Scottish Land & Estates - Spring Conference - 25 May 2016

Scottish Land & Estates has announced details of their Spring Conference, which will be held in The Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh on 25 May 2016.

This conference offers delegates a unique opportunity to engage with Scottish landowners, representatives of land based business, rural professionals, politicians, policy decision makers and academics. The conference is designed to stimulate debate, introduce new ideas and approaches, explore challenges and identify potential solutions.

For more details about the conference and how to apply for a place, see the SL&E website.

Summer Meeting at Invermark - 5 June 2015

With thanks to Lord Dalhouse and Richard Cooke for their offer of hospitality, I had a great visit to Invermark today to set up for the Forum's Summer meeting at Invermark. The programme for the meeting will be discussed at the Chairman's Working Group meeting on 22 May, but it is likely to include a business meeting for Forum members, followed by a discussion meeting to address issues that are relevant to the management of Invermark. Some guests will be invited to the discussion meeting and we will visit an area of the estate in the afternoon. It promises to be a fascinating and informative meeting.

I took the photo today and it provides an indication of what we will see in June, weather permitting.

Nature of Scotland Awards - Nominations

The Nature of Scotland Awards 2014 are now open for entries! Celebrating excellence, innovation and outstanding achievement in Scottish nature conservation, nominations are welcomed across eight categories:

Marine Conservation; Sustainable Development; Politician of the Year; Innovation; Outstanding Contribution; RSPB Species Champion; Community Initiative; Youth and Education.

If you know of an organisation, group or individual who has made a unique contribution to Scottish nature conservation, then the RSPB wants to hear from you.

To make your nomination visit www.rspb.org.uk/natureofscotland where you can download an entry form and find out more about the awards. The awards are free to enter and all applications must be submitted online.  The deadline for submissions is 30 May 2014.

Highlights from the Moorland Forum Meeting - 28 February 2014

Thank you to those who were able to be with us for the Forum meeting at Oatridge College, on Friday.

The meeting covered a lot of ground and in advance of the Minutes, I am circulating some highlights as a reminder to those who were there and to give a quick overview of the key points to those who could not attend.  (Meeting Papers)

Opportunities to support the Forum’s work are highlighted in green, and places where action is required in red.

Briefings 

• SCA Routes 2 Rural Employment – Jamie Stewart
• This appears to be a good fit with the Forum’s aspiration to have some input in this area.
• We agreed that the Forum will support this initiative. 
• LUS Borders Pilot update
• The current 6-month stakeholder engagement phase finishes at the end of May 2014.
• The report from the Pilot will be completed by the end of March 2015.
• We will keep in touch with this work.

Briefings added to the website

• National Bird Survey Guidance Update.
• Wildlife Estates Scotland update.

‘Understanding Predation’ (formerly 'Species Interactions')

• It was agreed that the development of this project would continue.
• A Planning Group would be established and this would meet on 17 March.
• A questionnaire would be circulated to all members and other interested parties to capture views about the work.

Principles of Moorland Management 2

• Volunteers were requested to develop a skeleton plan for this work from the concept document that had been circulated.
• The aim would be to develop an outline project during 2014 so that it could be included in the budget round for funding in 2015-16.
• Work would not start until April 2015.

Update on Work in Progress

• The Peatland Action project 
• An event is being organised on Flanders Moss in March to provide an opportunity to see peatland restoration in action.
• Details and a booking form are on the News page of the Forum’s website  
• The event is being repeated on three consecutive days 25-27 March.  Forum members are encouraged to attend on 25 March. 
• Forest Enterprise Open Land Project
• Members are asked to review the report from the workshop held last year.
• Please could any comments be sent to me by the end of March 2014. 
• Comments will be passed to FES.

Governance Issues

• Programme for Delivery
• See the latest version on the website..
• The Programme for 2014 has been updated.
• A review of the Priority Issues, Other Work, and the Issues pages is required and volunteers would be welcomed to help with this.
• Summer Meeting - 6 June 2014
• Mar Lodge was agreed as the venue.
• Guest invitations
• Ian Ross, the new chairman of SNH
• Richard Cooke
• Other suggestions will be welcome.

