Northwind – Member
A reply…

"Hi Andrew

Thank you for your email. I will pass it on to our Senior Ranger Susan Falconer. She is currently on leave until the 20 August, but she will contact you on her return."

So, that's not so great- is it just a brush off? Are they genuinely unable to act without her input and now completely paralysed til the end of the summer? Who knows.

I was in touch with Susan when I tried and she was passing me onto someone else (who was in charge of maintenance). Without wanting to criticise any of the individuals, I guess they just don't see this as a priority – which is puzzling as the 3 councils involved in PHRP are all looking at their ongoing funding.

Now, personally I'd love to have the support and approval of the Rangers, and I'm not too keen to go ahead with the pistachio idea without that- though what do you lot think?

I wouldn't. Too much chance of upsetting someone. Might be worth trying the actual landowner though. To get their support would be pretty essential regardless.

But, I don't feel too put off from the idea of working on the Nail Trail etc- particularily since, according to their map, Nail Trail isn't in the park! But as that's pure maintenance I think it's a pretty different situation.

Again – you really need to speak to the landowner.

Also, while I'm in the mood I've also contacted the Friends of the Pentlands, since they've done some good work in the past and they've already got connections within the rangers.

Also, on the subject of landowners… I'm not sure how to go about this, does anyone know how to find out who actually owns the windbreak woods that Pistachio runs through? At a guess it's part of one of the kinleith farms…

Give me a mo….

cynic-al – Member

>druidh – Member
>Aye better luck than I had when I tried.
>3 emails and 3 fobbings off.

Try not to take it personally Colin

Do you know of my history as Volunteer Ranger Al? 😳

Northwind – can you PM me regarding land ownership?

Thanks

Who are the rangers answerable to? Who manages them? that is completely unsatisfactory as an answer IMO – especially given that a number of us have tried to organise stuff over the years.

TJ, I'm not sure about all that, it looks like they're managed by joint committee between the 3 councils.

Druidh, just dropped you an email, thanks for your help!

I mentioned the Friends of the Pentlands- they seem fairly interested, they have a committee meeting tomorrow so I've spoken to the secretary and he'll raise it then. They don't have any particular authority but they do have a long history of working in the park so that might be interesting to follow up. Alternatively it might not, I get the feeling that for them it's a bit of a pact with the devil!

Ah hah, call off the lynch mob!

"I have just read the email I sent you re Susan Falconer, I must have had a senior moment as I said she was not back until the 20 August when in fact it should have read the 20 April. Sorry for the confusion.

However in the meantime Martin Duncan will go out sometime this week to have a look, while the ground is still quite wet. If he had had more time he would have invited you along, but he is going off himself on leave next week."

Now that's a lot more encouraging. So, a bit of watch this space.

Nail Trail is definitely off the Pentland Rangers beat, when we found the (or one of the) nail traps we went to them and they told us to go elsewhere.

I did wonder about that Northwind!