Get Girls Out

Studies show that women spend less time physically active outdoors than men and that this difference begins when women are teenagers. This difference is down to a variety of reasons from worries about hygiene, societal pressures and gender stereotyping to fear of crime and lack of opportunity. This is a situation that everyone would like to see change. Getting active

Natural Connections – Weeding out undesirables

SUDs pond now has Azolla growing in it Cumbernauld Living Landscape has a new Intern! Katherine is with us for 12 weeks surveying Invasive Non-native species on the three Natural Connections sites.  Her work will let us compare a previous survey of 2015 to let us see how far it has spread, if our volunteer days of clearing it have made an impact and it will map precisely where each plant is for us to be able to clear it out in the future.

Natural Connections – Transforming your views into actions

Concept plan of Ravenswood LNR improvements Cumbernauld Living Landscape is currently conducting a community consultation regarding improvements to the entrance to North Lanarkshire Council’s beautiful, Ravenswood Local Nature Reserve. These improvements include a small outdoor classroom to encourage local primary and secondary schools usage and stewardship of the site. Redesigning the butterfly garden to provide a haven for pollinators and creating a space that local residents can enjoy.

Life in Cumbernauld – what's your experience

This consultation is being carried out in partnership between Cumbernauld Living Landscape, North Lanarkshire Community Learning and Development and Sanctuary Cumbernauld.   We are interested in learning more about your experience of life in Cumbernauld to allow us to improve the services and opportunities that we offer throughout the town. It should take no longer than ten minutes and your participation is greatly appreciated.  

Natural Connections – Natural Capital in Cumbernauld

Heather pollination I attended The Wildlife Trust’s Conservation in the 21st Century event last week in Edinburgh to discover how we can implement ‘natural capital’ approaches in Scotland.  What is it, I hear you say? Well…natural capital values our environment by looking at the services we derive from nature. A great example of this is pollination from wild bees, butterflies and hoverflies. They estimate this ‘free’ service is worth a whopping £43million to the Scottish economy.  It is becoming increasingly necessary to assign a value to a natural asset in order to protect it for all of us and to show businesses the need for them to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable for their long term survival too.

Case Study – Pine martens caught on camera

It is many years since the last pine marten was seen in Cumbernauld. A Scottish Wildlife Trust volunteer took up the challenge to capture the first ever picture of this shy creature in the town. This case study shows how volunteer action can have wide reaching benefits.

From Cumbernauld to Portland – an international perspective on new and old green infrastructure

Morag MacGregor completed a volunteer internship with the Cumbernauld Living Landscape  and was awarded a  Landscape Institute Student Travel Award 2014. After completing her internship in Cumbernauld she travelled to Portland and Oregon to investigate Green Infrastructure - this is the first of two blogs about what she learnt and experienced. 

Climate change in Cyprus – what can we learn?

I was recently given the opportunity to visit Cyprus to study climate change and see how it could relate to Scotland. Due to the stark and quite obvious differences between Cyprus and Scotland, this wasn't always the easiest of tasks, but there are issues that we can tackle here at home to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Read on for an insight into how Cyprus is dealing with climate change on their own terms.