Forum Briefings

Members might like to consider making better use of the network that the Forum provides to circulate briefings, or information about activities or events.  The best time to do this is during the build up to a meeting, but I can use this Blog, the Newsletters and the website to draw attention to your briefings etc.

I suggest that we could all do more to break out of our silos and make better use of communication channels that are available to us.  You have paid your subscription, why not make use of the Forum's links as a way to get your message across to a wider audience.

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.

The John Muir Conference 2014 ~ 12-13 May 2014

This conference will mark the centenary of John Muir's Death.  Click on the banner for more information and details of how to register.

2014 - Highlights from early January

Highlights - Early January 2014

Review of Scotland's Muirburn Code
On 6 January, I submitted a revised report from the Critique Phase of the review that was carried out last spring.  This is a second draft after discussion with the Scottish Government and SNH and the next step will be to use the ideas coming from this phase of the work to develop the scope for a review process.  Taking my proposals I have drafted an outline to show what a revised code could look like.

Further discussion will take place with SG and SNH and then the proposals will be shred with the Muirburn Group.

The review is not straight forward, as I am determined that a revised Code should be relevant to all parts of Scotland and a range of different land uses.  I think the existing Code has been too narrow and of little relevance to the muirburn practices that have been employed traditionally in many parts of Scotland, particularly in the crofting counties.

Commissioned Work for Forest Enterprise Scotland

This is another report that has been revised following the submission of an original draft to FES.  The
second draft was submitted before Christmas and further comments on have been received.  I will be revising the draft and resubmitting the report.

It is important that we get the format of this report right, as I am hopeful that this initial project will lead to further events.  Time spent getting the feedback from this project into a form that meets the requirements of FES, will make it easier to do the next one!

I am conscious that some of those who contributed to this work have not received any payment yet.  I will be addressing this as soon as the report is finalised and I receive payment from FES.


Meeting with Bob McIntosh
Lord Lindsay and I met Bob McIntosh, Director Environment & Forestry, on 10 January.  This is a regular meeting that aims to brief Bob on the work of the Moorland Forum and review the plans for forthcoming work.

The principal issue for discussion was the Species Interactions project proposal and this was useful ahead of the planning meeting that was due to take place on 17 January.  Other issues discussed included:

• How the Forum was supporting the Green Stimulus Peatland Restoration Project and in particular how pilot schemes  / demonstration events might be used to help with communicating the peatland message.
• The Land use strategy and the support by the Forum for the Regional Pilots for the Action Plan in the Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire.
• Rural careers and the wish for the Forum to seek ways to support other initiatives.
• The search for synergies between initiatives that were considering using demonstration events to communicate with stakeholders to avoid presenting conflicting messages.

SCA Survey

 

The SCA is conducting an online survey of members and non-members about the role of the SCA, and they would be grateful for contributions.  They promise that it will not take too long to complete (~5 mins) and the survey is anonymous, although it is possible to fill provide contact details to receive additional information.

We are being to circulate the link to encourage as many people as possible to provide some input.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ScottishCountrysideAlliance

Update for Members

Langholm - November 2013

SNH Sharing Good Practice events

Following a meeting at Battleby, last Friday, the aim is now to work up more detailed proposals for  events to cover hill tracks and peatland restoration.

The hill tracks events will be developed in conjunction with SL&E and SNH.

The peatland events will link to the Green Stimulus Peatland Restoration Project and will help to deliver this project, as well as raising awareness about peatland restoration issues.


Moorland Management Best Practice Guidance

As an extension of the Sharing Good Practice work, discussions are taking place about developing best practice guidance for moorland management.  Long servers on the Forum will recognise that this would be a development of the 'Principles of Moorland Management' that the Forum published in 2003.

A possible process is that the Forum might prepare draft guidance and then road test this through events with stakeholders, and these events might cover one or several topics.

