The benefits of a scruffy garden

I glanced out of my sitting room window, where I was working at my laptop, yesterday morning, and caught a streak of lipstick pink as it flashed down towards the plants beneath the sill. Sitting up for a better view, I saw it was a male bullfinch, smart as new paint, rosy chest, coal-black cap and face, grey back and

If you build they will come!

It was National Nest Box Week last week! A sure sign that spring is on the way. And it’s not just we humans that are feeling that spring is in the air. You may have noticed that the birds are getting more and more vocal? The males are staking out their territories ready to attract a mate and ensure they

Wild about wetlands!

  Today is World Wetlands Day, which is celebrated every year on 2 February to raise awareness of these amazing habitats. You may be wondering what wetlands are? Well, wetlands are classed as any habitat that is seasonally or permanently flooded with water. This means that rivers, lochs, marshes, peat bogs, estuaries and floodplains are just some examples of wetland

We want your views!

The Scottish Wildlife Trust is inviting comments from stakeholders, local people and organisations on the proposed new Long-Term Forest Plan for its Cumbernauld Reserves. The document below explains what a Forest plan is, how and why the Trust manages its reserves here as it does, and what plans it has for management over the next twenty years. The maps at

A present for our wildlife!

Tis the season to plant trees! It feels like only yesterday when I was a bright-eyed trainee, writing a similar blog, detailing how the Nature Ninjas bravely battled against thigh-deep mud to bring trees to the people of Broadwood. One trip around the sun later, here we are again. On Sunday 12 December our staff and volunteers planted another 500

Don’t fear the reapers!

Over the last few weeks at St Maurice’s Pond you might have spotted some mysterious figures in high vis vests, armed with the kind of tool you’d expect to see in the hands of the grim reaper. But fear not, they’re just our resident Nature Ninjas. Scythes are often associated with death but we are using them to create new

Living Landscapes for a living planet

by Cathleen Thomas, Scottish Wildlife Trust Living Landscapes Programme Manager In the UN’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), starting with the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in October 2021, the world’s focus is on preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems – the natural networks that keep our planet working. The Scottish Wildlife Trust’s

Blooming meadows and booming biodiversity

A key objective of COP26 is “adapt to protect communities and natural habitats”. Through local, national and international collaboration this is a chance to make a real change. Cumbernauld Living Landscape is committed to restoring ecosystems, which will protect them, and us, from the ongoing effects of climate change. For example, as the globe gets warmer invertebrates will hatch earlier,

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