

1451
00:59:22,740 --> 00:59:24,480
going way back to the stone age.

1452
00:59:24,480 --> 00:59:28,200
The problem, if indeed you
perceive it to be a problem,

1453
00:59:28,200 --> 00:59:30,330
is the deer, the number of deer.

1454
00:59:30,330 --> 00:59:32,070
So, the way that the Scottish landscape

1455
00:59:32,070 --> 00:59:35,283
has been managed for
the last 150, 200 years,

1456
00:59:36,150 --> 00:59:37,980
generally speaking to paraphrase,

1457
00:59:37,980 --> 00:59:40,170
is to maximize the number of deer.

1458
00:59:40,170 --> 00:59:43,350
So if your objective is sport shooting,

1459
00:59:43,350 --> 00:59:46,830
then you may wish to have
higher numbers of deer.

1460
00:59:46,830 --> 00:59:51,830
If your objective is to
let nature have its freedom

1461
00:59:52,110 --> 00:59:53,790
and for lots of species to benefit,

1462
00:59:53,790 --> 00:59:55,110
rather than just a single species,

1463
00:59:55,110 --> 00:59:58,500
then the chances are you'll
want deer to lower density.

1464
00:59:58,500 --> 01:00:00,810
You know, the ideal density
for an area like this

1465
01:00:00,810 --> 01:00:02,100
to get the trees to grow

1466
01:00:02,100 --> 01:00:03,960
is probably two deer per square kilometer.

1467
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:05,460
That's what you're gonna aim for.

1468
01:00:05,460 --> 01:00:07,920
To manage two deer per square kilometer,

1469
01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:10,620
you are hitting them
really hard all the time.

1470
01:00:10,620 --> 01:00:14,730
- If deer stalking is part
of your income for the estate

1471
01:00:14,730 --> 01:00:18,690
and, you know, stags are of a big income

1472
01:00:18,690 --> 01:00:22,710
and support many jobs, then
you that you want to lessen

1473
01:00:22,710 --> 01:00:25,500
the winter mortality that you have.

1474
01:00:25,500 --> 01:00:28,230
So, those estates that feed
stags are feeding the stags

1475
01:00:28,230 --> 01:00:30,180
to help 'em see through the winter.

1476
01:00:30,180 --> 01:00:31,950
It could be argued that
we should just leave them

1477
01:00:31,950 --> 01:00:33,870
and what happens is what happens,

1478
01:00:33,870 --> 01:00:37,860
but it's a business like any other.

1479
01:00:37,860 --> 01:00:41,400
You want stags for next year,
you've got to look after 'em.

1480
01:00:41,400 --> 01:00:43,530
You've got to take care of your animals.

1481
01:00:43,530 --> 01:00:44,363
We're now in a phase

1482
01:00:44,363 --> 01:00:47,100
where we're seeing how we manage red deer,

1483
01:00:47,100 --> 01:00:49,860
not as just an environmental issue,

1484
01:00:49,860 --> 01:00:53,010
not just as a an issue
to do a quarry species,

1485
01:00:53,010 --> 01:00:56,083
but as a component of a wider ecosystem

1486
01:00:56,083 --> 01:00:58,650
and that's a positive development.

1487
01:00:58,650 --> 01:01:01,140
- You put manure in your
garden or farmers did

1488
01:01:01,140 --> 01:01:03,120
because it's rich in nutrients.

1489
01:01:03,120 --> 01:01:05,640
Now if you think on the
wide landscape scale,

1490
01:01:05,640 --> 01:01:07,753
then all the deer and even the sheep

1491
01:01:07,753 --> 01:01:10,770
are actually breaking
down the plant material

1492
01:01:10,770 --> 01:01:14,340
excreting in that dung and
that's fertilizing the ground.

1493
01:01:14,340 --> 01:01:18,180
If you reduce deer numbers or
graze the animals generally,

1494
01:01:18,180 --> 01:01:20,730
you reduce fertility
of the whole landscape.

1495
01:01:20,730 --> 01:01:24,000
- On lots of the property
that we have, it is red deer.

1496
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:25,440
That's the problem.

1497
01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:26,820
It's not roe deer. It's not hares.

1498
01:01:26,820 --> 01:01:28,020
It's red deer.

1499
01:01:28,020 --> 01:01:30,938
There are areas in our ground
too where sheep of the problem

1500
01:01:30,938 --> 01:01:33,300
and unless we manage the sheep

1501
01:01:33,300 --> 01:01:36,060
and work well with the
crafters whose sheep they are,

1502
01:01:36,060 --> 01:01:38,430
then we're not, just
killing the deer by itself

1503
01:01:38,430 --> 01:01:39,540
isn't gonna solve the problem.

1504
01:01:39,540 --> 01:01:41,580
We're gotta manage the
sheep issue as well.

1505
01:01:41,580 --> 01:01:43,950
- We know the deer are
really, really important.

1506
01:01:43,950 --> 01:01:44,820
I mean, look at them.

1507
01:01:44,820 --> 01:01:45,660
Every bottle of whiskey

1508
01:01:45,660 --> 01:01:48,540
that gets sold to America
each year's gotta stag on it.

1509
01:01:48,540 --> 01:01:50,130
Of course, like this
is our national brand.

1510
01:01:50,130 --> 01:01:51,270
This is what we're about.

1511
01:01:51,270 --> 01:01:54,270
It sets all kinds of
strange questions running

1512
01:01:54,270 --> 01:01:55,103
when we start to say,

1513
01:01:55,103 --> 01:01:56,670
"Actually, we hate deer now.

1514
01:01:56,670 --> 01:01:59,130
We don't want deer. These
spaces aren't for deer."

1515
01:01:59,130 --> 01:02:03,063
Deer are part of us and in
large part, we're part of them.

1516
01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:05,730
The intense management of red deer

1517
01:02:05,730 --> 01:02:08,130
has spurred entrepreneurs
to develop businesses

1518
01:02:08,130 --> 01:02:11,340
capitalizing on providing
sustainable healthy meat

1519
01:02:11,340 --> 01:02:13,980
to the broader public throughout the UK.

1520
01:02:13,980 --> 01:02:15,060
Animals being shot,

1521
01:02:15,060 --> 01:02:17,460
they go from being a deer to being venison

1522
01:02:17,460 --> 01:02:18,840
and of course, categorize

1523
01:02:18,840 --> 01:02:21,600
into variety of different specifications

1524
01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:23,130
and depending on the species.

1525
01:02:23,130 --> 01:02:23,963
So, we will supply

1526
01:02:23,963 --> 01:02:28,410
around two and a half thousand
stores nationwide daily

1527
01:02:28,410 --> 01:02:32,010
with specifications such as
burgers, sausages, steaks

1528
01:02:32,010 --> 01:02:33,930
ready for you to cook.

1529
01:02:33,930 --> 01:02:34,980
This is a wild animal.

1530
01:02:34,980 --> 01:02:37,680
This is a product that is as God intended

1531
01:02:37,680 --> 01:02:39,750
is out there for a reason.

