Environmental projects - how to run a better project

SNH is running a Sharing Good Practice Event to provide an opportunity for participants to share and learn from others the project management skills required to successfully run ‘on the ground’ environmental projects and projects within environmental organisations.

Environmental projects have their own challenges which Project Managers overcome in their own way.  It is envisaged that past, present and future Project Managers and Project Executives / Senior Responsible Owners will attend, as well as others with an interest in the delivery of environmental projects.

The event aims to draw in speakers from outside the environmental sector to give a broader perspective on how to successfully utilise project management techniques.

There is more information and a booking form on SNH's website.

Sharing Good Practice event: Making soils count

Making soils count - Wednesday 9th September 2015, Battleby Centre, Perth

This Sharing Good Practice (SGP) event forms part of a programme of activities under the Scotland partnership for promotion of UN International Year of Soils 2015 (IYS2015). IYS2015 provides an opportunity to take stock and reflect on examples of sustainable soil management that exist in Scotland and where gaps in information and resources occurs.

This event is organised by Scottish Natural Heritage in partnership with Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Field Studies Council, British Geological Survey, The James Hutton Institute, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Scottish Rural College and Cifal Scotland.

SGP events are fully participatory events where participants can learn about and share practical issues relevant to their own particular roles and activities and discuss their resource requirements and help to identify resource gaps. This event will specifically cover awareness of soil issues and demonstrate the breadth of information and tools available. The event is aimed at ‘those who have responsibility for soil and its sustainable management in Scotland’. In particular - land managers, advisors, researchers, public agencies and NGO’s. 

Event Objectives: 

• To promote awareness of soil issues
• To provide a path to the breadth of information and tools available to understand, monitor and manage soils by range of contributing organisations
• An opportunity to take stock and reflect on examples of sustainable soil management that exist in Scotland

The event flyer and booking form are available on the SNH website.

Scottish Natural Heritage - Review of Moorland Management

Professor Alan Werritty is the chairman of the SNH-led review of moorland management.  Here, at the end of a long two days, Alan provides an update on progress.

Our two-day hearing has come to a close.

Our final session ranged over policy issues. We had a lively hearing involving Bob McIntosh, Director of the Scottish Government’s Environment and Forestry Directorate, Duncan Orr-Ewing of the RSPB, Maggie Keegan of the SWT, and Andrew Midgley of Scottish Land Estates.

The Land Use Strategy and the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy featured prominently. We explored in detail the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainable moorland landscapes. A lot of our discussion centred on the role of a national vision for moorland and regional strategies supporting this.

Now we begin work on our report, which we shall draft by the end of February. 

Meanwhile, I must thank my colleagues for supporting the review, and the many people who attended the hearing for so enthusiastically participating in our conversations. We have also received some excellent written evidence which helps us greatly.

Professor Alan Werritty FRSE
Chair of the SNH SAC Sustainable Moorland Management Review Group

Scottish Natural Heritage - Review of Moorland Management

Professor Alan Werritty is chairing a SNH-led review of moorland management.  Here, in his second guest blog, Alan provides an update on progress.

We are now well into our hearing on sustainable moorland management.

Yesterday was fascinating. We heard evidence from SNH staff, which highlighted the huge breadth of issues they deal with under the umbrella of ‘moorlands’. We have some strong lines of evidence on wildlife and habitat changes derived from SNHs Site Condition Monitoring, and available on SEWeb.

We then heard from a trio of professors working on water management and geodiversity. We discussed the EMBER project, a number of issues relating to flood management, and heard about growing interest in the ‘roughness’ of upland landscapes in determining water run-off. 

We then moved into economic and amenity issues and heard from representatives of crofting and recreation interests as well as experienced economists and land-use experts. As we ranged over the many values of moorland we were challenged to tease apart views, perceptions and evidence (the term ‘co-production of evidence’ popped into conversation!). So many people, even experts, have hard views about what works well and badly across moorland Scotland, yet the evidence base underpinning this is incredibly patchy and disparate.

We worked late and tried to pull together the threads of much of what we heard, and have read.

This morning, we started with a session on biodiversity, with lively contributions from Professors Steve Redpath and Davy McCracken, both vastly experienced and steeped in the complexities of land use change, conservation and management. A lot of science came to the fore here, and we heard a strong case for more experimental work, and possibly a large experiment on land management practices and impacts. We also heard a lot about the value of a range of evidence types – not just from scientists, but from the wider range of stakeholders connected with the uplands.

