Regeneration is the story of this success, featuring not only the people who are protecting the land and quietly working to undo the wrongs of the past, but also the myriad creatures which inspire them to do so. The only problem was that due to centuries of abuse by human hands, the ancient Caledonian pinewoods were dying, and it would take radical measures to save them.Īfter 25 years of extremely hard work, the pinewoods, bogs, moors and mountains are returning to their former glory. Home to over 5,000 species, this vast expanse of Caledonian woodlands, subarctic mountains, bogs, moors, roaring burns and frozen lochs could be a place where environmental conservation and Highland field sports would exist in harmony. Regeneration: In 1995 the National Trust for Scotland acquired Mar Lodge Estate in the heart of the Cairngorms. In the process, Jenna comes to better understand the meaning of ‘wildness’, the shifting baselines of ‘rewilding’, and, in a world beset by climate change and species extinction, how to cope, both as an individual and as a society, with the concept of ecological grief. She meets the ‘Wolf Man’ of the Highlands, who wants to introduce the first wild wolves back into Scotland for over 300 years a mountain ecologist who ranges alone across the landscape to track the environmental impact of deer on Scotland’s upland ecosystem landowners who are reintroducing species like beaver onto their estates and a female deer stalker, who is trying to introduce more women into the male-dominated world of stalking and game-keeping.
This exploration leads her into the complex and often conflict-ridden world of the rewilding movement. Piece by piece and chapter by chapter she unravels the story of that one day spent hunting the hind, interlaced with her discovery that her ancestors were deer stalkers, game keepers and ghillies on a Highland estate, who once took part in increasingly controversial land practices like muirburn and species persecution. In 2019, Jenna Watt took part in the stalking of a hind on the vast Highland estate of Corrour: part of an immersive attempt to understand the ideas that lie behind ‘rewilding’, and what it means emotionally and physically to participate in Scotland’s deer cull. Nature-writers Jenna Watt and Andrew Painting join us to discuss their Highland Book Prize nominated books - Hindsight and Regeneration - the topic of rewilding and their work in sustainabiltiy, conservation and ecology in Scotland's rural landscape. Location: Christ Church Centre, 6A Morningside Road, EH10 4DD
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