1532
01:02:39,750 --> 01:02:43,650
And we are making it available to you

1533
01:02:43,650 --> 01:02:45,300
who is looking for an alternative,

1534
01:02:45,300 --> 01:02:47,970
but perhaps also looking for alternative

1535
01:02:47,970 --> 01:02:50,190
from a healthier point of view.

1536
01:02:50,190 --> 01:02:53,760
It is proven to be a healthier protein

1537
01:02:53,760 --> 01:02:56,430
than most other proteins
that we can get our hands on.

1538
01:02:56,430 --> 01:02:59,760
And that food product must be looked after

1539
01:02:59,760 --> 01:03:02,850
just as well, if not even better,

1540
01:03:02,850 --> 01:03:06,105
than a cow produced in the
field going through an abattoir.

1541
01:03:06,105 --> 01:03:08,855
(brooding music)

1542
01:03:13,440 --> 01:03:16,140
- [Tom Opre] The specter of
conflict looms in Scotland,

1543
01:03:16,140 --> 01:03:18,450
particularly on the Assynt Peninsula,

1544
01:03:18,450 --> 01:03:21,240
where the John Muir Trust
finds itself at odds

1545
01:03:21,240 --> 01:03:24,900
with neighbors to managing
the deer population.

1546
01:03:24,900 --> 01:03:27,960
Are humans across the globe predisposed

1547
01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:31,860
to manage our natural assets
in a way that's sustainable?

1548
01:03:31,860 --> 01:03:34,170
You know, sadly, I think
there's too many examples

1549
01:03:34,170 --> 01:03:36,970
of where we're not predisposed
to manage it sustainably.

1550
01:03:37,980 --> 01:03:41,220
- So, the Assynt Peninsula
is about 18,000 hectares.

1551
01:03:41,220 --> 01:03:44,070
So, that's about 45,000 acres.

1552
01:03:44,070 --> 01:03:47,610
About 2,000 hectares of that is woodland

1553
01:03:47,610 --> 01:03:49,440
and most of that is native woodland.

1554
01:03:49,440 --> 01:03:50,820
And the majority of the landscape

1555
01:03:50,820 --> 01:03:53,610
is dominated by blanket
bogue, and wet heath,

1556
01:03:53,610 --> 01:03:55,110
and monte, and habitats.

1557
01:03:55,110 --> 01:03:58,260
And you know, it doesn't really
sustain very many animals.

1558
01:03:58,260 --> 01:04:01,680
- One of the sources
of income for the trust

1559
01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:05,340
was stalking,

1560
01:04:05,340 --> 01:04:10,340
where people would come
in and pay to stalk stags.

1561
01:04:10,440 --> 01:04:15,300
That in turn, allowed people to come in

1562
01:04:15,300 --> 01:04:20,070
and spend money locally

1563
01:04:20,070 --> 01:04:24,000
for accommodation,
buying things from shops.

1564
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:25,860
And it still remains very important

1565
01:04:25,860 --> 01:04:29,340
that we have a sufficiency of deer

1566
01:04:29,340 --> 01:04:32,220
to allow us to continue doing that.

1567
01:04:32,220 --> 01:04:33,480
As far as I understand,

1568
01:04:33,480 --> 01:04:38,480
there was a change in the
direction of the John Muir Trust

1569
01:04:38,640 --> 01:04:42,250
in relation to the number of deer

1570
01:04:43,320 --> 01:04:46,590
which they would tolerate on Quinag.

1571
01:04:46,590 --> 01:04:48,660
They pulled outta the
deer management group,

1572
01:04:48,660 --> 01:04:51,813
so I understand because
they didn't like the way

1573
01:04:51,813 --> 01:04:56,813
that the rest of the people
in the group were behaving.

1574
01:04:57,240 --> 01:04:59,370
For the last 15 years,

1575
01:04:59,370 --> 01:05:03,270
John Muir Trust have
seriously misrepresented

1576
01:05:03,270 --> 01:05:06,480
the state of the environment
here on the Assynt Peninsula.

1577
01:05:06,480 --> 01:05:08,430
- The collaborative
approach wasn't working

1578
01:05:08,430 --> 01:05:10,140
and the deer numbers
were actually going up.

1579
01:05:10,140 --> 01:05:12,420
The group had agreed to reduce the numbers

1580
01:05:12,420 --> 01:05:13,500
and that was the target,

1581
01:05:13,500 --> 01:05:14,580
but the numbers weren't going down.

1582
01:05:14,580 --> 01:05:15,990
The numbers were going the other way.

1583
01:05:15,990 --> 01:05:18,330
It's not about deer per square kilometer.

1584
01:05:18,330 --> 01:05:21,150
So if you take in the
top of those mountains,

1585
01:05:21,150 --> 01:05:22,920
deer can't eat stone.

1586
01:05:22,920 --> 01:05:24,990
So, you have to exclude all that area

1587
01:05:24,990 --> 01:05:27,480
as part of your per
square kilometer figure.

1588
01:05:27,480 --> 01:05:29,610
And then, what you realize
is actually the deer density

1589
01:05:29,610 --> 01:05:30,900
is probably much higher.

1590
01:05:30,900 --> 01:05:32,550
They're trying to campaign

1591
01:05:32,550 --> 01:05:35,403
to change the way we
manage deer in Scotland.

1592
01:05:35,403 --> 01:05:38,733
And they do that by creating a noise.

1593
01:05:40,020 --> 01:05:42,450
And they think that at
the creating a noise,

1594
01:05:42,450 --> 01:05:44,853
then politicians will be on their side.

1595
01:05:45,900 --> 01:05:47,940
- [Tom Opre] The concern
seems to be of red deer

1596
01:05:47,940 --> 01:05:49,110
eating young trees,

1597
01:05:49,110 --> 01:05:52,560
which may or may not exist
on the Quinag Estate.

1598
01:05:52,560 --> 01:05:56,190
But on the neighboring Ardvar
Estate, keeper Michael Ross

1599
01:05:56,190 --> 01:05:59,793
shows us how trees are coexisting
and flourishing with deer.

1600
01:06:00,780 --> 01:06:03,780
- There's a good number of
deer on the Ardvar Estate

1601
01:06:03,780 --> 01:06:05,760
that live in here because of the shelter.

1602
01:06:05,760 --> 01:06:06,660
And now, we've got this,

1603
01:06:06,660 --> 01:06:09,450
but we've got this throughout the estate.

1604
01:06:09,450 --> 01:06:11,820
You can see how the woodland works here.

1605
01:06:11,820 --> 01:06:13,370
Once you get in the bogey grin,

1606
01:06:14,340 --> 01:06:15,173
it starts to peat right.

1607
01:06:15,173 --> 01:06:16,110
And you can see that in there

1608
01:06:16,110 --> 01:06:18,000
once it gets the boat
mill, ridge there too.

1609
01:06:18,000 --> 01:06:19,290
Yeah.

1610
01:06:19,290 --> 01:06:22,320
So, deer and forest can coexist?

1611
01:06:22,320 --> 01:06:23,190
At a loose hill, yeah.

1612
01:06:23,190 --> 01:06:24,030
They're a forest animal.

1613
01:06:24,030 --> 01:06:26,640
They have every right to be in here.

