This summer, get out into your garden or local greenspace and get your Sherlock Holmes inspired natural investigation on! We’ve got a “how to” make pooters here – a great little tool you can make from a recycled materials in no time at all. Use it to suck up minibeasts for an up close and personal inspection!
I count myself as being very lucky to be a Conservation Volunteers Natural Networks trainee. Day to day you’ll find me working in the Cumbernauld Living Landscape but I’ve got the support and expertise of TCV guiding my work too. One thing I am particularly glad to have are the other trainees. We were pleased to host the first Scottish trainees site visit in the Cumbernauld office this week, and showcased Cumbernauld in all its glory – by visiting the town centre. Maybe not what you would have expected for a bunch of environmental folk? Hear me out ...
I want to share my last blog with you as a Natural Community Trainee.
As a resident of Cumbernauld I have seen areas become overgrown and been angry that I saw nothing being done to tidy the place up, or make it feel safer… I didn’t have the skills and to be honest I wasn’t looking under the surface, it was too easy to blame others. The economy at present is pretty bleak with huge cuts to Local Authority spending. The area that has less impact on us and appears to be the easiest to take the hit is the environment. As the Community Engagement Officer for the Cumbernauld Living Landscape I have seen first-hand, the difficulties of trying to maintain one of the largest landscaped towns in Europe. But I have also seen the look of satisfaction on a volunteers face during an event or even when clearing a woodland of rubbish. If we, as a community don’t improve our surroundings, why should we expect others to do it for us?
It has been a very successful year and the team is expanding. We are currently recruiting a full time community engagement officer and two summer volunteer interns. These posts, based in Cumbernauld, will share our pride in the town's greenspaces and be on the front line of efforts to make them better.
Ravenswood Marsh is a beautiful area of Cumbernauld that used to have an active ‘Friends of Group’ that enjoyed, protected and promoted it. However, after the recent folding of Seafar and Ravenswood Community Council, interest in the group has fallen away. Luckily, local Carrick Crawford is regenerating interest in this superb place and explains his plans for this year in the following blog.
You may remember in my last blog I was telling you about the Pine marten workshops, when we first piloted this out in Condorrat Primary School in June 2014 we realised that we were missing the point of reconnecting habitats for the benefit of wildlife and that we weren’t getting that vital message out to the community. The solution was a second workshop which linked the wildlife to the urban environment and looked at reconnecting green areas such as woodlands and parks to create a mosaic of varied habitats.
The North Lanarkshire Council, Countryside Rangers Service have been monitoring a current otter holt within North Lanarkshire with the aid of a fantastic high tec camera. As a partner of the Cumbernauld Living Landscape they have graciously shared their images with us, as a tantalising teaser of what we could achieve as Rangers have build another holt here in Cumbernauld!
The North Lanarkshire Council, Countryside Rangers Service have been monitoring a current otter holt within North Lanarkshire with the aid of a fantastic high tec camera. As a partner of the Cumbernauld Living Landscape they have graciously shared their images with us, as a tantalising teaser of what we could achieve as Rangers have build another holt here in Cumbernauld!
I can’t believe that I have been on placement for a year with the Cumbernauld Living Landscape, what a busy time it has been. Over 500 children have now taken part in my pine marten workshop! The past five months have been spent developing and delivering pine marten and habitat workshops to spread the news of the town’s wildlife and ask young people what changes they would make to improve it. So far we have delivered the workshops to 5 primary schools and 7 local groups. Next year looks to be just a productive with 8 bookings already. So what’s all the fuss about?
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