We have just finished a session on moorland management practices, with experts from the Heather Trust, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, National Trust for Scotland, Association of Deer Management Groups, and the renewable energy sector. This was a wide ranging session, with a lot of discussion centring on grouse moor management, the land restoration measures and cooperative approaches to management. These are complex issues, and one issue emerging very clearly is the great range of management objectives, some of which operate at the local landholding level, whereas others cover vast landscapes. Indeed, several people have commented we don’t really have a clear or shared vision for moorlands. We recently saw a public consultation on a national plan for Scotland’s peatlands, and we have a good deal to learn from that.

Professor Alan Werritty FRSE
Chair of the SNH SAC Sustainable Moorland Management Review Group

Scottish Natural Heritage - Review of Moorland Management

Professor Alan Werritty is the chairman of a SNH-led review of moorland management.  Here, Alan provides a guest blog to provide some background to the review.

Today is the first of two days spent gathering evidence on sustainable moorland management. I am chairing the SNH Scientific Advisory Committee  (SAC) review  group reviewing this topic, and we have invited views from more than 20 specialists and advisers drawn from research bodies, government, agencies, land managers and NGOs.  Meeting in Edinburgh, we are looking forward to lively exchanges to tease out what we know, and what we don’t.  Of course we would like to have invited many more, but we have had to be selective.

We are looking to develop our understanding of management, which sustains the fullest range of moorland natural heritage features across Scotland, and which supports ecologically and economically healthy ecosystems.

Periodically, questions are asked about the impacts of sheep and deer grazing, muirburn,  heather cutting, predator control and a range of other management practices on moorlands.  Answers differ depending on whether your interests lie with soils, water, wildlife, economic interests or wider environmental and cultural aspects.  As part of our review, we are trying to identify the management which supports healthy  nature as well as healthy economics.  It is quite a challenge!

In carrying out this review we want to contribute to work underway under the Land Use Strategy (LUS)  and Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) , as well as work reviewed under the IUCN Peatland Programme .   Other important sources of information are to be found on Scotland’s Moorland Forum website  and  as a result of Natural England’s recently completed first phase of a review of the evidence base on the management of the English uplands.  We have already pulled together a lot of information, and have received very helpful submissions.

Beyond the hearing, we shall draft our report and submit it to the SAC for its meeting on 5^th March. The report will then be presented to the SNH Board.

My colleagues on the review group are: Professor Robin Pakeman (James Hutton Institute), Dr Colin Shedden (BASC), Dr Adam Smith (GWCT) and Professor Jeremy Wilson (RSPB). The Secretary is Karen Rentoul, supported by Professor Des Thompson (SNH).

Professor Alan Werritty FRSE

Chair of the SNH SAC Sustainable Moorland Management Review Group

National Peatland Plan Consultation

The consultation on the National Peatland Plan closes on 12 September and members of the Forum are encouraged to respond to the consultation.

As I contributed to the development of the Plan, I will not be commenting on it, either on behalf of the Forum or The Heather Trust.

For those struggling with the deadline, there may be some flexibility but I suggest you contact SNH if you plan to submit a late response.

New Chairman for SNH

Photo: Northern Times

Ian Ross has been appointed as the new Chairman of SNH, to succeed Andrew Thin.  The article in the Northern Times has more information.

I will be trying to organise an early meeting for Lord Lindsay with Ian Ross to provide him with first hand information about the work of the Moorland Forum.

Predation-Prey Associations workshop - 4 June

I attended a workshop in Dunkeld, yesterday, that considered Predation-Prey Associations.  It was organised by SNH mainly for their staff, but several members of the Forum were invited to attend.  It was an interesting discussion.  There may be a role for the Forum in facilitating the review of the Predatory Birds Report[1] that the Forum commissioned from BTO in 2005.  This might be an opportunity for the Forum as a whole to satisfy its aspiration to contribute further to the predation debate.

A proposal is under discussion with Scottish Government & SNH about how this might work.  In addition to facilitating the review, I would like to see the Forum commissioned to capture local experience to supplement the scientific evidence and also develop consensus about the interpretation of the revised report.  What does it mean; how can be used to best effect?

An interesting discussion took place about how the interpretation could be communicated to a broad audience and the subject of demonstration events was raised.  I have expended on this idea in a more general post on the Heather Trust Blog.

[1] Park, K.J, Calladine, J. R, Graham, K.E, Stephenson, C.M, & Wernham, C.V. 2005.  The Impacts of Predatory Birds on Waders, songbirds, Gamebirds and Fisheries Interests.  A report by the Centre for Conservation Science for Scotland’s Moorland Forum.