1614
01:06:26,640 --> 01:06:29,490
- You mentioned something
though that some of the stags,

1615
01:06:29,490 --> 01:06:34,490
those royal stags that you'd
see year after year after year,

1616
01:06:34,620 --> 01:06:35,970
you haven't seen them anymore.

1617
01:06:35,970 --> 01:06:37,620
Well, stags are bad on Ardvar.

1618
01:06:37,620 --> 01:06:39,220
They didn't come back this year.

1619
01:06:40,153 --> 01:06:42,000
It's not something you
get many off up here.

1620
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:43,950
We don't have many royals really.

1621
01:06:43,950 --> 01:06:46,530
So, there's a few of them,
was a few of them on Ardvar,

1622
01:06:46,530 --> 01:06:50,100
but we seem to be missing
them, not coming back,

1623
01:06:50,100 --> 01:06:51,690
after the rat in October.

1624
01:06:51,690 --> 01:06:53,550
They usually come back
to Ardvar for the winter

1625
01:06:53,550 --> 01:06:55,080
and they haven't returned.

1626
01:06:55,080 --> 01:06:58,320
So, they've obviously
been caught up in this.

1627
01:06:58,320 --> 01:06:59,790
So, you think they were taken out

1628
01:06:59,790 --> 01:07:01,140
by the John Muir Trust.

1629
01:07:01,140 --> 01:07:03,300
- Caught, they would've
been caught up in the...

1630
01:07:03,300 --> 01:07:06,060
If you're missing one or two,
fair enough, that happens,

1631
01:07:06,060 --> 01:07:07,630
but not when you're missing

1632
01:07:10,680 --> 01:07:12,120
quite a few numbers.

1633
01:07:12,120 --> 01:07:15,840
Us for ourselves, you cull the
deer to look after the deer.

1634
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:17,280
So, you're gonna take out the worst ones.

1635
01:07:17,280 --> 01:07:19,260
But it seems to be across the board,

1636
01:07:19,260 --> 01:07:21,654
they just shoot what's in front of them

1637
01:07:21,654 --> 01:07:23,508
and then, sickening.

1638
01:07:23,508 --> 01:07:26,258
(brooding music)

1639
01:07:28,050 --> 01:07:30,300
- After withdrawing from
the Deer Working Group,

1640
01:07:30,300 --> 01:07:32,490
the John Muir Trust filed for a permit

1641
01:07:32,490 --> 01:07:35,280
with Nature Scot to
conduct night shooting.

1642
01:07:35,280 --> 01:07:37,440
Amidst tensions with the neighbors,

1643
01:07:37,440 --> 01:07:40,290
Balharry expressed a drastic stance

1644
01:07:40,290 --> 01:07:43,470
stating he would kill every deer he could.

1645
01:07:43,470 --> 01:07:45,540
The John Muir Trust are not stalking.

1646
01:07:45,540 --> 01:07:46,710
They're not stalking the deer.

1647
01:07:46,710 --> 01:07:48,150
They're killing the deer.

1648
01:07:48,150 --> 01:07:50,850
Because as anyone who lives in
this part of the world knows,

1649
01:07:50,850 --> 01:07:55,171
it's very, very easy
to shoot deer at night.

1650
01:07:55,171 --> 01:07:58,500
They don't run when there are
bright lights shone on them.

1651
01:07:58,500 --> 01:08:00,420
Generally, they stand still.

1652
01:08:00,420 --> 01:08:02,610
What has made people very angry of late

1653
01:08:02,610 --> 01:08:05,050
is that there are reports of animals

1654
01:08:06,810 --> 01:08:09,670
being found outside of Quinag

1655
01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:12,960
having been shot but not killed.

1656
01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:16,050
In the dark, if you hit but don't kill,

1657
01:08:16,050 --> 01:08:18,420
it's very difficult to track an animal.

1658
01:08:18,420 --> 01:08:19,740
One of the two stalkers

1659
01:08:19,740 --> 01:08:21,870
who is doing the nighttime shooting

1660
01:08:21,870 --> 01:08:26,190
is the chief executive
officer of JMT himself,

1661
01:08:26,190 --> 01:08:27,023
Mr. Balharry.

1662
01:08:27,023 --> 01:08:27,856
Now, you would think

1663
01:08:27,856 --> 01:08:30,720
that the role of a chief executive officer

1664
01:08:30,720 --> 01:08:33,720
is quite an important one in a business

1665
01:08:33,720 --> 01:08:35,610
as big as the John Muir Trust,

1666
01:08:35,610 --> 01:08:40,200
but the fact that he can
spend hours off his life

1667
01:08:40,200 --> 01:08:43,110
driving from where he lives south of here,

1668
01:08:43,110 --> 01:08:45,270
a couple of hours in the middle of winter

1669
01:08:45,270 --> 01:08:50,270
to come up and shoot deer,
not stop deer, but shoot deer,

1670
01:08:50,520 --> 01:08:54,990
seems to me that there's a,
there may be a problem with him

1671
01:08:54,990 --> 01:08:57,543
as well as a problem with Nature Scot.

1672
01:08:58,530 --> 01:09:01,950
We are what we thought
the Scottish government

1673
01:09:01,950 --> 01:09:03,600
would like us to be.

1674
01:09:03,600 --> 01:09:05,970
In relation to deer in particular,

1675
01:09:05,970 --> 01:09:10,110
they seem, in a strange way,
hell bent on destroying us.

1676
01:09:10,110 --> 01:09:12,630
- The sporting estates
roundabout are anxious.

1677
01:09:12,630 --> 01:09:14,587
We've gotta work that
situation with them to say,

1678
01:09:14,587 --> 01:09:17,640
"Look, you know, our
intent is to kill more deer

1679
01:09:17,640 --> 01:09:19,290
and we will," but we're
trying to work with them

1680
01:09:19,290 --> 01:09:22,470
to find a solution to the deer
that are crossing the road.

1681
01:09:22,470 --> 01:09:24,750
So, we're aiming to get down to a density

1682
01:09:24,750 --> 01:09:27,480
of about sort of two to four
deer per square kilometer

1683
01:09:27,480 --> 01:09:28,530
across the estate.

1684
01:09:28,530 --> 01:09:31,950
- [Tom Opre] But what is the
total number of deer though?

1685
01:09:31,950 --> 01:09:32,783
Just now?

1686
01:09:33,630 --> 01:09:34,590
[Tome Opre] Before now,

1687
01:09:34,590 --> 01:09:36,990
I mean, you guys shot, you
know how many deer you shot.

1688
01:09:36,990 --> 01:09:39,000
I mean you have to report
that to the government.

1689
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:40,137
- Yeah, no, I do. So I'm saying-

1690
01:09:40,137 --> 01:09:41,940
- [Tom Opre] So, how many
deer did you guys shoot?

1691
01:09:41,940 --> 01:09:43,878
- Well, that's what I'm
saying it's about a hundred.

1692
01:09:43,878 --> 01:09:45,930
And so, we manage lots of estates.

1693
01:09:45,930 --> 01:09:48,570
I don't carry the exact
numbers round in my head.

1694
01:09:48,570 --> 01:09:50,420
I could get them for you in a second.

