from Sunday Herald, 02 November 2008 They can survive in outer space, go ten years without water, and resist lethal doses of radiation. But hardly anyone has heard of them, and no-one is campaigning to save them. Tardigrades, which look like microscopic, eight-legged bears, are amongst the planet’...

from Sunday Herald, 25 May 2008 They were killed off more than 400 years ago, and snubbed by the last government - but now they are coming home. A historic plan to bring beavers back to Scotland will today be given the go-ahead by the Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell. Up to four famili...

from Sunday Herald, 18 May 2008 It’s wild, it’s out there and it matters to almost everybody, even if they hardly ever see it. Scotland’s remote and untamed mountains, moors and glens have been given overwhelming backing in a major new opinion poll for the government’s conservation agency, S...

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008 A massive multinational military exercise underway in the far north west of Scotland is putting lambs, seabirds and possibly whales at risk. Around 70 aircraft and 36 warships are bombarding Cape Wrath, near Durness, as part of a two-week training exercise codenamed...

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008 The SNP grew up on oil, is wedded to economic expansion and always wants to put Scotland first. As a political party, it has never developed a coherent theoretical approach to one of the defining issues of the age: the environment. It comes as some surprise then, th...

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008 An intensely controversial scheme to trap sparrowhawks to prevent them from killing racing pigeons has been postponed because of last-minute problems in getting licences from the UK government. The Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell, decided at the end o...

23 December 2007 Plans to bring the beaver back to Scotland four centuries after it was hunted to extinction have taken a crucial step forward this weekend. Two wildlife groups have formally applied to the Scottish government for a licence to introduce up to 20 European beavers for a trial at Knapda...

from Sunday Herald, 16 December 2007 Scotland has been accused by the European Union (EU) of 65 violations of laws meant to prevent pollution, protect wildlife and control waste, according to a secret government database released to the Sunday Herald. The number of alleged breaches of European legal...