Sylvestris

This first very boring photo belies what was a very interesting evening! Last night I talked to to the Lochaline Climate Action Group (and a few intrepid other members of the community willing to brave yellow warning winds and rain to come out on a Tuesday night!) about the Aline Catchment Restoration Project at #Ardtornish. You can read more on the project here: https://lnkd.in/e3_yv8rN. The session was proof that local communities are very interested in what happens on the land around them, and why it’s happening. As is so usually the case, the conversation after the presentation was the best bit! Some interesting points that might apply more widely than Ardtornish were: 1. Rural communities care deeply about their landscapes, and know the land well. This project has been shaped for the better by the community’s feedback and input. 2. Everyone wants to support good decisions being made. Sometimes there’s tension between land managers and communities. That’s often because communities haven’t been given the chance to understand why decisions are being made or how they’re made. This project, like so many, includes trade offs (for particular species, or farming operations, for example) in an attempt make a net gain for the environment and ecology. Ardtornish has been able to explain those trade offs. 3. Deer management - which can be a contentious subject. Ardtornish is reducing its deer population and this along with other events has allowed us to explain why. With that explanation, we’ve had a lot of community support. 4. Can we make public the data that’s being collected to create the monitoring baseline and in the future, to report on the project’s success. 5. My favourite question from the night: ‘how can we help?’ - brilliant! Lots of ways, starting with citizen science in supporting the monitoring programme! The sector can mobilise the very valuable community resource. NatureScot Charlie Davis Sylvestris #naturerestoration #climateresilience #naturalcapital #landmanagement

We’re thrilled to see this partnership be launched after a lot of hard but enjoyable work with the teams at #Ardtornish and The University of Edinburgh Department for Social Responsibility & Sustainability #naturalcapital #privatefinance #naturerestoration #communitybenefit

Back to old stomping grounds today, for a #morayfarmcluster meeting. This group of 14 farm businesses, covering a continuous area of 6,600ha, first came together at the beginning of last year. Since then we’ve been working with them to identify opportunities to improve, expand and create new habitat. The cluster is completely farmer-led. All of the group’s plans have been proposed and designed by them, creating a unique initiative in Scotland to make space for nature at scale in a productive landscape. Their enthusiasm for project has been amazing, and motivating. Now we’re moving into a phase of detailed ecological surveys, baselining and refining the design of a range of interventions, including: 🌳 109ha of native woodland habitat to be surveyed and management plans created for biodiversity enhancement. 🌳 38ha of native woodland creation    🌳 128ha of wet woodland habitat to be surveyed and management plans created for biodiversity enhancement. 💧1.5ha of new wetlands to be created to provide more space for nature. 🐂125ha existing wetlands to be improved for nature via a combination of interventions including conservation grazing. 🪵Scope for in-river habitat creation and adaptations to reduce erosion on 8km of River Lossie  🪻14ha of wildflower meadow to be created.    🌳 16km of tree avenue planting.    🦋50km of hedgerow creation and restoration of existing hedgerows.  🌺INNS surveying and control over the whole project area. After the member’s meeting, we met a team from the RSPB - who are project partners - on a wetland site at the centre of the cluster to discuss plans to use Nofence collars to graze native breed cattle over the 95ha marsh to improve species richness and diversity. We also had the chance to talk about the cluster with Lin Batten , who’s research focuses on agro-economy and the resilience of farm businesses. Check out Charlie Davis in front of the 🎥! You can read more about the cluster’s work @ https://lnkd.in/e4NwNjHw #foodandfarming #naturefriendlyfarming #naturerestoration #naturalcapital Sally McNaught

🏔 After 18 months of planning, surveys & consultation, there is action on the ground at the Aline Catchment Restoration project.. These windfallen tree stumps have been extracted from woodlands at #Ardtornish to create habitat in the Aline River. This is a trial: we've baselined the invertebrate activity in the river & will be tracking the impact of this new habitat on the diversity & richness of those species. The idea is that the stumps will mimic the natural processes of a vegetated upper catchment, providing nutrients, shelter & structural diversity to the river. This is part of the £800k Transforming Nature delivery project to restore habitats & support the climate resilience of the Aline catchment, benefit wildlife by improving riparian, moorland & woodland habitats to increase biodiversity, resilience to extreme weather, & capacity for sequestration of atmospheric carbon. It’s also a chance for us to work alongside local conservation charity CAOLAS, to deliver a project that takes in the whole catchment. We need this joined-up approach to restore functioning catchment systems in the long term. Another exciting launch 🚤 as part of the project to be announced soon… 😉 Thank you to our funders, the Transforming Nature stream of the Scottish Government’s #NatureRestorationFund, managed by NatureScot, and our project partners, the teams at TreeStory & EnviroCentre. More information on the scope of the project on the Ardtornish website: https://lnkd.in/dUN7PN5h

Sylvestris is proud to have supported the Scottish Land Commission in drafting a set of guidance for rural businesses designed to help them create transparent routes to negotiating change of use, tenure and ownership of assets with the community.

Another catchment restoration project in its delivery phase with thanks to NatureScot's #NatureRestoration Fund. We are pleased to support our clients manage grant-funded projects while finding economically #sustainable ways to manage land for #nature & #people.

Great to be teaming up with TreeStory to support the work underway at Ardtornish 🍃