Every one of us can make a difference for Cumbernauld!

Cumbernauld Living Landscape’s vision – the reason we exist, is to put ‘people and nature at the heart of Cumbernauld’s future’. The most important words in that sentence are ‘people’, ‘nature’ and ‘future’, and besides being key to our vision statement, it’s no co-incidence that they are also the main themes of COP26 – the global climate change conference that

Healthy body, healthy mind – healthy planet

Healthy body, healthy mind is a phrase most of us recognise, but perhaps it is time to add a new clause to that old mantra. It’s now recognised that for a healthy life one of the most important factors is a healthy planet. Research shows that being amongst vibrant, biodiverse, natural spaces is vital for healthy people and communities. At

Save our bogs – for peat’s sake!

COP26 is finally here and the eyes of the world are on Scotland and on climate change like never before. With a looming global emergency it’s easy to feel helpless but here in Cumbernauld we have something that could be a key weapon in our fight against climate change. I’m talking about peat bogs, collectively the biggest carbon sink in

A wild idea!

A chance comment overheard in a shop, and a forager’s wry joke, should give us hope for the future. ‘It feels like rain’s coming – I can sense a change on its way’, said the Cumbernauld shop assistant I eavesdropped on. ‘I’m picking my dinner’, quipped the brambler I passed on a walk. But what they said sounded to me

The sea starts here

According to a Scottish Government report last year, an estimated 300 million plastic straws, 276 million pieces of plastic cutlery, 50 million plastic plates and 66 million polystyrene food containers are used in Scotland every year. With a population of around 50,000, that means that here in Cumbernauld we are using three million straws a year, 2,760,000 pieces of plastic

Wild can be beautiful

Cumbernauld Living Landscape won two of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Beautiful Scotland Awards recently, a Silver Gilt overall, and the special Garden for Life Award. We were of course delighted, not only for ourselves, but for the many local people and organisations whose hard work and dedication made it all possible. But we were also delighted on another level, because the

Discovering Cumbernauld’s magical Green Route

This month Cumbernauld Living Landscape teamed up with Rowanbank Environmental Arts and Education to deliver an enchanting walking theatre along the Green Route that connects Cumbernauld’s urban centre, through the communities of Carbrain, Kildrum and Abronhill, to the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Cumbernauld Glen Wildlife Reserve. Rowanbank is a troupe of highly skilled musicians, dancers, stilt walkers and aerialists who were

Could pine martens help paint the town red?

These days most of us are probably aware of the plight of the red squirrel. Reds are our only native squirrel but numbers have been in steady decline for years, due to the spread of their invasive grey cousins. Red squirrels find it difficult to compete with greys for food and habitat, but it is the squirrelpox virus which the

Why Cumbernauld is a cool place to live

  Many of us know that the fantastic woodlands and greenspaces around Cumbernauld make it a cool place to live. But did you know that they actually make it cooler too? All the concrete and tarmac in towns and cities mean that they get hotter than rural areas, because the dark, hard surfaces absorb lots of heat. But studies have

Tenders invited for new interpretation for Cumbernauld greenspaces

  As part of Cumbernauld Living Landscape’s aim to help people to get the most out of the wonderful green spaces on our doorstep, we are planning to install some new interpretation. This is what we want the interpretation to achieve: The interpretation gives people the knowledge and confidence to explore Cumbernauld, including Wildlife Trust reserves, Council-owned sites, and a