John Muir Trust takes top award for work to protect  wild land

Credit: By Kirsty Topping | The Courier | 25 November 2014 | www.thecourier.co.uk ~~

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A Perthshire charity has been voted Outdoor Campaigner of the Year  for its work to protect  wild land.

The Pitlochry-based John Muir Trust wild land charity has topped a poll of more than 10,000 voters, organised by the TGO  magazine, to win the top prize in this year’s Great Outdoors Awards.

The victory was announced at a ceremony in Kendal in Cumbria. Around 100 people attended the event, including retailers, outdoor gear manufacturers, tourism businesses, writers and photographers.

Also there was Sir Chris Bonington, who won this year’s Outdoor Personality of the Year award.

TGO magazine’s acting editor, Daniel Nielson,  presented the award to  Jeremy Prall from the  John Muir Trust’s  fundraising team.

Mr Prall said: “With one or two high-profile campaigns also nominated, I wasn’t expecting the trust  to pick up Outdoors  Campaigner of the Year. So it was a pleasant surprise when Daniel said ‘… and the winner is… the John Muir Trust’.

“It’s a great tribute to a very busy and highly successful year of campaigning in the trust. The publication in June of the Wild Land Areas map of Scotland and its recognition in national planning policy by the  Scottish Government was the obvious highlight.

“However, as John Muir said, ‘the battle for conservation will go on endlessly’, and we are now involved  in a major legal challenge  to stop the giant  Stronelairg windfarm in the Monadhliath Mountains near Loch Ness.”

The John Muir Trust looks after several sites in Scotland, including Perthshire’s Schiehallion mountain, which sees 20,000  visitors each year and is home to more than 300  animal and plant species.

This year it called in Blairgowrie footpath specialists Upland Access, which will tackle some of the more complex repairs on footpaths on the site, after volunteers spent a  decade maintaining them.

The £10, 000 programme of work was carried out because the poor state of the paths was leading to  damage to other areas of the mountainside.

Source: By Kirsty Topping | The Courier | 25 November 2014 | www.thecourier.co.uk

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