I haven’t sat through the whole film yet, but I’ve seen enough trails of it to fill me with concern about the activities of an American millionaire in the north-east of Scotland.

“You’ve Been Trumped”, by the Scots film-maker Anthony Baxter, has been awarded the Green Prize at the recent Sheffield Documentary Film Festival. Judges at the festival have been quoted as saying: “We hope that this award will raise awareness and hold Donald Trump to account for his environmental and social belligerence, and expose the corruption and incompetence at the heart of the Scottish authorities which let this destruction go ahead.” Strong words.

The film is about the activities of Donald Trump, who has continually rode roughshod over the concerns of local people as he creates what he describes as the “greatest golf course in the world.” Plans for the course include a luxury housing development and a top-class hotel.

It could be claimed, as our leaders Alex Salmond and John Swinney believe, that such a development is good for creating jobs and will bring a top class facility to the Aberdeen area, but it is the way that Donald Trump has gone about his business that has disgusted many people. His organization responded to the Anthony Baxter film with typical bluster and rudeness - something of a Trump trademark;

“Anthony Baxter has no credibility, and from what we have seen the film has been widely regarded as a failure,” a statement read. “We deal with national and international reporters and film-makers on a regular basis who handle themselves with professionalism and integrity. Baxter has neither attributes – he is a fraud and this film is a poor attempt at making money off the Trump name.”

But what is most concerning about this whole issue is that during the making of the film Baxter was charged by police with a breach of the peace. The charges were later reduced to a written warning, and eventually, after a challenge by Baxter, they were thrown out by the Procurator Fiscal.

To date, Baxter has received no apology from the police and the question has to be asked – who put the police up to it? What kind of hold does Trump have over the local constabulary in Aberdeenshire and why, when a respectable journalist is going about his legal business, is he arrested and charged with a breach of the peace?

Indeed, Paul Holleran, the Scottish boss of the National Union of Journalists, has apparently accused the police of doing Trump’s bidding in arresting Baxter and seizing his camera equipment. In a letter to the Sunday Herald newspaper he said: “The film raises some essential questions that should be directed towards the Trump organisation, the Scottish government and Grampian Police.”

The whole issue raises many questions about land use and land ownership in Scotland, issues that many people thought had been dealt with in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act of 2003, but it is extremely disquieting when a designated SSSI is dumped to make way for someone’s personal money making ambitions; is it even more disquieting when the country’s First Minister becomes involved and overrules the decision by the local council; and it’s positively worrying when it appears that the police appear to be taking sides.

And meanwhile, the remaining residents on the Menie Estate are being intimidated on a regular basis, according to the film.

“You’ve Been Trumped” received its Scottish premiere last week in Aberdeen. I hope it soon goes out on general release. The whole situation is a shame on Scotland.

www.you’vebeen trumped.com

A recent survey by Scottish Natural Heritage has found that the number Scottish adults visiting the outdoors for leisure or recreation at least once a week has increased. The figure has increased from 46% of the population in 2009 to 48% last year.

And perhaps not surprisingly, walking was the most popular outdoor activity, being the main activity on 73% of visits to the outdoors. The survey also estimated that Scots spent around £2.5 billion on trips to the outdoors in 2010.

Richard Davison, of the SNH’s people and landscapes programme, said: “This is great news. The reasons for the increase will be many and varied but we believe our work on encouraging more people to visit the outdoors and the excellent work being done by local authorities and many others is helping to inspire people to get outdoors.

The report is also great news for people like me who have spent years trying to encourage people to go walking in the bens and glens of Scotland but such numbers also pose potential problems for our hard-pressed mountain rescue teams.

Organisations like our local Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team have to raise considerable amounts of money every year to function at the very high standard that is expected of MR teams nowadays, and they have to rely very heavily on voluntary donations to maintain their services to walkers and climbers. A small amount of funding comes from Government sources but, as we expect our modern teams to be well equipped, well trained and offer a 24 hour, seven day a week service, they have to raise the vast majority of their not inconsiderable expenditure themselves.

That’s why I’ve signed up for this year’s Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team sponsored walk in Glen Feshie and I sincerely hope they will be plenty of others signing up too, particularly some of those who have just taking up hillwalking in the past year or so.

Not only is this an opportunity to enjoy a fabulous challenge walk in the incomparable surroundings of Glen Feshie, but it’s also a great chance to meet team members, see how they operate as a team, and learn that they are just ordinary walkers and climbers who come together on a regular basis to offer their time and commitment to help those often like-minded souls who get caught out in bad weather or bad luck in the mountains. I know there are those who get into trouble because of some stupid actions but you’ll very rarely hear mountain rescue team members criticise anyone.

