Letter published in the Badenoch and Strathspey Herald 10 May 2012:

Sir,
Recently the Cairngorms National Park Authority were unanimously minded to approve a major development for a large retail outlet in Aviemore for which there is no reference in their local plan or any detailed associated 'Appropriate Assessment' or strategic assessment of environmental impacts, despite its proximity to a European Conservation Site. The proposal the CNPA supported conflicts with their own Policy 5 on Biodiversity and with the founding National Park legislation that gives legal primacy to the 1st aim of the Park where there is conflict with other aims. Further, the planning conditions do not follow best practice and, in terms of Scottish law, the CNPA have apparently breached their legal Biodiversity Duty.

Despite all this, and not to mention significant unaddressed concerns raised by Architecture + Design Scotland, senior CNPA board member, David Green, is quick to confidently conclude that the CNPA has achieved a "sustainable outcome as befits a National Park" (Strathy 'Park Talk' May 2).

Northern damselfly - Coenagrion hastulatum coenagrionidae

One of the environmental impacts of the Tesco superstore is the complete destruction of the former Santa Claus land lochan that for over a century has been known as a breeding site for one of our rarest damselfies, the Northern damselfly. This beautiful insect is restricted in the UK to only some 35 sites since it appears to require very specific conditions. It has its stronghold in the Cairngorms and is classed as 'endangered' in the UK because it faces a 'very high risk of extinction in the near future'. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the species that Scottish Ministers have listed as of principal importance for conservation in Scotland and, being on the Scottish Biodiversity List, is a treasure for which the CNPA has national legal responsibilities. In addition, this pool has been assessed as of the highest conservation value and supports a wealth of other wildlife, including rarities.

The CNPA have proposed translocating the damselfly and other wildlife to a different site. Rightly, the CNPA themselves recognise that such a move would be experimental and there is no guarantee of success. Such an operation has not been tried before, little is known about the northern damselfly, it has characteristically low populations at its breeding sites and the CNPA do not know whether an appropriate pond and surrounding habitat exists or could be created. If the CNPA seriously want a successful outcome they should have ensured best practice is carefully applied. But rather than maximise the chances of success, the CNPA's planning conditions fail to ensure best practice and do not follow national policy on translocations. This policy requires that the new population is monitored over several generations - that is several years - in order to assess the outcome of the translocation. It seems to BSCG particularly irresponsible that the CNPA have apparently not stipulated that the original lochan must be safeguarded until the translocation is known to have been successful.

Like the lochan, the Milton or Aviemore Burn that runs beside the Tesco site also has an unusually high conservation value. Tesco's own ecologists have reported that this burn supports the Northern February red stonefly. This rarity now occurs nowhere in the world other than certain parts of Scotland. We have an exceptional responsibility for this fascinating species, yeits existence and its vulnerable status.

It is time that the CNPA started to appreciate that poor planning is particularly unacceptable in a National Park. The 'air brushing out' of conflicts with the natural heritage and the failure seriously to address specific environmental concerns is a sure road to environmental deterioration.

Gus Jones
(Covener Badenoch and Strathspery Conservation Group)

As a result of bad planning a lochan in Aviemore could be tesco-ed needlessly destroying the home of the UK’s scarcest damselfly the northern damselfly (see Scottish Invertebrate News PDF).

BSCG is disappointed that our call to CNPA staff for a flawed planning paper to be withdrawn has been rejected .

The response by the CNPA to our call contained in a letter to senior CNPA staff  fails to explain why CNPA planners  have appeared to disregard guidelines on translocation that their own specialists have advised.

As reported on the front page of the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald (25 April) we have commented that:

“The translocation has to be demonstrated to be successful before the donor pond is destroyed and made into the Tesco car park. It is self evident that the existing donor lochan on the site must be safeguarded until several generations of the rarest species such as the northern damselfly have been proved to have successfully bred at any new pond”.

In our view the CNPA  planners are unnecessarily pursuing a course of action which rides roughshod over  the 2004 Nature Conservation Scotland Act.  As the CNPAs adviser has made plain  A translocation programme should follow the guidelines for translocating species as laid down by the JNCC “A Policy for Conservation”

BSCG will be making public how board members who are also standing for council elections will vote to help conservation minded voters make their choice in the forthcoming elections.

The Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) is for everyone who is interested in the flora of Britain and Ireland. It is the largest and most active organisation devoted to the study of botany in the British Isles.

The first ever checklist of vascular plants of the Cairngorms National Park has been compiled based on an analysis of 281,000 botanical records collected and compiled by the BSBI. The Checklist : The Flora of the Cairngorms National Park - An Annotated Checklist by Andy Amphlett is intended to be of interest and use to local and visiting naturalists, landowners and managers, professional agencies and visitors. Hopefully it will also be a stimulus to further recording. The Checklist is made freely available as a download from http://www.bsbi.org.uk/site_floras.html

The Checklist is available in summary pdf format, and as an Excel file. The latter provides the greatest flexibility for assessing the flora of any individual site against the CNP as a whole. This provides a powerful analytic tool to assess conservation significance, and will hopefully inform development decisions.

Heath cudweed Gnaphalium sylvaticum one of the scarce
plants BSCG has found at at a threatened site in Carrbridge.

The Checklist lists 1699 unique taxa, plus 34 aggregate taxa. 67.8% of taxa are native to the CNP, 6.4% archaeophyte (ancient introductions to GB) and 25.8% neophyte (recently introduced aliens). 123 taxa are endemic to Great Britain, of which 19 are endemic to the CNP and a further 57 endemic to Scotland. 1428 taxa (82.4%) have been recorded over the last 25 years, 1987 – 2011, while 106 taxa (6.1%) have not been seen since before 1970.

The table below summarises those native and archaeophyte taxa:

• Of international or national conservation concern.
• Rare in the CNP.
• Not recorded for >25 years in the CNP.
• Whose hectad (10km grid square) frequency in the CNP indicates that the CNP population is of moderate, high or very high significance within Great Britain.

The next phase of this project will be to compile a Cairngorms National Park Rare Plant Register. This will list the most recent record at each known site, for all c.758 taxa which are of national conservation concern or that are rare in the CNP.

BSBI especially through its system of vice-county recorders provided the bulk of the data. In the acknowledgements to his Check list the author lists the support provided by BSBI and Scottish Natural Heritage in undertaking the project. He further thanks NESBReC, NTS, RSPB, FES, and individual recorders for additional records and Tim Rich, Bert Reid and Mark Hill for support. Andy Amphlett and those who have helped him produce this important checklist are to be congratulated.

RSPB's caper project officer (Tim Poole) is giving a public talk on capercaillie on Monday 30th April at 7.30pm in Boat of Garten Community Hall.

Strathspey supports most of Scotland's population of this, one of most endangered and extraordinary birds.

The entry charge £4.50 (£4.00 for RSPB members) includes refreshments. Please note this talk is not organised by BSCG and is the first of a series of wildlife talks on Monday evenings in Boat of Garten Community Hall.