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ARCHAEOLINK, OYNE

PRESENTED BY MARK STEPHEN OF RADIO SCOTLAND “OUT OF DOORS” PROGRAMME

OYNE PRIMARY SCHOOL
We visited Oyne primary school and they have done an incredible amount in only 1 year – the whole of the school grounds are improving with tree and flower planting. Not all the flowers are native but have wildlife value as nectar plants or attract birds and insects.
They have “Millennium Stones” which are beautiful granite boulders. The children have designed local scenes and drawing of things important to them which were cast in brass resin and implanted on to the stones and a wall of the school buildings. One stone has the contours of Bennachie engraved into the stone. The whole community is involved in the garden. When we were there someone had left a bag of wildflowers outside the school entrance. It’s so good when all the local people take such an interest.
They have just heard that they have reached the final 6 in Scotland of a national competition called “Improve your local environment” I don't know who sponsors it but the prizes range from £1,000 down to £150 for the 5th.
The Head Teacher is Ruth Hassan and she and her staff and the pupils and parents have put in a lot of work over the last two years to improve the environment around the school. I think that they merit a local award.

WINDYHILLS WOODHEAD ACTION GROUP
This is relatively new group which was formed to save an important site from quarrying. There was old planning permission for the site which the owner had intended reactivating. Local people got together to protest – with the support of SNH who had designated the site a SSSI and Aberdeenshire Council. They have been successful in raising money to purchase the land from the Lottery Land Fund and the owner has agreed to sell it. The local community had to raise part of the money themselves and held numerous events to do this.
The site is a geological SSSI – it has quartz pebbles and is (I think) the only one of it’s kind in Britain. We shouldn’t really say too much about the SSSI as it may encourage people to pick up the pebbles and take them home.
Although it’s early days we were really impressed with the enthusiasm of the Group and the way the have undertaken an project to purchase a substantial area of land with considerable implications for future management. The area is mostly wooded and although it is a planted woodland it has developed in a very natural way.

BIRSE COMMUNITY TRUST
Birse Community Trust (BCT) is a local community initiative to promote the common good of the inhabitants of Birse parish and deliver wider public benefits. Everyone on the Electoral Registers for the parish is a member of BCT and responsible for electing the five Trustees that run the Trust on behalf of the local community. BCT is a recognised Scottish charity that has both social well-being and environmental conservation amongst its official charitable objects.
BCT has been in operation since January 1999 and in less than 3 years has developed a diverse and important portfolio of community based environmental projects including:-

a) bringing 500 ha of Scotland's most easterly and 11th largest surviving Native Caledonian Pinewood into sustainable management for the first time;
b) restoring and operating two unique 19\h century water-powered wood mills which now process native timber from the native pinewood for local community use;
c) taking over the management of 15 ha of woodland around Finzean Village and managing the area as community woodland, including creating 1.5 kms of paths;
d) developing a 0.5 ha site with the local primary school as a School Wood and undertaking extensive environmental improvements at the parish's War Memorial;
e) negotiating a partnership agreement over 400 ha of Forest Enterprise plantations and initiating the removal of over 10 ha of non-native conifers from sensitive sites.
f) implementing a wide ranging audit of all the parish's burns and rivers and also carrying out surveys of a range of key habitats (eg. peatlands) and species (eg. badgers).

BCT's environmental projects are now being unified through a project to establish a parish wide natural heritage database which also involves a GIS computer programme.
All these environmental projects are initiated and managed by the local community with a Natural Heritage Advisory Group of local residents overseeing the work for the Trustees.
In less than 3 years, BCT has developed and implemented an extensive, wide ranging and co-ordinated programme of environmental work that has already made a substantial contribution to local nature conservation and raising local community awareness
BCT provides an inspiring example of how rural communities can make a very valuable contribution to the sustainable management of their local environment in ways that also make an important contribution to local community development.

