Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project

Pro­gress Report: 1 Janu­ary — 31 March 2023

[Cairngorms Nation­al Park Logo]

The inform­a­tion in this doc­u­ment is sub­mit­ted and dis­cussed as part of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project’s quarterly report­ing to the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund.

Pro­ject summary

The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject is work­ing to secure the long-term sur­viv­al of caper­cail­lie in the UK. Fun­ded by the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund until Janu­ary 2024, the project’s actions for caper­cail­lie are being delivered across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The project’s key actions are:

• to enable com­munit­ies to devel­op and deliv­er their own com­munity-led actions for capercaillie;
• raise aware­ness of the plight of caper­cail­lie and how people can help;
• research the genet­ic diversity of caper­cail­lie in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to help inform action;
• improve and cre­ate more hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie and under­take pred­at­or con­trol in key areas;
• strengthen cur­rent caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing to enable more informed decisions

The pro­ject is led by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and delivered in part­ner­ship with the Badenoch & Strath­spey Trail Asso­ci­ation, Bal­mor­al Estate, Brook Forestry, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group, Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scot­land, Forestry and Land Scot­land, Groves Forestry, Rothiemurchus Estate, RSPB, Scot­tish Forestry, NatureScot and Seafield and Strath­spey Estates.

Pro­ject start date	22 July 2020
Grant expiry date	31 Janu­ary 2024

Pro­gress towards the project’s approved purposes

Green	Deliv­ery is on track
Amber	Minor issues are impact­ing delivery
Red	Major issues are impact­ing delivery

The project’s three-step mod­el for enabling com­munity-led action for capercaillie

