Case Studies

Community Woodlands Association member visit to Dronely Community Woodland

Woodland Infrastructure

A group of people standing in woodland looking up at the canopy.

This exchange allowed our members to learn all about Continuous Cover Forestry, in situ at Dronley Community Woodland who shared how the woodland is managed in line with Continuous Cover Forestry principles. Dronley Community Woodland has a size of 50 ha and is located approximately 8 miles outside Dundee. Dronley Wood became Community Woodland in 2019 via a very successful Community Asset Transfer Fund (CATS). A feasibility study has shown that Dronley Wood attracts more than 20000 woodland visits per year.

We learned how continuous cover forestry maintains and helps to sequester carbon in the environment and ways in which woodlands can be managed to make them more resilient to climate change.

Effects of wind damage – the need to plan for one stand of trees, thinking that if that gets affected by wind it will have effect on neighbouring trees – the need to plan now for new species that will adapt better to climate change. The importance of having locally trained and insured people to do regular work with chainsaws rather than relying on contractors.
Confirmation that producing a working woodland is achievable, given application of knowledge and management skills.

Learning Outcomes

  • Woodland Infrastructure – the Key to Continuous Cover Forestry
  • Site-Adaptation of Tree Species and Climate Change with Regenerating and Restructuring Stands of Scots Pine, Sitka Spruce and Norway Spruce.
  • Assessing the Carbon Storage of Existing Stands and Woodland Soil (a recent research project by Pourang Mozafari from Abertay University) as Potential for Environmental Service Charges

Community Organisation:
Community Woodlands Association members

Exchange Host Partners:
Dronely Community Woodland

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Community Woodlands Association

"This exchange provided us with invaluable knowledge on management of woodland infrastructure. such as the importance of consciously using groups of trees to protect other trees from storm damage, the perils of soil compaction and installing Jay boxes! No less important was the ‘side-chat’ with and amongst CWA members, finding out about their individual woodlands aspirations and challenges. A great day - thank you all for making it so enjoyable!"

Case Studies

Community Association of Lochs and Sounds (CAOLAS) Seawilding exchange in Loch Craignish

Supporting successful restoration and community engagement

An Oyster shell

This visit provided opportunities to learn from Seawilding who are very experienced and have encountered great success in oyster restoration. We learnt about the best methods used to collect spat, which is something we have not yet done in our project. This has been crucial to develop our own methodology for spat collection during summer. We learnt more about their methods of community outreach and engagement by visiting their own education station situated by the loch. Here, we explored the materials they use for community outreach days, including adapted monitoring guidance that members of the public can use. We also discussed in depth what works and what doesn’t when it comes to connecting people to our projects. Having these conversations with others in the field has provided inspiration and guidance for future events that CAOLAS will arrange, including creating volunteer events for spat collector set up. We do not think that any training is needed to pursue the methods we learnt about during our visit- however we did learn a lot about the requirements needed to set up a small scale hatchery.

We met an intern working with Seawilding, and we learnt about the challenges and opportunities that working with students presents. Since CAOLAS have aspirations to do this in the future, these were helpful conversations to have with others doing this first hand. We also met a hatchery expert who was visiting, allowing us to discuss logistics of small scale hatchery set up – another long term vision of CAOLAS. This was particularly interesting given the issues with spat procurement, providing us with some useful information to feed back to our trustees. CEO of Seawilding, Danny Renton was also on site, allowing us to chat with him. This was particularly positive since he offered to help us with spat procurement in the future. Having a larger group share some deliveries of spat with us is proving to be an effective method to overcome supply issues. Therefore, networking was another benefit of our exchange.

Learning Outcomes

  • Analysis of methodologies used for monitoring
  • How to effectively engage volunteers for personal growth and wider benefit to the community. Developing pro environmental attitudes and behaviours to create a community of nature stewards.
  • Training requirements to implement appropriate methodologies

Community Organisation:
Community Association of Lochs & Sounds (CAOLAS)

Exchange Host Partners:
Seawilding

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Coastal Communities Network

"We benefited from some much needed inspiration from a hugely successful community focused project - showing us that our hard work can have even more far reaching positive benefits with an extended funding period. We left feeling uplifted!"

Case Studies

Dunnet Forestry Trust

Meadow management, invasive species & forestry signage with Culduthel Community Woods

A group of people in woodland

On our arrival at Culduthel Community Woods (CCW) we saw the newly installed forest signage and the construction of their interpretation board, they also shared their ideas and thoughts to the content of the interpretation board. This was really impressive and led to thinking how we can make improvements at Dunnet Community Forest (DCF). The discussion and seeing new signage helped to realise how import it is for us to revisit our own signage, keep it updated and relevant for our forest community. To this end we have scheduled time to inspect DCF current signage, document this and any improvements that may come to light. This information will be passed up to my Board of Directors with recommendations for changes/replacements.

Invasive species were a large part of the conversation between CCW and the group, all of us in the group from different woodlands across the country had different plants and species that take time and thought to remove. I had a number of conversations with different group members which helped understanding on how they are dealing with their invasives, the challenges they face with terrain or using chemicals, what has worked or not for them. Learning from these conversations that a more scientific approach with mapping and monitoring the areas that we have invasives could help us to see how much we are actually achieving, rather than feeling down hearted at how much further we have to go.  If we can find a method of visualising the amount of our particular invasives we are removing and sharing this information with our volunteers it will have positive benefits and hopefully encourage more of us to tackle the invasives more often.

