From 6pm at the Colintraive Village Hall Mark, our Community Forest Development Officer will be hosting an evening all about the forest. There’ll be presentations, discussions, map-making and lots of lovely soup. Come along! All are welcome!
Category: Opportunities
Great opportunity to feed in to tourism strategy for Cowal on Tues 24th Sept 2013 in The Creggans Inn, Strachur
‘Tourism Argyll & The Isles 2020’ Workshop from 1 – 4.30pm
Drop in from 5.30 – 7.30pm
Open to everyone involved in tourism in the area.
Hear all about Argyll & The Isles Tourism Co-operative and help shape the future of tourism in this wonderful part of Scotland as we develop Tourism Argyll & The Isles 2020 – identify the opportunities for growth in Cowal, and the issues that need to be addressed to achieve this.
Provide input to www.exploreargyll.co.uk and the new leaflet being produced covering Cowal as part of an Argyll-wide suite. Hear all about AITC’s social media activity and how to join in. Find out what support is available for your own business from Business Gateway, VisitScotland and others.
It’s almost two months since the Trust’s Annual General Meeting and those members who attended will recall the various presentations which outlined the Trust’s achievements to date. Against the priorities highlighted by the community which were collated in the Development Plan, significant progress has been made in a relatively short time. The community now owns an extremely valuable asset in Stronafian Forest which offers tremendous potential for regeneration of the area. Employment opportunities; jobs creation; affordable housing and amenity use all have the potential to impact on community confidence. Increasing the economically active population will, in turn, help improve the local economy; create service provision; and help secure the local school.
A great deal of time and effort has been expended on the Forest project to date and Mark, our Forest Officer, is promoting an open evening (with homemade soup!) on 13th September (6-8p.m.)in Colintraive Village Hall when local residents can learn how they can be involved in influencing what happens in the forest.
The Community Development Plan highlighted Stronafian Forest as the “Flagship” project and now that this is well and truly underway, the Trust is considering the next priority to be tackled. This is the optimum time to inspire the next phase of development, so why not consider joining the board and influencing what major project should be tackled next. We currently have a board of 5 dedicated individuals but additional directors would help move projects forward sooner rather than later. Whilst it’s true that Directors have certain responsibilities which demand a degree of diligence, these are not onerous and there is no threat to any individual – or their assets – as the liability of members is limited to £1 should the Trust ever be wound up.
Progress towards the aspirations of the Community Development Plan can be accelerated with the commitment of additional board members. Could you be that addition? Would you like to talk it over with an existing board member? Directors can be contacted for an informal chat without any obligation (contact details below).
The Trust has helped both Colintraive and Glendaruel Village Halls to upgrade and is currently supporting a further phase of improvements to the Glen Hall; the feasibility study has been completed for the Cowal Way; renewable energy projects, both wind and hydro, are currently being investigated and several other priorities contained in the Development Plan are under investigation.
Please consider exploring the possibility of joining the Board – your community needs you!
A vacancy has arisen in the Colintraive Post Office for a new Post-mistress / -master. The position is for 20 hours a week and all applications for more information should be made to Patricia Watt at the Colintraive Hotel, phone no. 01700 841207 / email. enquiries@colintraivehotel.com
The Cowal Way has an intern this summer, Catriona Phillips, who has been tasked with beginning the process of improving the long-distance walk. One of Catriona’s tasks has been to create a website for the Way, and this, in pretty short order she has done. Take a look here.
Mark Chambers (Community Forest Project Officer) and Charles Dixon-Spain (Chair) attended the Community Land Scotland at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Skye the weekend of the 6th/7th June. Charles helped lead a workshop, under the chairmanship of Ian Hepburn, on Financing the Purchase of Community Forests, and Mark to the opportunity to network with fellow professionals in the community land-owning sector.
The event was highly successful with opportunities to chat with funders, policy-makers and fellow communities. Here’s the photo of all the delegates at the event.
For more information on Community Land Scotland, please click here.
Adaptation Scotland have just uploaded videos taken from their pilot “Are You Ready” scheme onto their website. You’ll see some familiar faces talking about what the project might mean to Colintraive and Glendaruel, and also the effect weather has on our community. This sort of feedback has led to further meetings, the formation of a focus group and potentially a very exciting CCF application.
To see the videos, click here
Mark Chambers, our Community Forest Officer has recently written to the community, so for those of you not on our mailing list, or just keeping an eye on how CGDT are going here’s what he says:
Hello,
My name is Mark and I have recently been appointed as the Community Forest Development Officer for the Stronafian Forest. I have immediately found this community to be very welcoming and proud of its heritage. The people I have met have been really friendly to my wife (Gill) and I. We feel extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to live amongst all of you, here in Colintraive and Glendaruel.
We have a grown-up family who live in Newcastle, and hope to visit often. My eldest daughter is currently at University, my other daughter works in a famous department store in Newcastle and my son is currently working for a charity in Bangladesh.