Stage 1: Why?	This stage is about defin­ing the cause. Why does (or might) caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion mat­ter to the com­munity? This is about identi­fy­ing the key interest groups and lead­ers in the com­munity and listen­ing to them to identi­fy the issues and themes at play related to caper­cail­lie conservation.
Stage 2: How?	This stage is about identi­fy­ing how the com­munity feels about the cause by identi­fy­ing the views held in the wider com­munity, how wide­spread those views are and where the com­mon ground is.
Stage 3: What?	This stage is about enabling the com­munity to take action for the cause using the data and ana­lys­is from Stage 2 and help­ing the com­munity plan how to mon­it­or and eval­u­ate the actions they deliv­er in response.
Approved pur­pose	Sum­mary of progress	Status
Empower com­munit­ies to help ensure the sur­viv­al of caper­cail­lie through com­munity-led con­ser­va­tion, by imple­ment­ing the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy and devel­op­ing, agree­ing and imple­ment­ing action plans with addi­tion­al communities.	Car­rbridge com­munity – Stage 3 A 22⁄23 Action Plan for deliv­er­ing aspects of the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy was pro­duced by the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group and approved by the Pro­ject Board in Feb­ru­ary 2022. It was shared with Car­rbridge res­id­ents via Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie News. The fol­low­ing actions from the plan are now in the pro­cess of being delivered: Pur­chase and install an all-weath­er Car­rbridge Nature notice­board to provide a cent­ral hub for shar­ing inform­a­tion about nature around the vil­lage. Com­mis­sion the pro­duc­tion of small caper­cail­lie keep­sakes for vis­it­ors and res­id­ents and invest dona­tions received into wild­life pro­jects around Car­rbridge. Com­mis­sion the pro­duc­tion of a caper­cail­lie carving to include in the Carvings Trail around Car­rbridge. Work with the Park Author­ity Ranger Team and land­man­agers to install sea­son­al sig­nage around Car­rbridge (developed and tested as part of the 2021 Action Plan) to pro­mote respons­ible access and dog walk­ing in caper­cail­lie areas dur­ing the 2023 breed­ing sea­son. Sup­port more hab­it­at cre­ation and pred­at­or con­trol for caper­cail­lie on Seafield Estate. Sup­port the second phase of the pilot genet­ic lek sur­vey aimed at devel­op­ing a more accur­ate approach to estim­at­ing the size of loc­al caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tions using dropping.
	Car­rbridge com­munity – con­tin­ued Com­mis­sion a para­sit­o­logy ana­lys­is of drop­pings to check for poten­tial causes of chick mor­tal­ity. This work has been scoped with RZSS. A meth­od­o­logy has been developed for deliv­ery this spring. Scope the poten­tial for new caper­cail­lie related exper­i­ences for vis­it­ors and Car­rbridge res­id­ents. The Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group have been work­ing with Land­mark Adven­ture Park in Car­rbridge to sup­port the devel­op­ment of a new caper­cail­lie exhib­it as part of an Ancient Forest Adven­ture exhib­it which is sched­uled to open this summer.
	Moun­tain bik­ing com­munity – Stage 3 A Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been com­pleted for the MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan for Badenoch and Strath­spey which has been developed as part of the Trail Feath­ers pro­ject. The MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan is designed to: 1. Enable data driv­en decisions about trail devel­op­ment, main­ten­ance and pro­mo­tion in Badenoch and Strath­spey to ensure moun­tain bik­ing recre­ation devel­ops sus­tain­ably and sens­it­ive hab­it­ats and spe­cies are safe­guarded. 2. Enable great­er levels of respons­ible access by the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity in Badenoch and Strath­spey includ­ing res­id­ent and vis­it­ing riders. 3. Enable the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity, land man­agers and agen­cies to com­mu­nic­ate more effect­ively. Guided by the MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan, pro­gress is ongo­ing to deliv­er the pri­or­ity actions for 2022/2023: ​‘Youth trail camps to inspire and enable more respons­ible rid­ing and trail devel­op­ment amongst young riders.’ The camps (called Trail Academies) have been scoped and a series of up to five are on track to be delivered at dif­fer­ent loc­a­tions in Badenoch and Strath­spey by Decem­ber. ​‘Trail devel­op­ment in Poten­tial Trail Areas (iden­ti­fied as part of the MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan) to reduce MTB activ­ity in Sens­it­ive Areas.’ Scop­ing work has begun with Forestry and Land Scot­land to devel­op trails in a Poten­tial Trail Area on to help reduce MTB activ­ity in a Sens­it­ive Area. ​‘Trail repairs to reduce hab­it­at loss and frag­ment­a­tion.’ Part of a pop­u­lar trail in a Sens­it­ive Area has been re-routed to reduce hab­it­at loss. ​‘Hab­it­at improve­ment in moun­tain bik­ing areas, for example screen­ing to reduce dis­turb­ance.’ An oppor­tun­ity has been iden­ti­fied and scoped to improve hab­it­at more widely around the afore­men­tioned re-routed trail. ​‘Con­sumer facing mes­sages to help raise aware­ness spe­cific­ally amongst vis­it­ing riders and pro­mote beha­viours that will bene­fit caper­cail­lie and oth­er wild­life.’ Scope exists to use the pre-arrival mes­saging developed as part of the Busi­ness Com­munity Action Plan. Work is also under­way to devel­op and deliv­er more spe­cif­ic onsite mes­saging in key moun­tain bik­ing areas.
Approved pur­pose	Sum­mary of progress	Status
	Busi­ness com­munity – Stage 3 Work is ongo­ing with agency Gen­oa Black to devel­op, test and pro­duce tar­geted, pos­it­ive and enga­ging online vis­it­or facing con­tent that pro­motes beha­viours that will be of bene­fit to the area’s nat­ur­al her­it­age, includ­ing caper­cail­lie. In the pre­vi­ous quarter the work was not ful­filling object­ives. A review meet­ing took place and changes were made to ways of work­ing and the work itself. The work is now back on track. The draft online con­tent has been tested with 155 vis­it­ors who par­ti­cip­ated in the project’s vis­it­or research and 12 mem­bers of the busi­ness com­munity. The con­tent has been refined in response and will be avail­able for all 400 mem­bers of the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship to use from May onwards. The Busi­ness Engage­ment Officer, fun­ded by the pro­ject and employed by the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, will be respons­ible for encour­aging and enabling use of the con­tent by mem­bers. