Sir, - No more the song of the skylark the roding of the woodcock nor the drumming of the snipe As foxes ravens and crows prevail.

Is it right that government-funded Forestry Commission celebrate spring with the last of our lamped and shot deer, as Galloway venison from Aldi whilst corvids and peregrines poke out the eyes and tongue and tail As foxes gulp down their Last Supper of lamb and the last of our ground nesting birds.

Failure hurts Failure to arouse attention to the destruction of Rural Scotland by predation, the ruining of a nation by the quango predators themselves… Forestry Commission and among others, SNH and RSPB and the turning of a blind eye by the RACCE Still no Land Use Strategy, just forsaken hill land; for fenced off peat land, wetland, trees, or turbines, And in contradiction to contrived right to buy call it 'Wild land'! In denial of a great civilisation, Scotland's land and its people In traditional time-tested structure of culture of agriculture.

Failure hurts ... deeply and loss shatters dreams and hopes, and spirits Yet, as bitter regrets fade, as lessons painfully learnt Are tucked away, for a better next time, So does a crisply cold winter sunrise brighten A sparkling perfect snowflake fascinate anew, And approaching hill lambing season Bring hope and wonder. And the strong and tender bunches of snowdrops return relentlessly To kindle a spiritual rebirth To herald the spring!

But reality hits for what is there to hope and wonder Maybe surviving snowdrops …. but …without food outbye, To get their fill, raptors must now comb downhill Essential grazing tracking and trampling maintains vegetation for our nation At great cost, without our red deer, fallow and roe, vital grazing and tracking is lost Hundreds massacred, governments and the public just don't know In Galloway's hills, FC policies have scattered hill sheep and goats off high fell and stell Tourists cry … Where is the wildlife? Is it a wonder No funding for pastoralist ways to maintain Rural communities to sustain, Grazers and graziers Interdependent … no escaping For Scotland's unique landscape to be amazing rural Scotland must be kept grazing whilst those, that are those ... pontificate on predation consult, condone, express 'concerns', ponce on the public podium and prevaricate

No more the song of the skylark the roding of the woodcock nor the drumming of the snipe No hill lambing this year As foxes, ravens and crows prevail

Mary V Armstrong

Clachan of Penninghame, N.S