1695
01:09:54,301 --> 01:09:56,280
Less than 150,

1696
01:09:56,280 --> 01:09:58,533
but I mean the numbers is a,

1697
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:03,030
it's to debate the numbers

1698
01:10:03,030 --> 01:10:04,953
is to miss the point entirely.

1699
01:10:05,790 --> 01:10:08,010
It's about getting the habitat

1700
01:10:08,010 --> 01:10:10,230
and getting the trees to grow.

1701
01:10:10,230 --> 01:10:12,210
So, whatever numbers of
deer need to be culled

1702
01:10:12,210 --> 01:10:14,874
to get the trees to grow,
that's what we'll do.

1703
01:10:14,874 --> 01:10:17,340
- [Tom Opre] A hundred,
less than 150 were taken.

1704
01:10:17,340 --> 01:10:19,770
Did you take all the
deer off of the estate

1705
01:10:19,770 --> 01:10:24,210
or you know, 50%, 20%, 10%?

1706
01:10:24,210 --> 01:10:25,043
- Most of
- I'm just

1707
01:10:25,043 --> 01:10:26,430
trying to get some sort of idea

1708
01:10:26,430 --> 01:10:27,630
of what really was there.

1709
01:10:27,630 --> 01:10:30,783
What propagated you guys
to get these permits?

1710
01:10:32,340 --> 01:10:33,270
What was the motivation?

1711
01:10:33,270 --> 01:10:36,120
I know it's to get deer densities
down, I understand that,

1712
01:10:36,120 --> 01:10:39,007
but there had to be
something that triggers like,

1713
01:10:39,007 --> 01:10:42,990
"Hey, we're seeing X amount of
deer here we need to remove."

1714
01:10:42,990 --> 01:10:45,180
And how do you determine how many deer

1715
01:10:45,180 --> 01:10:46,937
you need to remove there at Quinag?

1716
01:10:48,128 --> 01:10:48,961
Um,

1717
01:10:51,390 --> 01:10:54,210
so you get the authorizations

1718
01:10:54,210 --> 01:10:56,160
for shooting deer outta season.

1719
01:10:56,160 --> 01:11:00,037
Come on the back of an argument that says,

1720
01:11:00,037 --> 01:11:02,640
"Is it necessary to prevent damage?"

1721
01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:06,090
Damage to what? Damage to
trees that are growing.

1722
01:11:06,090 --> 01:11:09,840
If you control deer in the
seasons, then that's fine.

1723
01:11:09,840 --> 01:11:12,360
You can prevent the damage in season,

1724
01:11:12,360 --> 01:11:14,820
but then the new growth
will simply get browsed off

1725
01:11:14,820 --> 01:11:18,180
in the wintertime, unless you
continue to shoot the deer.

1726
01:11:18,180 --> 01:11:19,500
So that's it, that's the logic

1727
01:11:19,500 --> 01:11:20,730
for getting an out season shooting.

1728
01:11:20,730 --> 01:11:23,490
It means that you are unable
to protect your habitats,

1729
01:11:23,490 --> 01:11:24,960
because there are deer on the ground

1730
01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:27,030
in the out of season period.

1731
01:11:27,030 --> 01:11:29,010
- [Tom Opre] The deer
that you did harvest,

1732
01:11:29,010 --> 01:11:30,750
did you guys leave the
carcasses on the hill

1733
01:11:30,750 --> 01:11:32,490
or were they sold?

1734
01:11:32,490 --> 01:11:34,530
- Majority of them were
taken off the hill.

1735
01:11:34,530 --> 01:11:36,705
Actually leaving carcasses on the hill

1736
01:11:36,705 --> 01:11:37,920
is quite a good thing to do.

1737
01:11:37,920 --> 01:11:40,410
Rather than them being
left as a result of death

1738
01:11:40,410 --> 01:11:42,693
by starvation, or malnutrition,

1739
01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:45,840
or just inability to access shelter.

1740
01:11:45,840 --> 01:11:47,640
These ones are humanely
shot and then left.

1741
01:11:47,640 --> 01:11:52,380
And, you know, other
animals can then benefit

1742
01:11:52,380 --> 01:11:53,649
from the carcasses.

1743
01:11:53,649 --> 01:11:54,482
(air whooshing)
(birds chirping)

1744
01:11:54,482 --> 01:11:56,850
- [Tom Opre] Scottish law
allows for hostile buyouts

1745
01:11:56,850 --> 01:11:59,250
by the community of
neighboring landowners,

1746
01:11:59,250 --> 01:12:01,920
if the landowner in question
is running an estate

1747
01:12:01,920 --> 01:12:03,663
to the detriment of its neighbors.

1748
01:12:04,530 --> 01:12:07,290
It is possible to mount

1749
01:12:07,290 --> 01:12:11,370
what would be a hostile
buyout of that estate

1750
01:12:11,370 --> 01:12:14,130
simply in order to eliminate
the social problem,

1751
01:12:14,130 --> 01:12:15,390
which they're causing.

1752
01:12:15,390 --> 01:12:18,210
But I think that there
are enough local people

1753
01:12:18,210 --> 01:12:20,460
so enraged at what's been going on

1754
01:12:20,460 --> 01:12:22,770
that I don't think it
would be very difficult

1755
01:12:22,770 --> 01:12:26,430
to form such a community group.

1756
01:12:26,430 --> 01:12:28,650
David, the Assynt Crofters' Trust

1757
01:12:28,650 --> 01:12:30,690
regards the deer as an asset,

1758
01:12:30,690 --> 01:12:34,140
utilizing them for food, stalking jobs,

1759
01:12:34,140 --> 01:12:37,200
and promoting tourism as
the tourists need lodging

1760
01:12:37,200 --> 01:12:39,120
and meals on the peninsula.

1761
01:12:39,120 --> 01:12:41,520
- The Assynt Crofters' Trust
is a kind of a peculiar model.

1762
01:12:41,520 --> 01:12:43,710
It was, as you say, one of the first ones,

1763
01:12:43,710 --> 01:12:45,900
but it's not exactly a
community ownership model.

1764
01:12:45,900 --> 01:12:48,480
It's a group of crofters

1765
01:12:48,480 --> 01:12:51,840
who own the landlord's
interest in their land.

1766
01:12:51,840 --> 01:12:54,240
And for them to exercise

1767
01:12:54,240 --> 01:12:56,400
or for that bit of
legislation to be exercised,

1768
01:12:56,400 --> 01:12:58,260
it would have to be the community.

1769
01:12:58,260 --> 01:13:00,210
And, you know, ideally if the community

1770
01:13:00,210 --> 01:13:03,030
were able to manage in
perpetuity that area of land

1771
01:13:03,030 --> 01:13:04,410
for its natural assets,

1772
01:13:04,410 --> 01:13:07,110
that would be a phenomenal
outcome to aim for.

1773
01:13:07,110 --> 01:13:09,000
- I'm reading in the
paper, they're discussing

1774
01:13:09,000 --> 01:13:11,490
enacting the clause and the law.

1775
01:13:11,490 --> 01:13:13,170
So, how do you respond?

1776
01:13:13,170 --> 01:13:14,720
Well, so it's fine.