Firstly, for my sins, I am a Newcastle United supporter. I have a varied work history prior to my position here, including working as a soldier (Light Infantry and Royal Engineers), working as a prison officer (mainly long-term young offenders) and running several businesses, as well as community work, youth work management and ecology. I studied Countryside Management at Newcastle University and Community and Youth Work at Durham University. My hobbies used to include rugby, boxing and hunting with hawks, but now I prefer being stung as a beekeeper, wildlife as a whole, cycling and the occasional drink.
The population of Glendaruel and Colintraive is much dispersed and that is the main reason that I haven’t as yet been able to meet all of you. I grasped the opportunity to work with this community with both hands. I firmly believe that by working together we can make a difference to the future of this community, especially for the children and young people. I see my position as one which supports your ideas and relays this to the Development Trust. Some of you will have taken part in surveys in the past regarding the forest. These surveys were important to get us up and running. Now your participation is vital in this, the 2nd stage of the forest development, (stage 1 was the successful purchase).
As you are aware, there are similar community forests to ours and we are lucky enough to be able to emulate their best practice. We are unique in the fact that we now own a huge forest and that we will be leasing out the commercial timber production. The community will have access to all of the forest, apart from occasions when timber is being processed.
Previous community surveys show that you had some ideas of how we could use the forest. I have met with various groups and I am aware that other ideas have been suggested. This is a list of ideas that you had suggested (this list was taken from the Stronafian Forest Business Plan, available on CGDT website under publications):
- Several picnic sites connected by forest walks
- A forest style children’s playground
- A stocked fishing lake
- Strategically placed hides for bird/animal watching
- Bridleway for pony trekking and a ménage
- A nursery for native plants and trees
- Conservation of chambered cairn
- Forest burials
- Forest crofts
- Local food production
- Energy production (bio mass/hydro/wind/solar)
- Saw mill, providing wood, bark chippings etc
- Sustainable housing
- Quad biking
- Archery
- Stalking and clay pigeon shooting
- Astronomy centre
- Tennis courts
Your suggestions were made some time ago and, perhaps, you may have forgotten, not participated or changed your mind since then. Developing and maintaining services in the forest will come at a financial cost. Some costs cannot be transferred to users such as cyclists or walkers. The community will benefit through tourist participation in the Community Forest and this benefit will sustain employment and help to retain young people in the area, which in turn will retain and improve vital services such as the school, health care and bus services.
Community support will help to secure funding, which enables the Development Trust to commission a feasibility study into using our natural resources to deliver a reliable financial income to maintain services such as cycle paths and picnic areas. Finances would also be necessary to develop additional ideas. Renewable energy projects such as Community Hydro and/or Community Wind could provide this income. After an initial feasibility study of renewable energy sources, we would then be able to consult with you again with more information. We would seek guidance from Community Energy Scotland (CES) and I have provided 2 Case studies of community renewables for you to look at.
- http://www.communityenergyscotland.org.uk/assets/0000/6359/IGHT_20case_20study_202_1_.pdf
- http://www.communityenergyscotland.org.uk/assets/0001/0916/North_Harris_Trust_-_Hydro_Electric_Scheme_case_study.pdf
Woodland crofts are a relatively new concept, and in the near future community members will be invited to actively participate in helping to set the criteria and the subsequent selection of potential crofters for these woodland crofts. These woodland crofts are amazing opportunities for those with a love of forest management and sustainable living and can offer housing and business opportunities. You can find more information on this website, www.woodlandcrofts.org.
We have the advantage of being able to obtain wood from the commercial forest tenant and process this into wood-fuel that can be made available to the community and possibly to supply a wider market.
The following questions will help the Trust to gain an understanding of your forest use and what you see as important areas/items to be developed in the Community Forest. I will be available to discuss any of these areas with you, either in person, by telephone or by email. Thanks for your time and please take time to complete the very brief 3-minute questionnaire. Your ideas and input will help to formulate the Development Trust’s Master Plan.
- To take part in the survey click here
We have a planned celebration day on July 13th which will include some family activities, food and in the evening we are holding a Ceilidh. The day and evening’s activities will be free. There will be a raffle and any money raised will go to the Kilmodan primary school. Bar profits will be shared between the Colglen shinty club and Kilmodan School. More information will be displayed and any raffle prizes will be gratefully received on the day or night of the 13th or to the office in the Colintraive hall.
Today Charles and Sara attended the follow up workshop in Edinburgh, building on the very successful Are You Ready? pilot at Colintraive Village Hall in February. For more information on the project, and the very successful day of resilience imagineering with agencies, utilities and communities, click here. The Trust will be contacting participants in the first event shortly to begin the process of creating a fully-fledged resilience programme.
Yesterday (27th February 2013) CGDT was invited by the Forestry Commission to make a presentation on our acquisition of Stronafian Forest at their quarterly “Wood of Our Own Event”.