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THE VIEW FROM... Michael Johnston, Trustee


MY love of wildlife started from a very young age. I would spend hours pottering around the garden looking for bugs and spotting birds. The bullfinch that called from a tree outside my bedroom window particularly inspired me.


Later, I got involved in regular duck counts on Linlithgow Loch. Throughout winter, we would head out once a week. We would see hundreds of tufted ducks, great rafts of pochard and, occasionally, a rarity such as a smew.


At school, I was very lucky that two of my teachers ran an ornithological society. They organised regular field trips and, if we were heading for East Lothian, we always stopped at Duddingston Loch. As a teenager, I was very impressed by the way the Scottish Wildlife Trust managed this inner city reserve for wildlife.


These days, I am a father and I am delighted to say my daughter Grace is as passionate about nature as her dad. The walk home from school has turned into a daily nature ramble and we’ve had some pretty good ‘spots’. We christened our little section of the pathway along Edinburgh’s Water of Leith ‘Hummingbird Way’ after we saw a hummingbird hawkmoth nectaring on buddleia.


We’re also frequent visitors to Scotland’s wild places and we enjoy the rugged west coast most of all. The Trust’s Ballachuan Hazelwood reserve on the Isle of Seil is breathtaking and Knapdale Forest, the base for the Scottish Beaver Trial, is magical.


However, although we are blessed with some of the most spectacular landscapes in Europe, it often seems to me that there is less and less room for nature. Economic growth is, more often than not, pursued at nature’s detriment. Wildlife needs a champion and the Trust is its principal proponent in Scotland. That is why I was proud to join Council at our AGM.


Often, Scotland seems to take nature for granted when the reality is it works very hard for the country’s benefit.


38 SCOTTISH WILDLIFE NOVEMBER 2015


Peat bogs and woodlands help secure our water supplies while pollinators such as bees, beetles and butterflies are needed to produce most of the food we eat. This ‘free’ work is worth an estimated £30 billion each year in Scotland alone. The Scottish Wildlife Trust is championing a new way of thinking about ecology. It’s called ‘natural capital’ and it gives a real value to nature, both


economic and in terms of wellbeing. The Trust is inspiring real leadership in this area, including through the organisation of the World Forum on Natural Capital, which will be held in Edinburgh later this month.


I am proud of the Trust’s magnificent and world-beating achievements, from its network of unique reserves to the world-class forum. I hope you are too.


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