Countryside Rangers
Countryside Rangers occupy a very
special place in the public enjoyment and interpretation of Scotland's
landscape. This document will try to explain this and gives examples.
Two themes are apparent:
Rangers have special skills and qualities
Set against the background of the conservation remit of the national and local government authorities in Scotland (which are soon to change), are the roles of non-governmental organisations and private landlords. Rangers are employed in the public and the private sector.
The history of the conservation movement in Scotland starts in the Highlands, an area used as a play-space for 19th industrialised central Scotland. The demand for conservation and public access early this century led to the passing of the Countryside Act in 1967 and the setting up of the Countryside Commission for Scotland (CCS). Influenced by American and English National Parks, an innovative Scottish Ranger Service was created in 1969, and this grew in numbers and stature in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Scottish Countryside Rangers Association (SCRA) is the professional body, important in developing ideas and training, and acting as the public voice for Rangers.
In 1991, new legislation created Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) as the lead agency. Although Scotland has no National Parks, there is a system of Country and Regional Parks.
Quality training has been delivered over the years by CCS, SCRA and now SNH, along with other bodies, and this has been fundamental to the "national" feeling of the service. The underlying importance of Environmental Interpretive methods is linked to the wide scope of abilities that all Rangers must have.
The central role of Environmental
Education is seen against the Scottish educational
system and the wide breadth of subjects that students are taught. We see
how Rangers can make use of national schemes and activities and create
links between the schools, the community and the Ranger employer.
Rangers from the public and private sector have a varied amount of school involvement, in activities on their own sites and within the school itself. They support environmental education for pre-school children, throughout the school system, higher education and community work, including older citizens, in formal settings and through informal activities. They have developed programmes for those with special needs.
Rangers are a body of committed people, providing a continuity of practice in everything they do. Their work includes biological recording, practical conservation, visitor management, safety and surveillance, as well as interests in interpretive methods, outdoor pursuits or culture.
The Ranger is considered a "professional" despite the limited career structure.
Phrases keep appearing, such as
'people and the land'; and words like 'enthusiastic', 'committed',
'well-trained', and 'holistic'. Rangers are seen as "mediators"
between those earning their living from the countryside,
owning the land, and those enjoying access and
recreation in the outdoors.
WELCOME TO SCOTTISH RANGERING!
THE RANGER's TEN MAJOR FUNCTIONS
Major Functions of Rangers Services as listed by SNH, in its Review of Ranger Services:
1 Information, Interpretation and Environmental Education
2 Natural resource protection and planning (including monitoring and advising on conservation issues)
3 Visitor monitoring and recreation management (Most of "ranger time" to be spent on these three)
4 Emergency and safety planning
5 Instruction in recreation
6 Supervision of staff
7 Consultation with others: eg land-owners
8 Surveillance
9 Maintenance
10 Promotion and administration
Where Scottish Conservation grew from
The history of conservation in
Scotland is largely centred around the Highlands, in the north and west of
the country. It is here that the relationship between the people and the
land in strongest, based on the Gaelic-speaking culture with a tradition
of a natural respect for the land.
The Scottish countryside has seen enormous changes in the last 200 years,
a good example of the global conflicts of growth, employment and
population needs; and aesthetics, recreation and conservation. In the
19th century the growing population of Edinburgh and Glasgow turned to the
Highlands to find fresh air and open spaces.
Professor Christopher Smout suggests that the Highlands have been viewed
in different ways:
* Three traditional uses of the land as a resource:
1. for the community in terms of farming, forestry and fishing;
2. for the private land-lord in terms of hunting, shooting and fishing;
3. for industry, in terms of mining, quarrying and hydro-electricity
schemes.
* Set against this are three ideas relating to
the "green" or "romantic" ideal of the countryside:
1. the land as an "invigorating obstacle course", for walkers, climbers,
skiers and water-sports;
2. as a place of tranquility;
3. as a refuge for its wildlife.