1777
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:15,777
So the first thing we would sort of say

1778
01:13:15,777 --> 01:13:17,940
is, well, let's speak to the community

1779
01:13:17,940 --> 01:13:20,190
and let's see what their
land use objectives are.

1780
01:13:20,190 --> 01:13:21,180
What it boils down to

1781
01:13:21,180 --> 01:13:23,940
is that you've got one
group of private interests,

1782
01:13:23,940 --> 01:13:26,370
the landlord's interest
in a crofting estate,

1783
01:13:26,370 --> 01:13:28,950
wanting at the moment to buy the asset

1784
01:13:28,950 --> 01:13:30,870
of another private individual.

1785
01:13:30,870 --> 01:13:34,260
So, there's two property
rights that are at stake there

1786
01:13:34,260 --> 01:13:36,060
and neither of those property rights

1787
01:13:36,060 --> 01:13:38,400
represents a geographic community.

1788
01:13:38,400 --> 01:13:41,670
It can work if there's a
genuine community thing there

1789
01:13:41,670 --> 01:13:43,290
that shows it's detrimental,

1790
01:13:43,290 --> 01:13:46,350
but I think it can only work
if the owners wanted to sell.

1791
01:13:46,350 --> 01:13:49,200
It's not, you can't sort
of force the sale with it.

1792
01:13:49,200 --> 01:13:53,220
- People assumed that
legislation would only be used

1793
01:13:53,220 --> 01:13:55,083
against private owners.

1794
01:13:56,490 --> 01:13:59,190
No one envisaged that that legislation

1795
01:13:59,190 --> 01:14:01,590
would be used against
an environmental group.

1796
01:14:01,590 --> 01:14:04,050
It's a nuclear option in lots of ways.

1797
01:14:04,050 --> 01:14:06,633
(lively music)

1798
01:14:09,600 --> 01:14:12,480
- I'm in Strathglass in
the Scottish Highlands

1799
01:14:12,480 --> 01:14:15,060
and all around me is wildfire.

1800
01:14:15,060 --> 01:14:17,640
This wildfire burned over
the last seven or eight days

1801
01:14:17,640 --> 01:14:19,230
and it is the largest wildfire

1802
01:14:19,230 --> 01:14:21,540
to ever occur in the United Kingdom.

1803
01:14:21,540 --> 01:14:23,520
It started about three miles over there,

1804
01:14:23,520 --> 01:14:25,110
three and a half miles.

1805
01:14:25,110 --> 01:14:27,565
And it burned initially towards Cannich,

1806
01:14:27,565 --> 01:14:29,850
and then it kind of settled a wee bit

1807
01:14:29,850 --> 01:14:31,440
or at least it seemed that way.

1808
01:14:31,440 --> 01:14:33,537
And then, yeah, then it
started coming towards us

1809
01:14:33,537 --> 01:14:36,000
and the day it hit here
was the day it just,

1810
01:14:36,000 --> 01:14:38,190
it was tearing all over the place.

1811
01:14:38,190 --> 01:14:39,930
You know, the helicopter was on site,

1812
01:14:39,930 --> 01:14:43,530
the Forestry Commission,
RSPB, the Fire Service,

1813
01:14:43,530 --> 01:14:44,970
everyone was trying their absolute best,

1814
01:14:44,970 --> 01:14:46,800
but they couldn't shoot
water at it from in front.

1815
01:14:46,800 --> 01:14:48,660
It was coming too fast, too hot.

1816
01:14:48,660 --> 01:14:49,880
You know, it was along the top of this

1817
01:14:49,880 --> 01:14:52,214
or the side of this ridge here.

1818
01:14:52,214 --> 01:14:55,290
That was the time where
the gamekeepers turned up

1819
01:14:55,290 --> 01:14:58,500
and started lighting fires this way.

1820
01:14:58,500 --> 01:15:00,390
And the two fires sort of came together

1821
01:15:00,390 --> 01:15:02,100
and they completely turned it.

1822
01:15:02,100 --> 01:15:05,760
In fact, you can see the furthest west

1823
01:15:05,760 --> 01:15:08,193
and extent of the fire
over there on my ridge.

1824
01:15:09,690 --> 01:15:12,090
I mean they literally
made it do 90 degrees.

1825
01:15:12,090 --> 01:15:13,500
It was kind of like the
weirdest thing, you know.

1826
01:15:13,500 --> 01:15:15,840
Here we were firing water
at absolutely everything.

1827
01:15:15,840 --> 01:15:17,820
Another dude stand up
and set fire to stuff

1828
01:15:17,820 --> 01:15:19,650
and that's actually what saved it

1829
01:15:19,650 --> 01:15:21,090
from being an awful lot worse.

1830
01:15:21,090 --> 01:15:22,860
I'm not saying the helicopters
wouldn't have caught it,

1831
01:15:22,860 --> 01:15:26,250
but it was just the fire
could have just forked,

1832
01:15:26,250 --> 01:15:28,110
could have gone in all sorts
of different directions

1833
01:15:28,110 --> 01:15:30,150
and none of the people on the ground

1834
01:15:30,150 --> 01:15:30,990
could do anything about it.

1835
01:15:30,990 --> 01:15:32,310
They couldn't get near it.

1836
01:15:32,310 --> 01:15:34,950
Ultimately, the gamekeepers
just controlled.

1837
01:15:34,950 --> 01:15:36,120
They sort of corralled it

1838
01:15:36,120 --> 01:15:38,340
and just stopped it from spreading.

1839
01:15:38,340 --> 01:15:42,150
That skill, experience, knowledge,

1840
01:15:42,150 --> 01:15:44,970
specialist stuff, the gamekeepers

1841
01:15:44,970 --> 01:15:47,580
had a significant positive
impact on the outcome.

1842
01:15:47,580 --> 01:15:48,990
No question about it.

1843
01:15:48,990 --> 01:15:51,730
I mean, this fire happened

1844
01:15:52,920 --> 01:15:57,420
in large part on ground
that was vegetated heavily.

1845
01:15:57,420 --> 01:15:58,830
You know, we're a non-sporting estate.

1846
01:15:58,830 --> 01:15:59,970
We don't burn.

1847
01:15:59,970 --> 01:16:01,830
I mean the temptation,
I guess, from people

1848
01:16:01,830 --> 01:16:04,470
who are opposed to
conservation, rewilding,

1849
01:16:04,470 --> 01:16:05,730
whatever you wanna call it

1850
01:16:05,730 --> 01:16:09,030
is to say that we made
life worse for ourselves

1851
01:16:09,030 --> 01:16:11,190
by having all this ground cover.

1852
01:16:11,190 --> 01:16:12,090
There's no getting away from it.

1853
01:16:12,090 --> 01:16:14,123
We're increasing the fuel
burden on the ground.

1854
01:16:14,123 --> 01:16:16,620
There's no way to get away from that.

1855
01:16:16,620 --> 01:16:17,910
That is happening.

1856
01:16:17,910 --> 01:16:20,970
There is more to burn
on a rewild landscape

1857
01:16:20,970 --> 01:16:23,490
than there is on on the opposite.

