DOZENS of “windcrofters” are emerging across Scotland under a new drive that offers landowners free power in exchange for allowing developers to erect mini-turbines on their property.

LITTER louts drop enough rubbish at the side of Scotland’s railways and roads every year to fill 112 skips – or two Olympic-sized swimming pools.

IF THE lights go out or homes stop being heated, it’s not just inconvenient for households or businesses losing trade.

COUNTRYSIDE campaigners have criticised the installation of “garish” nine-feet high poles through scenic landscapes to mark gas pipelines.

DEMANDS are growing for a public inquiry into failures to clean up coal mines across Scotland, after a new report revealed a potential £60 million shortfall in funds in one region alone.

A few years ago a forestry conservation worker showed me a nest box erected for barn owls on the edge of pinewood in the Trossachs that had instead been taken over by a pine marten to raise her own kits.

A 15-YEAR project which has seen over 300 acres of native species planted in notoriously ‘treeless’ Orkney has been hailed a success.

JUST hours old a new born reindeer struggles to stand in the snow - a normal scene perhaps in Lapland in Christmas but one that is not expected in Scotland at the end of May.

ELEPHANTS, hippos and gorillas may not be native to the Highlands, but now you can see what they might look like against a Scottish backdrop thanks to a new book by an award-winning Scottish photographer.

A £20 million state-of-the-art recycling centre will shut next week, just over a year after it first opened.

On 30 April the Scottish Government launched a consultation on an overhaul of national planning policy, with the issue of a draft Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) and the third National Planning Framework (NPF 3).

THE cost of the massive Oklahoma tornado destroyed or damaged as many as 13,000 homes and could cost $2 billion (£1.3bn), according to early ­estimates.

THE renewables industry often talks about Scotland’s marine energy sector as “world-leading” and it is announcements like this from Aquamarine Power that help prove the point.

SCOTTISH fishing industry leaders and the Holyrood Government today welcomed the announcement that the European Union has formally notified the Faroes that it intends to start proceedings that could lead to sanctions against the islands’ refusal to enter into an international agreement on the division of vital North Atlantic herring stocks.

ABERDEEN City Council today announced ambitious plans to develop Europe’s oil capital as a centre of excellence in the creation of new hydrogen technologies.

THE Scottish Government today gave the green light for the world’s largest wave power scheme, to be developed in the stormy seas off the coast of the Western Isles.

THOUSANDS of pounds are to be spent relocating hundreds of residents living in the path of the new Borders Railway – but the answer isn’t as black and white as you may think.

Scotland will be the first part of the UK to have a dedicated fund to help with the development of the wave energy sector, energy minister Fergus Ewing said.

ONE in ten of Britain’s native species of wildlife may be under threat of extinction, a shocking report has revealed.

THE Prince of Wales made an impassioned plea yesterday for nations across the globe to redouble their efforts to tackle the illegal poaching of wildlife that threatens some of the planet’s most iconic animals.