Tag: wildlife

Don’t fear the reapers!

, by Katie Brown
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…

We don’t know what we’ve got –‘til it’s gone

, by Sue Walker
We have a biodiversity crisis on our hands, and it’s shared centre stage with the climate crisis for much of COP26. And we may think most of the crisis is happening in the rainforests or oceans of the world – but it’s also happening on our doorsteps. For example I realise that I saw two red-listed, and one amber-listed bird…

Nature for people – people for nature

, by Jenn McNulty
Climate change is here, with its soaring temperatures and rising seas, and an increasingly destabilised weather system. Whilst we all know that rising emissions of greenhouse gases are to blame – that’s only half the story. Simultaneously we’ve embarked on a campaign of destruction against the natural world on a scale never-before-seen, tearing apart the very systems that would have…

Living Landscapes for a living planet

, by Guest Blogger
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

, by Rozelle McMillan
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,…

A sticky end?

, by Zara Gardner
It’s not always in the moment that you realise how poignant an occurrence is – in the grand scheme of things. This is exactly what emerged this week when I visited Abronhill Primary to deliver a Creating Natural Connections session to their upper primary school children. Having been split into 3 groups – the beetle group I recall – had…

Save our bogs – for peat’s sake!

, by Katie Brown
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!

, by Sue Walker
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

, by Sue Walker
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

, by Sue Walker
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…

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