Efforts continue to combat dirty camping in Cairngorms National Park

Efforts are ongoing to beat the scourge of dirty camping which blighted parts of the Cairngorms National Park after the relaxation of the Covid lockdown two years ago.

Chief executive Grant Moir in his latest report to the board revealed that the park authority's ranger service is fully operational this season.

He informed members in his quarterly update at yesterday's board meeting: "We have recruited four trainee rangers who will begin on June 20 and we are recruiting two more seasonal rangers for Deeside.

"Collaboration with partner ranger services is going very well with processes and procedures now well known after two years of operation."

He also revealed that the CNPA is working with a media agency to pull together a digital advertising campaign on visitor management specifically targetting harder to reach audiences.

The campaign, which is due to go live later this month, will mostly be driven through Facebook and Instagram, and will focus on areas including responsible dog walking, wildfires, litter, toileting and wild camping.

Mr Moir said: "The campaign will take a positive approach from the outset, building on the premise that people want to do the right thing but don’t always know how to.

"Alongside this, we are continuing to produce regular content for visitors, including a recent blog about responsible dog walking and ground-nesting bird impacts; an introduction to our new CNPA ranger team, and regular wildfire warnings in light of the recent period of dry weather."

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