Protecting Glencoe National Nature Reserve: In conversation with Ranger Scott McCombie

Set in the heart of the Scottish Highlands, Glencoe National Nature Reserve is an extraordinary landscape of soaring mountains and winding rivers. It’s a hiker’s paradise, with eight Munros (mountain peaks that are 3,000 feet or over) watching over the glen. It’s a world-famous movie location featuring in the likes of Harry Potter, Skyfall, Braveheart, Outlaw King, Rob Roy and The 39 Steps. Glencoe is also the home of Scottish lore and history. The Celtic legend Fingal is said to have made his home here while his son Ossian found inspiration in these landscapes for his poems. Around 300 years ago, the Clan MacDonald lived here in townships around the glen, and you can see reconstructions of their traditional turf and creel houses.

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Amongst all the beauty and history, lives a remarkable ecosystem of plants and animals. You can spot wild red deer, giant heron and golden eagles soaring over fields of bluebells, violets, and wild hyacinth. Glencoe’s flora and fauna are undoubtedly its biggest draw, but are also incredibly fragile. The rangers of Glencoe are working hard to protect this rare ecosystem and its indigenous species.

When you travel on our Country Roads of Scotland tour you’ll visit this stunning national park as part of a special MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience. You’ll meet a ranger to learn about their important scientific research and conversation initiatives, and your visit will contribute to their mission to protect the local environment.

In honour of World Wildlife Day, we talked with Senior Ranger at Glencoe, Scott McCombie, to find out more about conservation at Glencoe and what you’ll experience when you visit.

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Most of the work at Glencoe is trying to conserve what we have, and monitor how well it is doing. We have some rare arctic alpine willows (salix myrsinites) that are in short supply across the UK so we have them fenced off to try to keep sheep from grazing them. The complicating factor is that the vegetation around them needs grazed off so that it doesn’t over grow the willows. So we need to open the gates sometimes to allow the sheep in to do that.

Other projects we are involved in include a moth trap that we work with the Rothamstead Centre to monitor changes in populations of moths across the UK. We run a bumblebee transect and a butterfly transect where we send results to Butterfly Conservation. Both transects are part of UK-wide studies to monitor populations of declining species. We also carry out monthly bird counts at two wetland sites and send our data and findings back to the British Trust for Ornithology and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

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It’s a combination of factors. Some species, like some moths and butterflies, are moving north as a consequence of global warming, to keep within an area that has the climactic conditions they need. The willows are becoming relict on top of hills for similar reasons, as the conditions at lower heights don’t suit them so much. We think bumblebees are declining due to the use of pesticides and weed killers which are killing off the plants the bees use for pollen. Wetland birds are struggling for many reasons. Some species are shot in different parts of the UK and the world, some are being affected by bird flu, and some are losing habitat as wetlands have been drained for agriculture and or housing.

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Most of the species we are looking at are in decline, or are already in short supply so it’s more about monitoring, and trying to preserve what we’ve got. For instance, the River Coe runs through the middle of the glen. Officially it’s a salmon river, but there are very few. We don’t allow any fishing on our section of the river and we are trying to increase stocks by increasing the woodlands along the banks. The trees give shade and drop their leaves into the river which provides food for insects that, in turn, provides food for the fish. To increase the woodland in the glen, we are having to control the numbers of deer in the glen, since they graze on the tree seedlings. So much of what we do is interrelated through this whole web of life.

Days are rarely typical, although as I have grown older and progressed to “Senior Ranger”, I spend a lot more time in the office, while the “main grade” Rangers are out doing more of the hard graft. I’m planning, writing up reports or answering queries like this interview with Insight. We are currently advertising for a couple of Volunteer Rangers to be with us for the summer, so that’s taking up time right now.

In the summer we’ll have camping patrols to try and spread the message of “Leave no Trace” and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. We run a series of Land Rover Safaris getting people out into the glen and telling them about our work. We do guided walks with visitors and powerpoint talks to groups to share our work and talk about the history and nature of the glen. On top of this, we do the various wildlife surveys already mentioned – so it’s all go.

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Spring. The hills start to green up and leaves come back onto the trees. Birds are singing and the weather gets better.

Those camping patrols. Unfortunately there is still a significant proportion of the people who come and visit beautiful places like Glencoe and leave rubbish and human waste behind. The team here then have to try to tidy the place up. I think all my colleagues find this the toughest part of the job.

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Insight guests can expect to see one of us in the Ranger tea giving a run through of our work and the natural and cultural history of Glencoe. They can also take a short walk and visit our Turfhouse, a construction made of turf and woven hazel and willow. It was built using the sizes of a real house that our archaeologists uncovered in the middle of the glen. If they have a little longer, they can walk up to a kilometre around the Visitor Centre woodlands. You’ll get to hear those birds and look at the mountains all around.

EXPERIENCE IT: Country Roads of Scotland

Glencoe is under the care of the National Trust for Scotland. As the organisation is a charity, we depend on income from people who pay annual fees as members, income from government grants to carry out projects, and from the profits made in places like our Visitor Centre. When Insight groups visit, we receive fees for our guided talks and walks with our rangers and guests often also buy items in the café and gift shop. So when you visit, you know you’re directly helping to fund the preservation of Glencoe.