“Rewilding means enabling nature’s recovery, whilst reflecting and respecting Scotland’s society and heritage, to achieve more resilient and autonomous ecosystems. Rewilding is part of a set of terms and approaches to landscape and nature management; it differs from other approaches in seeking to enable natural processes which eventually require relatively little management by humans. As with all landscape management, rewilding should be achieved by processes that engage and ideally benefit local communities, in line with Scotland’s Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement, to support a Just Transition.” I think we should consider why “rewilding” is being discussed so widely. Scotland’s landscapes are undoubtedly heavily impacted by humans, with many negative consequences for nature, but also society. So, I do believe efforts to redress this damage are needed. However, discussing this challenge using other words may make the debate clearer and calmer. Meanwhile, where rewilding initiatives are underway, it will be useful to track progress from rhetoric to reality: to clarify the possibilities of rewilding and how we can reinvigorate natural systems. Defining Rewilding for Scotland’s Public Sector (www.gov.scot) Skiers keen for slick runs are leaving toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” behind on ski slopes, research by The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen and the University of Graz in Austria has revealed. Fourteen different types of the chemical, commonly used in ski wax, were found in soils at family skiing spots in the Austrian Alps at levels far higher than in areas not normally used for skiing. The study’s results come just weeks after a ban on use of PFAS in ski-wax in professional skiing events came into force, because of its links with serious health concerns including as cancer, fertility issues and liver damage. Viktoria Müller, the researcher at The James Hutton institute leading the study as part of her PhD research at the University of Graz in Austria, says, “These chemicals are called forever chemicals because they will need hundreds of years to break down. Because of this, they could accumulate or spread into the wider environment, including groundwater systems, which is the main concern. “While there has been concern about the use of PFAS in ski wax for some time, this study on Alpine ski slopes showed that skiing will produce orders of magnitude higher concentrations of PFAS onto anywhere skiing is taking place where these types of wax area used. “However, even where there is no skiing, there are still small detections because of how widely this chemical has now spread in the environment.” The study, which had funding from the Macaulay Development Trust, a charity which supports research into sustainable land use, looked for around 30 of the most likely PFAS compounds expected to be found in ski wax. PFAS “forever chemicals” being spread on world’s ski slopes December 2023 23
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