By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor

IF you thought the Highlands were being preserved as beautiful, natural and wild places, think again. The unspoilt landscape that has characterised Scotland's mountainous regions for centuries is disappearing - and fast.

The countryside is increasingly being scarred by roads, wind farms, power lines, forestry plantations and buildings, making it ever more difficult to escape man-made developments.

Glens have been wrecked by tracks bulldozed for grouse shooters and scenic views have been ruined by arrays of towering wind turbines, say conservationists.

A new study by the government's conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), has revealed that the proportion of Scotland unmarred by artificial visual intrusions dropped from 41% to 31% between 2002 and 2008. The view across 22% of Scotland is now affected by one man-made development. Some 16% of the country has two visual intrusions, 14% has three and 17% has four or more, including urban areas.

According to the SNH study, the main reason for the loss of wild land is the expansion of wind farms, which have gone from 18 in 2002 to 47 in 2008. Other reasons include bulldozed tracks, overhead cables and quarries.

"We are extremely concerned at the apparent reduction in the area of wild and natural landscapes in Scotland," said Stuart Brooks, chief executive of the John Muir Trust which campaigns to protect wild land. "Scotland's wild land is a precious resource for tourism and the health and well-being of our people and must be managed sustainably and protected from ill-conceived development."

Brooks blamed the "sudden proliferation" of wind farms, and quoted John Muir, the great Scottish naturalist after whom his organisation was named. "Our goals should not be blind opposition to progress but rather opposition to blind progress," he said.

The trust highlighted several areas which it claimed had been damaged. There was a "huge mess" in Glen Mor caused by a hydroelectric scheme, and there were bulldozed tracks across hills near Braemar and the top of Glen Lyon.

The John Muir Trust is contributing to a major EU conference of more than 40 countries on wild land in Prague in the Czech Republic this week.

"We are attending the conference to ensure that the major concern of wild land loss in Scotland is raised and that a plan of action to protect wild areas across Europe is developed at a high level," Brooks said.

Scottish Renewables, which represents the wind industry, pointed out that the vast majority of wind farms were sited outwith highly sensitive landscape areas. "One of the biggest threats to wild land is climate change and one of the most effective responses to it is the sensible development of renewable energy," said the group's chief executive, Jason Ormiston.

"The industry will continue to work with a rigorous planning system so that the building of productive renewable energy projects in the right places continues to follow good practice."