HARRY BYGATE
Harry is a dedicated environmentalist who quietly carries out wee projects to improve the environment such as collecting local tree seeds, growing them on and giving them away to interested people. He has a number of ponds in his garden and actively encourages frogs, toads and newts. He is very knowledgeable about wildlife and environmental issues and is great at passing it on to youngsters. Mavis Wainman – who nominated him for a Green Butterfly says ‘Harry has the right way of thinking – he knows how the world should be run’ Harry has served on the Steering Committee of Aberdeenshire Environmental Forum for many years.

KNOCK FARM, HUNTLY
Roger Polson at has carried out various environmental improvements on his farm at Knock, Huntly. He is involved in the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and has entered into the Countryside Premium Scheme, a scheme to encourage landowners to carry out a wildlife audit and manage sensitive areas. He has recently developed a wetland willow alder carr by re-channeled a burn into a herringbone system to spread the water across the field to create shallow water which was planted up with willows and alders. The burn is formed from a range of field drains, some of which carry effluent from surrounding houses and the road. The carr will help clean up these waters as well as creating an excellent wildlife habitat for a range of priority Biodiversity Action Plan species. From the wetland the burn returns to its course in the next fields, where a 5-6m water margin is fenced off to the East side. The West side is also fenced off, preventing cattle from entering the burn. The watercourse links up with an existing watercourse managed under the Countryside Premium Scheme, creating a linked network of protected watercourses across the farm.

NATURAL HERITAGE AND BIODIVERSITY
Willow carr is an uncommon habitat with a high wildlife value. It would create a form of riparian woodland, a local BAP habitat. Willow supports a large biomass of insects, providing food for foraging Daubentons bat (LBAP species). Willow carr supports willow warbler, sedge warbler and reed bunting (BAR species). Wintering teal use this habitat and the cover may also benefit water vole (BAR species). By acting as a filtering system to clean up the inflow it would improve the water quality downstream, benefiting trout and salmon (SAP species) in the Deveron catchment. Alder will also be planted, a valuable tree for siskins and redpoll which feed on its seeds. The willows will be obtained as cuttings from local willow carr which supports a range of wildlife and demonstrates the value of this habitat. On drier ground trees including wych elm (LBAP species), ash, rowan, oak, hawthorn and hazel will be planted in scattered clumps.

ECOLINC
Ecolinc have been nominated for a Green Butterfly Award for their work raising awareness and promoting debate around environmental issues. Over the last year they have continued to produce the excellent ‘Econews’ and have hosted a conference on Localisation with Helena Norberg Hodge as keynote speaker (although this event took place in Moray, Ecolinc operates in Aberdeenshire and Moray). Their AGM also included a presentation on renewable energy especially appropriate because of the wind farm proposals in Aberdeenshire. Ecolinc has shown itself to be a sustainable organisation with a long track record in raising environmental awareness in the Northeast.

PAM RITCHIE, DUBBYSTYLE CROFT, NEWBURGH
Over the past 10 years, Pam Ritchie has put in well over an acre of trees, made a large pond, planted hedges and actively encouraged wildflowers. As a result there are moorhen, duck, a great variety of garden birds, deer frogs and toads, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, hares and lizards.
We felt that Pam was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the habitat she had created. Her family and friends obviously use and enjoy the wildlife area and are always carrying out small improvements.

MONYMUSK SCHOOL
The pupils have been involved in a long term project creating a wild area and garden at the school. They had an official opening at the end of the summer term. Pupils have worked on its creation from before the drawing board stage, putting forward suggestions, explaining their ideas and choosing what would finally be constructed. They worked enthusiastically and with real commitment throughout. Features include a greenhouse made of recycled plastic bottles, living willow shelter structures, a sculpture which they helped the sculptor to design, a mural depicting woodland creatures, a mosaic, a garden pond and a mini-meadow for endangered wildlflowers and plants. It is very much a whole school venture and an on-going project as new pupils can maintain and add to it for many years to come.
We were impressed with the way the school uses the wildlife garden in their curriculum. They have a set programme where the wildlife garden is included in studies twice in each pupils time at the school. They also have regulate community wildlife gardening events so that they get the wider community involved in the project.