harm to the last real wilderness in the United Kingdom and scrapped the forestry tax reliefs. This immediately halted further planting and encouraged the Forestry Commission to adopt a much broader approach that respects existing landscapes. Ongoing conservation In an effort to restore the damage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have bought a large area in the centre of the Flow Country and have created the Forsinard Flows national nature reserve. More than 20 km2 has been bought back from Fountain Forestry and the young trees felled and allowed to rot in the plough furrow in the hope and expectation that, in 30 to 100 years, the land will revert to peat bog. The RSPB was also a leading partner in the Flows to the Future Project, an ambitious, far-reaching project which aimed to restore vast areas of the Flow Country and increase public and visitor awareness of the importance of the Flow Country. The project funded the iconic, award-winning Flows Lookout Tower. Around 1500 km2 of the Flow Country is protected as both a Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation under the name Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands. The Flow Country is on the 2006 UK "tentative list" as a possible UNESCO World Heritage Site. The application was re-listed in 2010 and Stuart Housden, the director of RSPB Scotland and a member of the Rural Development Council, said, "This largely unspoilt landscape has thousands of hectares of ancient blanket peat land, making this perhaps the most important area of its type in the Northern Hemisphere. A global badge would certainly help us to get this special place in better heart. This area was sorely threatened in the 1980s and early 1990s by inappropriate afforestation, but just in time a conservation campaign mounted by the RSPB stopped the worst excesses. Action is now underway to restore the area." Rail access The Far North Line connects into Forsinard station serving the area. References External links The Flow Country website RSPB Forsinard Flows Reserve RSPB Flow Country Appeal Peat bogs on SNH Wetlands of Scotland Caithness Landforms of Sutherland Rural Scotland Protected areas of Highland (council area) Landforms of Highland (council area)