Cairngorm National Park

“The Cairngorms National Park is home to one-quarter of Scotland’s native forest; one-third of the UK land above 600 meters; more breeding waders than the whole of Wales and a quarter of the rare and endangered species in the UK!” Listing a ‘national park’ may seem out of this site’s remit, but we aim to show just how widespread support for – and ‘normalisation’ of – the shooting industry really is, and while we applaud the biodiversity of Cairngorm NP we do find it astonishing that their website devotes much of a page on The Moorlands to greenwashing shooting. Grouse shooting especially is responsible for not only killing birds like Red Grouse, but is the reason why so many moorland birds of prey are persecuted, and why huge numbers of mammals like stoats, weasels, and foxes are shot or killed in traps. Yes, national parks are in fact largely just shooting galleries for ‘sportsmen’ but text that spreads the usual narrative about predators impacting rare waders, burning heather is really about creating habitat for ‘birds’, and how sheep are used to ‘mop up’ ticks without pointing that out and without an explanation that none of this is natural or would take place IN A NATIONAL PARK were it not for the demands of grouse shooting needs to be highlighted and challenged.