The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 (Authorised Operations) Order 2016

Article 2(2)(a)

SCHEDULE Descriptions of types of operation for the purposes of article 2(2)(a)

1.  Cultivation of land, including ploughing, rotavating, harrowing and re-seeding.

2.  Grazing of livestock and changes to grazing management.

3.  Feeding of livestock and changes to livestock feeding practices.

4.  Mowing or other methods of cutting vegetation, including changes in a mowing or cutting regime.

5.  Application of manure, other fertilisers (including seaweed) or lime.

6.  Application of pesticides, including herbicides.

7.  Burning vegetation.

8.  Introduction or release of any animal or plant.

9.  Killing or removal of any wild animal.

10.  Destruction, displacement, removal or cutting of any plant or plant remains.

11.  Tree or woodland management, and changes to tree or woodland management.

12.  Modification of the structure of water courses.

13.  Water utilisation (including irrigation, storage and abstraction from existing water bodies and through boreholes).

14.  Infilling of ditches, drains, ponds, pools or marshes.

15.  Reclamation of land from sea, estuary or marsh.

16.  Construction, removal or destruction of roads, tracks, paths, walls, fences, hardstands, banks, ditches or other earthworks.

17.  The following operations where they are carried out in connection with any of the operations listed in paragraph 16:—

(a) modification of natural or man-made features;

(b) clearance of boulders, large stones, loose rock or scree;

(c) battering, buttressing or grading of rock faces; or

(d) cutting or infilling of pits or quarries.

18.  Erection of permanent or temporary structures.

19.  Engineering works, including drilling.

20.  Use of vehicles, including aircraft or any ship, boat or other water-going vessel.

In this Schedule—

(a) “animal” includes any mammal, reptile, amphibian, bird, fish or invertebrate, and a reference to an animal includes a reference to any egg, larva, pupa or other immature stage of an animal;

(b) “plant” includes any flowering plant, fern, alga, fungus, lichen or moss, and a reference to a plant includes a reference to bulbs, corms, seeds and spores of the plant; and

(c) “woodland management” includes afforestation, planting, clear and selective felling, thinning, coppicing, modification of the stand or underwood and changes in species composition.