COURIER OPINION: Let’s stop dirty camping in its tracks this summer

Despite a couple of false starts over the last couple of weeks, we can at last be (fairly) confident in asserting spring is in the air.

For millions of Scots that means a chance to once again enjoy the great outdoors for which this wonderful country of ours is rightly lauded.

Thankfully the vast majority of people treat our magnificent scenery with the reverence it so richly deserves.

But others are less respectful. And the spectre of dirty camping is being raised again.

A small but sadly far from insignificant minority see this beautiful land of ours through entirely selfish eyes.

They think nothing of enjoying the landscape, but desecrating it in their wake.

And so, with the return of better weather, comes fresh fears over just how dirty camping may scar our countryside.

Just last year an elderly dog was poisoned by drugs left behind by revellers at Loch Rannoch.

It was one of many unsavoury incidents reported in the pages of this newspaper.

Let’s hope for better – far better – this year as we end our winter hibernation.