1858
01:16:23,490 --> 01:16:27,090
I think it's a fact we're
gonna have more fires.

1859
01:16:27,090 --> 01:16:29,160
That's a fact. We are not prepared.

1860
01:16:29,160 --> 01:16:31,770
We are fundamentally
unprepared at the moment,

1861
01:16:31,770 --> 01:16:33,840
unless you're on a sporting
estate, for example,

1862
01:16:33,840 --> 01:16:36,870
which manages a mosaic of burnt habitat

1863
01:16:36,870 --> 01:16:38,460
for different purposes.

1864
01:16:38,460 --> 01:16:40,770
To me, it's bringing in an expert.

1865
01:16:40,770 --> 01:16:43,110
Somebody like the keepers who
are here fighting this fire,

1866
01:16:43,110 --> 01:16:43,943
bring them in and say,

1867
01:16:43,943 --> 01:16:47,760
"What can I do to limit my chances

1868
01:16:47,760 --> 01:16:49,688
of experiencing this again?"

1869
01:16:49,688 --> 01:16:51,930
(bright music)

1870
01:16:51,930 --> 01:16:53,700
Intensive grouse moor management

1871
01:16:53,700 --> 01:16:55,650
backed by scientific evidence

1872
01:16:55,650 --> 01:16:58,170
yields positive outcomes for nature.

1873
01:16:58,170 --> 01:17:01,590
However, running such
operations incurs annual costs

1874
01:17:01,590 --> 01:17:03,720
in the hundreds of thousands of pounds,

1875
01:17:03,720 --> 01:17:06,810
making ownership of
privilege for the wealthy.

1876
01:17:06,810 --> 01:17:09,690
Simply put, conservation requires funding.

1877
01:17:09,690 --> 01:17:12,660
Dee Ward of Rottal Estate
stands out as a landowner

1878
01:17:12,660 --> 01:17:15,990
who embraces common sense
solutions, managing the lands

1879
01:17:15,990 --> 01:17:19,404
to benefit nature while
permitting limited ground shooting

1880
01:17:19,404 --> 01:17:23,730
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)

1881
01:17:23,730 --> 01:17:25,650
Come to my estate,

1882
01:17:25,650 --> 01:17:27,480
let's see how much wildlife we have.

1883
01:17:27,480 --> 01:17:30,570
Let's assess all these things.
Let's go to another place.

1884
01:17:30,570 --> 01:17:33,000
You pick a state of your
choice in the uplands

1885
01:17:33,000 --> 01:17:34,740
that does the same thing that I do.

1886
01:17:34,740 --> 01:17:37,260
It's upland. It's not a lowlander estate.

1887
01:17:37,260 --> 01:17:38,520
It's not full of trees.

1888
01:17:38,520 --> 01:17:40,170
It's upland.

1889
01:17:40,170 --> 01:17:41,457
And let's see what wildlife they have

1890
01:17:41,457 --> 01:17:44,730
and let's have a reason
debate about it because I bet,

1891
01:17:44,730 --> 01:17:47,850
and I'll say it now, I bet
that I will have more wildlife

1892
01:17:47,850 --> 01:17:49,680
than any other estate you could show me

1893
01:17:49,680 --> 01:17:51,690
that doesn't shoot grouse.

1894
01:17:51,690 --> 01:17:54,330
I think these things
should be based on facts,

1895
01:17:54,330 --> 01:17:56,100
not on emotion.

1896
01:17:56,100 --> 01:17:57,210
All these gullies

1897
01:17:57,210 --> 01:17:59,730
where the rivers or the the streams run,

1898
01:17:59,730 --> 01:18:03,810
the watercourse run, have
very few trees in them.

1899
01:18:03,810 --> 01:18:07,650
Down below, we've got trees
planted along the watercourse.

1900
01:18:07,650 --> 01:18:10,470
The aim is that they will
get big and shade the water.

1901
01:18:10,470 --> 01:18:13,110
And one of the aims is that
we improve the water quality

1902
01:18:13,110 --> 01:18:16,740
by keeping it cool and we
keep the river health high

1903
01:18:16,740 --> 01:18:18,780
'cause it doesn't really
affect the grouse,

1904
01:18:18,780 --> 01:18:20,970
but it does improve the water quality.

1905
01:18:20,970 --> 01:18:22,200
And to be honest, when I got here,

1906
01:18:22,200 --> 01:18:23,670
I didn't know that was a thing to do,

1907
01:18:23,670 --> 01:18:25,623
but you learn as you experience things.

1908
01:18:26,550 --> 01:18:29,730
We are trying to create this
balance between the uplands

1909
01:18:29,730 --> 01:18:31,710
and where that merges
into the lower ground,

1910
01:18:31,710 --> 01:18:33,630
where the rivers are at
the bottom of the valley.

1911
01:18:33,630 --> 01:18:36,450
You've got the bottom
where you have the pasture.

1912
01:18:36,450 --> 01:18:37,283
You have wetland.

1913
01:18:37,283 --> 01:18:39,960
You have good habitat for
waders, things like that.

1914
01:18:39,960 --> 01:18:41,700
We then have a sort of middle section,

1915
01:18:41,700 --> 01:18:45,570
which is native tree planting
and some natural regeneration.

1916
01:18:45,570 --> 01:18:50,027
And then the top is moorland,
heather, grasses, and so on.

1917
01:18:50,027 --> 01:18:52,800
And the peat is like a
big sponge basically.

1918
01:18:52,800 --> 01:18:53,633
So, what we're trying to do

1919
01:18:53,633 --> 01:18:56,190
is restore that peat with a view that,

1920
01:18:56,190 --> 01:18:58,320
one, it's good for
wildlife and biodiversity.

1921
01:18:58,320 --> 01:19:00,720
Two, it stops carbon
emitting into the atmosphere.

1922
01:19:00,720 --> 01:19:02,460
But three and most importantly to me

1923
01:19:02,460 --> 01:19:05,220
is it captures that water as a big sponge

1924
01:19:05,220 --> 01:19:07,680
and it sits there rather
than create flooding

1925
01:19:07,680 --> 01:19:08,847
'cause as soon as we create flooding,

1926
01:19:08,847 --> 01:19:11,494
we damage our ecosystem.

1927
01:19:11,494 --> 01:19:13,469
(birds chirping)
(water guggling)

1928
01:19:13,469 --> 01:19:14,670
(dramatic music)

1929
01:19:14,670 --> 01:19:16,530
For Alex Jenkins and his family,

1930
01:19:16,530 --> 01:19:19,770
his dream job as the head
keeper at Edinglassie

1931
01:19:19,770 --> 01:19:21,346
has come to an end.

1932
01:19:21,346 --> 01:19:24,390
(gentle music)

1933
01:19:24,390 --> 01:19:25,657
Let me give you a boozy.

1934
01:19:25,657 --> 01:19:28,373
(Alex Jenkins laughing)

1935
01:19:28,373 --> 01:19:29,206
There we go.

1936
01:19:29,206 --> 01:19:30,330
Thanks, Pam. Thank you.

1937
01:19:30,330 --> 01:19:32,070
It's been a pleasure, Alex.

1938
01:19:32,070 --> 01:19:33,990
I wish you all the best
in everything you do.