The Cairngorm team’s bi-annual sponsored walk goes a long way to provide much of the income that required to keep the team functioning. And, touch wood, you never know when you’ll need their expert services…

The walk will start and finish at Corarnstilbeg in lower Glen Feshie and will climb through woodland before heading south through a remote heather glen where the remains of old settlements can be seen. The track then descends into Glen Feshie with spectacular views across the Moine Mhor to the high tops of Braeriach and Cairn Toul. The final stretch passes close to the estate house and circles back to join the start of the route south of Corarnstilbeg.

I hope you’ll join me and dozens of others on the sponsored walk on June 25^th, and enjoy the natural and magnificent beauty of Glen Feshie for yourself. Walk through woods of Scots pine, rowan, alder, birch and oak, home to red squirrel, pine marten, cresties and crossbill. You might even see golden eagle rise high above the highest natural treeline in Britain. It’s going to be a great day out, an 18-mile walk for a very good purpose.

You’ll get more information from www.cmrt.org.uk. See you there…

MANY of us have been saying it for years and now a report, put together by a number of government, academic, NGO and private sector institutions, appears to confirm it. Britain’s natural environment is worth billions of pounds a year, and nature gives us many benefits that we’d soon miss if they vanished.

The timing of this report is crucial as it’s only weeks since Scottish Natural Heritage issued its own report that suggests emphatically that we are losing our wild land areas at an alarming rate. And that wild land is being replaced by industrial sized windfarms that divide communities, ruin landscapes, affect tourism, make a minimal contribution to our energy needs and a negligible contribution towards reducing CO2 emissions.

At long last a quasi-governmental report agrees that the natural world has, God forbid, a monetary value, and since that is the only language politicians seem to understand then perhaps they might begin to take this research seriously.

The report by the UK National Ecosystem Assessment provides values for a range of ecosystem services to help us fully understand the value of the natural environment and how the benefits to individuals and society as a whole can be better protected and preserved for future generations.

Amongst the key findings of the assessment there is a suggestion that the natural world, its biodiversity and its constituent ecosystems are critically important to our well-being and economic prosperity, but are consistently undervalued in conventional economic analyses and decision making. I think many of us are well aware of this. It’s only too obvious that our decision-makers follow the usual mantra of jobs, jobs and more jobs without fully understanding the values, both philosophic and aesthetic, of wild land and nature. One of the most sickening aspects of the current wind-rush is how communities are being “bribed” by the promise of huge amounts of money, cash that is made available by putting up everyone’s (and that includes the poor, the sick, the elderly and the unemployed) fuel bills. Fuel poverty is now a reality in the UK while the energy companies enjoy massive profits.

In an unprecedented way, the UK NEA has used new approaches to estimate the value of the natural world by taking account of the economic, health and social benefits we get from nature.

While in the past people may have thought that caring for the environment meant extra financial burdens being placed on them, the UK NEA shows that there are real economic reasons for looking after nature. The NEA also shows that the benefits we get to our health, well being and from the enjoyment of nature have not always been fully appreciated or valued.

The assessment provides values for a range of ecosystem services to help us fully understand the value of the natural environment and how the benefits to individuals and society as a whole can be better protected and preserved for future generations.

Examples include the benefits that inland wetlands bring to water quality are worth up to £1.5billion per year to the UK. Pollinators are worth £430million per year to British agriculture; the amenity benefits of living close to rivers, coasts and other wetlands is worth up to £1.3billion per year to the UK; and the health benefits of living with a view of a green space are worth up to £300 per person per year.

Even more interesting is the admission that the tendency in the past has been to focus only on the market value of resources we can use and sell, such as timber, crops and fisheries. The report claims that attitude has led to the decline of some ecosystems and habitats through pollution, over-exploitation, and land conversion. We’re now paying the price for that kind of thinking.

The UK Government’s Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:

“The natural world is vital to our existence, providing us with essentials such as food, water and clean air, but also other cultural and health benefits not always fully appreciated because we get them for free. The UK National Ecosystem Assessment is a vital step forward in our ability to understand the true value of nature and how to sustain the benefits it gives us.

“I want our children to be the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than it was left to them. In 50 years time I want them to be able to look back and see how much the value of nature has grown, not diminished. The findings of this assessment have played a big part in shaping our forthcoming Natural Environment White Paper that will help us revitalise our towns and countryside.”

Mmm, could be worth watching…