ROB Gibson (Letters, June 14) is absolutely right that repopulation and rewilding should go hand in hand. The John Muir Trust has never argued for preservation of the wet desert monoculture that blights most of the Highlands. We have long advocated that ecological restoration of the land is essential in supporting thriving local communities, as well as benefiting nature. Revival of our native forests can bring much of our land back to life, help repopulate the Highlands and reduce our carbon emissions much more effectively than simply allowing multinational energy companies and landowners to exploit our wild places for private interests.

The John Muir Trust supported the Scottish Natural Heritage Wild Land Areas map approved and recognised by the Scottish Government in in 2014 to provide a degree of regulation and protection for our nation’s most precious landscape assets. We can tackle climate change and develop renewables without destroying these areas.

In that, we are in tune with the overwhelming majority of the Scottish public, not least in the Highlands and Islands, where the latest YouGov poll shows that 60 per cent “strongly agree” with continued protection of the Wild Land Areas from large-scale development, and a further 20 per cent “tend to agree”. Overall, the poll found that 16 times more people – both nationally and in the Highlands – support protection of Wild Land Areas for the benefit of all of the people of Scotland.

Mike Daniels,

John Muir Trust,

Tower House, Station Road, Pitlochry.