These ideas led to conflict between
the people who lived in the area and the "incomers".
Sir Robert Cowan, once Chairman of the Highlands and Islands Development
Board, said in 1990: "People in the Highlands and Islands do not want or
need to be told what developments can, or cannot, take place on their land
by those often many miles removed from the physical reality".
This is reflected not only in how the Highlander views Edinburgh or
Glasgow, but also how Scotland views the authority of the London-based
Government.
English and American Ideas
Much of the inspiration for conservation in Scotland was influences by the
National Parks Service in the USA. It is ironic that this Parks Service
had itself been inspired by that great 19th century Scottish
conservationist, John Muir, who until recently was relatively unknown in
his own country. In the USA the Interpretation and Resource Management
roles were kept separate from Surveillance and Policing work.
In Scotland, in 1967, the CCS was looking for approaches for its new
Ranger Service. John Foster, the first Director of the CCS, and Don
Aldridge, Head of Interpretation, both had experience in the USA and the
Peak District National Park in Derbyshire, England. At the same time, the
National Trust for Scotland (NTS) was creating Rangers. Its Director,
Jamie Stormonth Darling, also had close connections with the USA Park
system.
The NTS and the CCS concluded that in both the USA and the Peak District,
the separation of roles in those Ranger Services had led to poor Resource
Management. They decided that in a new Scottish Ranger Service, each
Ranger would be a "person of many parts", with a wide training.
The need for new Countryside
Protection
The clash of interests in the countryside came to a head in the early
1960s with growing pressures on the countryside.
The long established Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was the scientific
based government organisation, responsible for looking after designated
fragile areas and wildlife, backed up by biological recording and
scientific research. The NCC was not designed to be primarily concerned
with receiving and advising visitors to the countryside.
Part of the solution was the passing of the Countryside (Scotland) Act of
1967 which created the Countryside Commission for Scotland (CCS) to look
at the needs of public access.
From this grew a new Ranger Service.
The Countryside Commission for
Scotland
In 1967 the CCS started with a clean sheet to develop responsible land
management for public enjoyment, access, and recreation, and education in
the countryside for conservation.
The CCS was the "parent" of all Scottish Ranger Services, providing
funding, policies, training and inspiration. Its headquarters are at the
Battleby Centre, just north of Perth, which has become a home-from-home
for Rangers.
Battleby also houses a fine practical display of outdoor, interpretive
techniques and countryside furniture designs, to create a high standard of
design, equipment and maintenance for use in public access areas.
Who could have a Ranger Service?
The Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967 allowed for Ranger Services to be set
up by local government and NGOs. They would be able to ask for grant-aid
from CCS.
The essential requirement for local authorities was that they should have
power to make "byelaws" over the land where Rangers worked. In some
places there were only byelaws for the publicly-run picnic sites and
road-side lay-bys, so Rangers, in order to be "legal" had to use these
areas as the base for their work.
For the private sector, employers had to have ownership of, and provide
access to, the land.
In 1981 a new Act of Parliament allowed for the development "Regional
Parks". This opened up new employment and career prospects for Rangers.
What is Countryside?
In 1967 the CCS could only work in "designated countryside". This was
defined in geographical terms, giving the CCS a remit over the whole of
Scotland including the urban fringe. Thus only the centres of major towns
and cities were excluded from having a Ranger Service.
In practice, the type of countryside that Rangers worked over varied from
the "organised" Country Parks in central Scotland, to the wildest
untouched hill-tops; from the woodland areas to wind-swept cliffs.
Perhaps the most bizarre piece of "countryside" was that created out of
the flames and smoke of the derelict coal mining areas of Fife. Lochore
Meadows was completely landscaped and new countryside built over flattened
coal tips. This was one of the most ambitious countryside reclamation
schemes in Europe.
The definition of "designated countryside" was removed in 1991, allowing
Ranger Services to work in urban areas, of which the Wester Hailes project
is one example.