1939
01:19:33,990 --> 01:19:35,280
Yeah, thank you.

1940
01:19:35,280 --> 01:19:36,234
I'm going to cry.

1941
01:19:36,234 --> 01:19:37,770
(Pam and Alex laughing)

1942
01:19:37,770 --> 01:19:40,360
I hate saying goodbye to people I know.

1943
01:19:41,433 --> 01:19:44,130
- I worry about the
viability of the industry

1944
01:19:44,130 --> 01:19:47,490
if we keep getting attacked
the way we're being attacked.

1945
01:19:47,490 --> 01:19:50,070
It's the pressure of
constantly having to fight

1946
01:19:50,070 --> 01:19:53,520
for our survival that I
have found quite tiresome.

1947
01:19:53,520 --> 01:19:55,950
I've been quite politically involved

1948
01:19:55,950 --> 01:19:58,260
certainly for the last
10 years of my career.

1949
01:19:58,260 --> 01:20:01,470
And every turn, we're having
a fight for our way of life.

1950
01:20:01,470 --> 01:20:04,623
I just, I feel it's almost
like death by a thousand cuts.

1951
01:20:05,576 --> 01:20:08,160
I've two young children,
both are primary age.

1952
01:20:08,160 --> 01:20:10,200
As a job going to the hill every day

1953
01:20:10,200 --> 01:20:14,220
and working with of wildlife,
I mean it's so rewarding

1954
01:20:14,220 --> 01:20:17,040
and it's been a fantastic
place for my kids to grow up.

1955
01:20:17,040 --> 01:20:20,010
It impacts on my family life quite a lot.

1956
01:20:20,010 --> 01:20:21,810
You know, there's constant
political lobbying,

1957
01:20:21,810 --> 01:20:23,760
just fighting for our future.

1958
01:20:23,760 --> 01:20:25,680
And I think it's certainly a factor

1959
01:20:25,680 --> 01:20:27,090
in the decision that I've made

1960
01:20:27,090 --> 01:20:29,580
as while my kids are young,

1961
01:20:29,580 --> 01:20:30,540
I'd certainly like the opportunity

1962
01:20:30,540 --> 01:20:31,560
to spend more time with 'em

1963
01:20:31,560 --> 01:20:34,500
and not have that constant worry

1964
01:20:34,500 --> 01:20:37,290
of where we will be in 10 years time,

1965
01:20:37,290 --> 01:20:38,970
if I'm still gonna have a job.

1966
01:20:38,970 --> 01:20:41,760
- Leaving Edinglassie is
gonna be really quite hard.

1967
01:20:41,760 --> 01:20:43,968
We've really loved our time here.

1968
01:20:43,968 --> 01:20:46,590
We haven't taken this decision lightly.

1969
01:20:46,590 --> 01:20:50,250
I mean this has been Alex's
whole working career,

1970
01:20:50,250 --> 01:20:52,410
has been based around gamekeeping.

1971
01:20:52,410 --> 01:20:54,570
The job has changed
for Alex over the years

1972
01:20:54,570 --> 01:20:56,160
in such a short time.

1973
01:20:56,160 --> 01:20:59,410
There's been so many changes
to the keeper in world

1974
01:21:00,660 --> 01:21:02,820
and it just gets tougher and tougher.

1975
01:21:02,820 --> 01:21:05,250
It takes a lot of time
away from the family

1976
01:21:05,250 --> 01:21:08,820
and we've realized over
the last year or two

1977
01:21:08,820 --> 01:21:11,142
that life's too short.

1978
01:21:11,142 --> 01:21:12,900
The countryside is what it is today

1979
01:21:12,900 --> 01:21:13,950
because of the keepers,

1980
01:21:13,950 --> 01:21:17,790
the way people enjoy taking
a tour over the hills,

1981
01:21:17,790 --> 01:21:20,940
enjoying, you know, the
heather and the patches.

1982
01:21:20,940 --> 01:21:24,480
And they won't see that
when the keepers are gone

1983
01:21:24,480 --> 01:21:27,630
'cause there's no one there
to maintain and manage it.

1984
01:21:27,630 --> 01:21:29,190
I think Alex has left industry

1985
01:21:29,190 --> 01:21:31,950
because like a lot of the rest of us,

1986
01:21:31,950 --> 01:21:34,290
we've been gradually getting worn down

1987
01:21:34,290 --> 01:21:39,250
by legislation, rules, regulations

1988
01:21:41,220 --> 01:21:43,730
just scrutinized every little thing we do.

1989
01:21:43,730 --> 01:21:45,213
It just becomes too much.

1990
01:21:46,514 --> 01:21:49,800
I mean, you're almost
demonized for being a keeper.

1991
01:21:49,800 --> 01:21:52,860
Unfortunately, we do have situations

1992
01:21:52,860 --> 01:21:54,333
where there are suicides.

1993
01:21:55,620 --> 01:22:00,210
There is more than one
a week in the country

1994
01:22:00,210 --> 01:22:02,943
who take their own lives in rural jobs,

1995
01:22:03,900 --> 01:22:05,848
more than one a week.

1996
01:22:05,848 --> 01:22:08,850
- The straw that broke
the camel's back for me

1997
01:22:08,850 --> 01:22:12,480
would've been the way the ban
on shooting mountain hares

1998
01:22:12,480 --> 01:22:14,970
was pushed through as a Stage 3 amendment

1999
01:22:14,970 --> 01:22:16,410
through the parliament.

2000
01:22:16,410 --> 01:22:19,080
And I just thought to myself, you know,

2001
01:22:19,080 --> 01:22:21,030
there's them in a heartbeat.

2002
01:22:21,030 --> 01:22:23,310
And I mean, the whole thing
probably took 15 minutes

2003
01:22:23,310 --> 01:22:25,440
in parliament, but it just legislated

2004
01:22:25,440 --> 01:22:30,440
half of my sporting cult
for the year just vanished.

2005
01:22:31,453 --> 01:22:34,620
I mean, it was quite an
inconsequential decision to be MSPs

2006
01:22:34,620 --> 01:22:35,760
who made that decision,

2007
01:22:35,760 --> 01:22:37,593
but to us up here, it was massive.

2008
01:22:38,910 --> 01:22:39,877
And the way it went through, I thought,

2009
01:22:39,877 --> 01:22:41,880
"Well if they've done this once,

2010
01:22:41,880 --> 01:22:43,980
they've got a mechanism to do it again.

2011
01:22:43,980 --> 01:22:46,440
and there's some big fights to be fought."

2012
01:22:46,440 --> 01:22:48,660
All the votes in Scotland
are in the Central Belt.

2013
01:22:48,660 --> 01:22:49,920
I mean, it's a widely known fact.

2014
01:22:49,920 --> 01:22:51,360
Most of the voting population

2015
01:22:51,360 --> 01:22:52,960
is between Moscow and Edinburgh.

2016
01:22:53,804 --> 01:22:55,879
There's not enough of us
involved in this industry.

2017
01:22:55,879 --> 01:22:56,790
There's not enough of us living

2018
01:22:56,790 --> 01:23:00,471
in these remote clans to really matter.