Meadow management – it was very interesting to hear about their meadow journey, the research they have done and what they have taken from that research which has led them to the plan they have in place for mowing, raking and planting. CCW’s site is quite different from DCF as we sit on a SSSI we have different restriction even down to the time of year we can mow, but there were a lot of similar issues such as the importance of raking for the meadow fertility and the plants that they are choosing to incorporate in their meadow. It was interesting to see the petrol scythe they have purchased and how well it works, this is information to take back to our Directors as we will need to invest in new equipment in the not too distant future.

Learning Outcomes

• our very recent work on installing signs and interpretation boards.
• our work to remove invasive species, especially rhododendron and
snowberry
• our approach to meadow management, supported by the Nature
Restoration Fund
• our partnership work with local charities to promote education and
awareness of the woods and to help get people more active
• our plans for path and general access improvements


Community Organisation:
Dunnet Community Forest

Exchange Host Partners:
Culduthel Community Woods

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Community Woodland Association

"The learning benefits from this exchange are wonderfully varied from direct information gathered on how to do a specific task for example to discussions on alternative methods of working, making connections and building friendships though a shared passion. The information that was covered on this visit was all encompassing they covered all the different issues and topics to do with running and maintaining a community woodland. It was a fantastic visit and I don’t think there is anything they could have added or done better."

Case Studies

Raasay community woodlands exchange

This was an open exchange to allow our community to hear the experience of community ownership of woodlands.

woodland with a small stream surrounded by tall trees

Exploring opportunities and constraints related to community ownership of woodlands was an important learning point.

Learning Outcomes

  • The Raasay community is more informed about community management/ownership of woodlands
  • The Raasay community is more informed about the options available to them with respect to our local woodlands.
  • The Raasay community is supported to make an informed decisions on the future management of local woodlands.

Community Organisation:
Sleat Community Trust

Exchange Host Partners:
Raasay Development Trust

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Community Woodlands Association

“The exchange has influenced the decision to purchase an electric tipper truck for our current wood fuel processing and delivery service. The information taken away from the learning exchange will be discussed as at Raasay Roundtable event where we will decide on next steps.”

A large group of people sitting outside a community building
a person in front a shelves with a range of items from glassware, vases and
A large group of people standing outside two large polytunnels.
a person in a green space with grass, trees and planters, and houses in the background, rolling a wheelbarrow full of dirt/grass.
A carved wooden bench

Case Studies

Campy Growers at Bamff

Bamff philosophy is “We face a crisis unprecedented in the history of human civilisation, with climate change and biodiversity loss accelerating around the globe”.

Seven people, listening to a person, standing in long grass in a woodland area

“The biodiversity crisis in the UK is happening at one of the fastest rates in the world. At Bamff, we are doing all we can to create wildlife habitat – to restore nature’s abundance and to sequester carbon.”  Since Campy Growers started the aim is to do with producing local and ethically grown food, lock up carbon and create a community around the project.

Learning Outcomes

  • Increase knowledge about native plants and wildlife in an ecosystem context and replicating it at Campy when possible
  • Make this knowledge accessible to other volunteers, staff and visitors but setting up signs and informative documents on site (wildlife habitat, native plants, impact of invasive plants …)
  • Educate visitors by organising workshops (with the support of a naturalist) on site to identify what our soil and site are made off and how to improve them

Community Organisation:
Campy Growers

Exchange Host Partners:
Bamff Wild Beavers group

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
GetGrowing Scotland

“Our next task is to get a baseline of what’s already there. It could be a case of recording plants, insects in a log with volunteers. We also plan to keep a photo library. Delivering workshops will be key to spreading the word about biodiversity and how you can support it, through bog gardens, pond and wild flower meadows.”

Case Studies

Regenerative farming network

Visited four different farms run by a farmer in Propagates Regenerative Farmer Network.

one person standing in woodland, speaking, with their arms gesturing

There was a spread of farmers, size of farm, farming background, regenerative practice, time in the network, gender and age.

Learning Outcomes

  • Learn more detail of how the Regenerative farming Network was set up, how it runs and resources that are needed to maintain it
  • Meet with farmer involved in the RFN to hear their experience of being part of the network
  • Glean inspiration, contact and advice from those involved in the RFN to inform how we can best set up a successful RegenAg peer support network in the Highlands.

Community Organisation:
Highland Good Food Partnership

Exchange Host Partners:
Propagate

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Nourish

“The big takeaway is the importance of the network being open to all interested in regenerative farming, and from the start building a non-judgemental culture. It was clear that part of the success is making sure the network is farmer-led… letting it develop organically rather than a predetermined plan put on the mentors.”

Case Studies

Woodland restoration and management

CWA members were invited to take part in the 3 learning exchanges across Inverness to explore different approaches to woodland restoration and management.

a close up of purple flowers with people in the background walking up a small hill

In total 14 community groups visited the woodland sites to exchange knowledge and ideas.

Learning Outcomes

  • Outdoor learning for sustainability: how to deliver to different ages and stages to ensure participants have a real sense of achievement and ownership of their woodland.
  • Sharing approaches to meadow management and removal of invasive species.
  • Looking after archaeological and historical sites.
  • Future planning and diversification.

Community Organisation:
Community Woodland Association members

Exchange Host Partners:
Abriachan Forest Trust, Culduthel Woods group, Dunain Community Woodland

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Community Woodland Association (CWA)

“It was good to hear how you have dealt with and are overcoming similar challenges to those we have at Dunnet. Your site is beautiful – the care and attention to future planning was a joy to hear. It was really interesting to hear about meadow management and the type of machinery to invest in- definitely information that I will be taking back to Dunnet.”