SECURING THE BREEDING SEASON NEXT YEAR
Hi All
Thanks so much to all of you who have spoken out on the behalf of the wildcat and contacted Simon Hodgson, Chief Executive of Forestry and Land Scotland, about logging during the wildcat breeding season. You all got a standard response which contained this remarkable and contradictory statement.
‘I can confirm that all of the harvesting operations on Scotland’s national forests and land in Clashindarroch were completed by the 31 January 2023, prior to the start of the breeding season’.
For the avoidance of any doubt, it is a scientific fact and widely accepted that the Scottish wildcat breeding season starts in January. So we had the Chief executive of Forestry and Land Scotland confirming in writing that logging has taken place during the wildcat breeding season.
Many of you then followed up with further questions. You have sent us the response you received. Again you have all been sent a standard response with scant information that has avoided many of the questions you asked.
We believe this is simply not acceptable from the Chief Executive of a public organisation. No acknowledgement whatsoever has been made that logging has indeed taken place in the breeding season (despite confirming it) and absolutely no reassurances have been given that come next January, they won’t be logging again.
The first response from Simon Hodgson is clearly misleading. Given that he states that the FLS are partners with the Governments wildcat project, it seems implausible that the Chief Executive and the people who advise him, are unaware of the fact that January is a key time in the breeding season. Therefore, to claim that logging in January isn’t in the breeding season is an untenable and simply false position. EVERYONE who works on wildcats knows that January is part of the breeding season, including the relevant people in Forestry and Land Scotland.
We are very disappointed with the conduct and attitude of the Chief Executive and are going to raise a formal complaint. We feel he has misled the public, provided contradictory and incorrect information and dealt with genuine concerns in a high handed and dismissive manner. Most importantly, there is no acceptance that logging has occurred at a key time in the wildcat breeding cycle.
From your emails (and we read every all of them), we are not aware of a single one of you who is satisfied with the responses you have received from Simon Hodgson.
We will be complaining about the conduct of Simon Hodgson through the formal route using this email address:
complaints@forestryandland.gov.scot
If any of you are also dissatisfied with how your concerns have been dealt with, you also have the right to complain. Your complaint should be sent to the above email and needs to contain the following information:
Your full name and contact details
As much detail as possible about the complaint
How you wish the matter to be resolved
Our complaint will focus on these major themes:
1. The disruption that logging in January can cause to mating success and therefore the negative knock on impacts on the number of kittens born.
2. The conduct of Mr Hodgson.
As a resolution, we will also be asking for a very firm commitment that going forward, no logging will take place in the Clashindarroch, during any stage of the wildcat breeding season. The wildcats need and deserve a chance to breed in peace. We really don’t think this is too much to ask.
As you know, we will see this through until the end.
Finally, we have noticed that since we raised this issue, the Scottish Government’s wildcat programme has put out PR message on social media about how great Forestry and Land Scotland are. They say ‘On World Wildlife Day we're celebrating project partner Forestry and land Scotland’s commitment to restoring land in Scotland for native species’. It’s shameless, and once again, as with the windfarm, the Government’s wildcat programme is simply used as a deflection and defence for destroying crucial wildcat habitat. So sad and so cynical.
As always, thank you so much for standing with us to give a voice to the voiceless.
Finlay updates coming very soon after a progress assessment by the vet this week. Rest assured he is thriving.
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Very best wishes
Emily (Director) and Finlay