Wisdom From the Mountain Top

Change and controversy seem to bring out both the best and sadly worst in folk. A good, measured debate is often the last thing on everyone`s mind when vested interests are being given a poke. And so it is, in the consultation currently being carried out, as to whether the next Scottish National Park should be Galloway, in the southwest.

Before we go any further in this contest of words and passions, I'll put my cards on the table, so I`ll do the wise thing and set out my credentials first. I have a legitimate background on Galloway based on experience, knowledge, and many of my family roots, going back multi generations. This spills over into Dumfriesshire`s soils too.

I lived in Galloway for almost a decade and started my youth work career there. I`ve much more recently bike-camped the entire Eight River Valleys of D & G at my leisurely nature-interacting septuagenarian pace. Many of my fondest holidays during childhood and youth were on a hill farm thereabouts. A couple of charities that I`ve been very active in have a real presence in the area. My knowledge of Galloway is therefore intimate and informed, so I`m most certainly not coming at this cold.

In addition to this, my experience of Scotland`s other two National Parks – both the plusses and the minuses of them, is contemporary.

One thing I`m clear about is that the status quo in terms of economy, demographics, transport, employment, environment and a lot more, is not viable as it is, either now, or in the future. Most of these key factors are in terminal decline, the statistics prove this pretty conclusively, I`d argue. Current local institutions empowered with resolving the ailments are sadly unable to do so. I say sadly because it is a tragedy that in many respects Galloway is, without doubt, trapped in some kind of downward spiral. I`m one of life`s optimists, but the truth here is blatantly obvious.

I do take my hat off to the significant number of community-led initiatives that are springing up throughout the area. Their vision and leadership, initiative and drive are to my mind, at the forefront. But only those living locally who are actively involved in these ventures have my ear, or indeed my admiration. Do or die is surely the mantra.

It was a Maasai Elder from Kenya on an organised visit to Dumfriesshire and beyond, who really cut it for me. If I didn’t know it before, I certainly heard it loud and clear on that occasion with a packed audience just across the way in Wallace Hall Academy. Eloquent, passionate and very insightful, Ezekiel Katato said oh so clearly, “I am not the future, I don`t matter, it is young people who are the future that matter, in every respect.” Now while he was referring to rural Maasai culture and economy, what he said holds for Galloway too. Sometimes it takes an outsider to sum it up to perfection for us.

So how does Galloway fare in terms of a future for its young people?

Not well, is the simple answer. Not well at all, and something constructive must be done.

What about the demographics from the other end then, in a rapidly ageing population? Can the health and welfare infrastructure cope with this? Are there enough people in the area to do all of the jobs that need doing in these sectors? Where could the funding come from, that is required to fix all these and other problems? Best not to be pie in the sky about this!

So, back to the National Park scenario. In recognising that there is no quick fix, none, and there never would be, irrespective of who or what is in power, Galloway must look to its greatest assets that are there already; landscape and environment. In his document Unfinished Business, John Mayhew identified that from extensive and widespread research elsewhere, for every £1 of public money spent on creating and sustaining a National Park, there is a tenfold return on this investment. That is money that will be generated and will pass through the entire economy, public, charitable and private sectors. This far exceeds the normal legal return on investment. That this investment in operational costs for a National Park would relate primarily to the assets of landscape and environment referred to; sounds like a win-win to me.

A National Park will attract visitors the majority of whom will be attracted to the area, for what it is, and therefore, for the right reasons. Visitors spend money – money that would not be there otherwise; there is no magic money tree.  A National Park will enable capital investment in infrastructure and services, that simply would not happen, in any other way. Public and charitable agencies would or could add very modestly to what is there, but the short-term nature of these funding rounds is no way to create the effective development that is so urgently needed. Putting it bluntly, without such investment in services and infrastructure, even the status quo will seem woefully inadequate.

With a National Park change will come but at a manageable pace for things to grow. There would be no sudden revolution on anything, but development there would be, and it would be heading in the right direction. There would of course be accountability and the need for reporting, so it would most certainly not be a free-for-all.

There are already a whole variety of local and national habitat sites and safeguards. Galloway is rich with these, from shore to mountain top. With the addition of more rangers and related professional staff, that could be provided in no other way if we are honest, there would come additional habitat monitoring and support.

There are of course those who argue that things are fine as they are, that there is no need for any change of this kind. Fear of change is part of the human lot; has been and always will be. I`m sure some Greek Philosopher had something pertinent to say about this tension in life and livelihood. Take a step back though and look more objectively at the facts that are challenging this, and it's clear that change must come. Some vested interests will resist at all costs, and throw that objectivity to the four winds, They will cling to `what`s ae` been`, the known, the supposedly familiar, but that will contribute nothing to where Galloway and her people must be in twenty or fifty years. It will screw up the progress that is so desperately needed. Galloway in all its many facets must fight its corner, and a National Park would send it on its way to a much more prosperous future, landscapes enjoyed by many more people, money spent to boost the economy, a better future for her young people, better jobs, and a stronger resilient infrastructure.

There`s a unique opportunity here for Galloway and its rightful place in the wider world. This chance will come but once, so to squander it or pass it by would be a tragedy like no other. Please, dear Galloway, embrace this opportunity with grace, good humour, imagination, and vision.

I`m aiming to go up The Merrick sometime next year as a wee pilgrimage in my 79th year, it`ll be half a century since my last ascent. From there, I hope to be able to look out in wonder at the magic of this great landscape – if needs be I`ll be content to see it in the mind`s eye. To get there I`ll travel through villages and towns that I know desperately need a boost. So as I sit by the cairn on Galloway`s mountain top, having a brew up, I hope I`ll be toasting the success that this campaign so deserves.