2019
01:23:00,471 --> 01:23:02,580
But the Scottish government
just doesn't seem to care.

2020
01:23:02,580 --> 01:23:04,500
I mean, that's increasingly obvious

2021
01:23:04,500 --> 01:23:06,780
with every new bit of
legislation that comes through,

2022
01:23:06,780 --> 01:23:09,630
what disregard they have for
what happens in these hills.

2023
01:23:10,629 --> 01:23:11,619
Yeah.

2024
01:23:11,619 --> 01:23:13,770
(solemn music)

2025
01:23:13,770 --> 01:23:15,720
Change is something that human beings

2026
01:23:15,720 --> 01:23:18,060
don't necessarily welcome easily.

2027
01:23:18,060 --> 01:23:20,700
We're not comfortable with
it, but change is inevitable.

2028
01:23:20,700 --> 01:23:22,768
And I think in some
cases, it's desirable too.

2029
01:23:22,768 --> 01:23:25,320
So, it is true to say

2030
01:23:25,320 --> 01:23:28,800
that what you might term
traditional land uses,

2031
01:23:28,800 --> 01:23:31,260
and by that I mean sheep farming,

2032
01:23:31,260 --> 01:23:34,830
grouse shooting, upland
deer stalking, et cetera,

2033
01:23:34,830 --> 01:23:35,730
they are under pressure.

2034
01:23:35,730 --> 01:23:37,260
They are under scrutiny.

2035
01:23:37,260 --> 01:23:40,680
And in some cases, they
are being phased out.

2036
01:23:40,680 --> 01:23:41,970
I don't believe

2037
01:23:41,970 --> 01:23:45,870
and I see absolutely no
evidence for this notion

2038
01:23:45,870 --> 01:23:50,130
that rewilding automatically
leads to de-peopling.

2039
01:23:50,130 --> 01:23:52,290
There's no evidence of that whatsoever.

2040
01:23:52,290 --> 01:23:55,200
So if you go, for
example, up to Glenfeshie,

2041
01:23:55,200 --> 01:23:57,060
which is just a few miles from here,

2042
01:23:57,060 --> 01:24:00,210
there are more people living
and working in that landscape

2043
01:24:00,210 --> 01:24:02,580
than there have been for
the last 20, 30 years.

2044
01:24:02,580 --> 01:24:05,850
Still the same dear
stalkers, land managers,

2045
01:24:05,850 --> 01:24:07,650
but you've also got fencing contractors.

2046
01:24:07,650 --> 01:24:11,010
You've got peatland restoration experts.

2047
01:24:11,010 --> 01:24:14,010
You've got scientists,
researchers, tourism operators,

2048
01:24:14,010 --> 01:24:15,450
hospitality providers.

2049
01:24:15,450 --> 01:24:18,540
All of these businesses
in one way or another

2050
01:24:18,540 --> 01:24:20,370
are a reflection of the landscape

2051
01:24:20,370 --> 01:24:22,620
that is in recovery or
rewilding, if you like.

2052
01:24:22,620 --> 01:24:24,090
I understand the fear,

2053
01:24:24,090 --> 01:24:27,690
but I don't think there's
any serious foundation in it.

2054
01:24:27,690 --> 01:24:30,660
I can somewhat relate to the sadness

2055
01:24:30,660 --> 01:24:33,240
and the anguish of how
those individuals may feel.

2056
01:24:33,240 --> 01:24:35,880
'cause my background is I'm from Zimbabwe

2057
01:24:35,880 --> 01:24:38,670
and my father was a farmer out there

2058
01:24:38,670 --> 01:24:42,900
and a lot of the white farmers
were removed from their land.

2059
01:24:42,900 --> 01:24:45,540
And it's not something that
I would want the people here

2060
01:24:45,540 --> 01:24:47,003
to ever experience

2061
01:24:47,003 --> 01:24:49,586
(solemn music)

2062
01:24:55,845 --> 01:24:58,512
(bird chirping)

2063
01:25:01,580 --> 01:25:03,160
Currently where we are

2064
01:25:04,410 --> 01:25:09,120
and it's pretty much
agreed that we give nature

2065
01:25:09,120 --> 01:25:11,910
a foothold, a boost up.

2066
01:25:11,910 --> 01:25:15,840
And we allow nature to
kind of then kind of work

2067
01:25:15,840 --> 01:25:19,863
with what we're doing, because
we are part of the landscape.

2068
01:25:21,150 --> 01:25:24,300
There's no denying that we are part of it

2069
01:25:24,300 --> 01:25:27,510
from year to where we are now.

2070
01:25:27,510 --> 01:25:30,330
And it's our involvement
has gone up and down

2071
01:25:30,330 --> 01:25:31,522
over thousands of years

2072
01:25:31,522 --> 01:25:34,290
with the landscapes that we live in.

2073
01:25:34,290 --> 01:25:37,950
So yeah, we mustn't go down the road

2074
01:25:37,950 --> 01:25:40,165
of having another highland
clearance, if you like.

2075
01:25:40,165 --> 01:25:42,748
(solemn music)

2076
01:25:44,957 --> 01:25:48,240
- In the heart of Scotland,
a silent battle rages

2077
01:25:48,240 --> 01:25:51,270
and the very essence of the
highlands is under threat.

2078
01:25:51,270 --> 01:25:53,850
As rural guardians, keepers, gillies,

2079
01:25:53,850 --> 01:25:58,320
and stalkers are edged out
of their ancestral lands.

2080
01:25:58,320 --> 01:26:00,540
Conservation is wisdom in action.

2081
01:26:00,540 --> 01:26:04,320
Keepers of the unsung heroes,
custodians of the land,

2082
01:26:04,320 --> 01:26:06,480
but it's time for a new chapter

2083
01:26:06,480 --> 01:26:09,240
where their knowledge
protects not just the game

2084
01:26:09,240 --> 01:26:11,400
but entire ecosystems.

2085
01:26:11,400 --> 01:26:13,260
Rewilders and land stewards,

2086
01:26:13,260 --> 01:26:15,540
those keepers seek the same end,

2087
01:26:15,540 --> 01:26:17,520
a thriving, vibrant landscape,

2088
01:26:17,520 --> 01:26:19,950
yet history's weight drags them apart.

2089
01:26:19,950 --> 01:26:22,950
It's a struggle reminiscent
of the Highland Clearances,

2090
01:26:22,950 --> 01:26:26,070
a cultural genocide in slow motion.

2091
01:26:26,070 --> 01:26:28,530
What legacy will they
leave for the future?

2092
01:26:28,530 --> 01:26:31,260
It's a question echoing through the glens,

2093
01:26:31,260 --> 01:26:32,789
waiting for an answer.

2094
01:26:32,789 --> 01:26:35,956
(gentle solemn music)

2095
01:27:09,003 --> 01:27:13,003
(gentle solemn music continues)

2096
01:27:34,536 --> 01:27:37,119
(lively music)

2097
01:27:51,703 --> 01:27:55,536
(singing in foreign language)

2098
01:28:21,851 --> 01:28:24,434
(lively music)

2099
01:28:52,393 --> 01:28:55,810
(lively music continues)