The plan at present is to develop an outline proposal for discussion at the Forum meeting that will be held in February 2014.  If agreed, the proposal would be worked up into something more detailed for discussion at the Summer meeting.


"Species Interactions"

My efforts to organise the planning meeting quickly have been frustrated by lack of availability and Friday, 17th January is now looking favourite.  It should still be possible to produce some sensible proposals in time for the next Chairman's Working Group and Forum meetings on 7th & 28th February, respectively.

Note that I have adopted Species Interactions as the working title for this work, in preference to Species Solutions, as I believe it to better represent what we are trying to achieve in this phase of the work. This can be subject to further change during the development phase.


Meetings with Scottish Government

Meeting with the Minister - January 2014.  Lord Lindsay hopes to meet the Minister for Environment, Paul Wheelhouse, MSP, to present the Annual Report to him and provide an update about the work of the Forum.

A meeting with Bob McIntosh, Director Environment & Forestry is being proposed for January or February.

Discussion are taking place about a meeting for the Forum with the Minister for Environment, Paul Wheelhouse, MSP, somewhere in the Borders, in June,

Moorland Forum Meeting - 8th November

I thought this was a very successful meeting.  I was grateful for the good turnout and the enthusiasm that was demonstrated during the discussion.  We covered a lot of ground during the meeting and this prompted me to publish a newsletter that contained the Highlights from the meeting.

The draft Minutes have now been published and are available to members of the Forum from the website.

Land Management Adviser Vacancy - LL&TNPA

Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Authority is seeking a Land Management Adviser.

For details see the LL&TNPA website.

John Muir Trust opens their new Wild Space Visitor Centre

Welcome to the new JMT Wild Space Visitor Centre in Pitlochry, which opens at 3pm today.

Members of the Moorland Forum will get an opportunity to view it first hand as JMT is kindly hosting the Forum's summer meeting on 7 June 2013 at the Visitor Centre and on Schiehallion.

Welcome to Confor

Following the application for membership considered at the last meeting of the Forum on 15 February, Confor, represented by Jamie Farquhar, has joined the Forum.   The presentation given at the meeting can be viewed here.

The membership of Confor is a recognition of the Forum's increasing interest in forestry issues that includes the planned woodland expansion and also the importance of montane scrub.

Description from the website - Confor: promoting forestry and wood is a membership organisation that promotes sustainable forestry and low-carbon businesses. Confor represents and supports members by helping build the market for wood and forest products, creating a supportive policy environment, and helping members to become more competitive and successful.

Our numbers remain at 30 member organisations as the Moorland Group and Scottish Land & estates have decided to amalgamate into a single membership.

Focus on the Access Forum

The Access Forum met on 5 March 2013 and their secretary, Mark Wrightham, has published an update based on the discussion at the meeting. This can be downloaded here.

The Access Forum has a section on the Outdoor Access website and this contains more details about the discussions that the Forum is involved with.  John Thomson, formerly of SNH, took over as the Convenor, last year.

Although we have several members in common, I keep in touch with the Access Forum's activities to look for any issues of mutual interest for the Moorland Forum.

I am keen to maintain good links with the Access Forum, as with other fora, as there must be benefits from working together. Strengthening our links to other groups is one of the benefits I hope will come out of the work I am hoping to carry out for the Scottish Government to identify all the groups and fora that feed into the Environment and Forestry Directorate.

New Chief Executive for the Cairngorms National Park Authority

Congratulations to Grant Moir on his appointment as Chief Executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority; he will take up the post in March 2013.

I look forward to continuing to work with him as the Chief Executive of a member organisation but also to welcoming his successor as representative of the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Authority on the Forum.

Additional coverage: The Scotsman

Welcome to Scotland's Rural College

Photo: SAC

Good-bye SAC and welcome to Scotland's Rural College, formed by the merger of Barony, Elmwood and Oatridge Colleges and SAC.  The new college will "deliver comprehensive skills, education and business support for Scotland’s land-based industries, founded on world class and sector-leading research, education and consultancy".

See the website for more details.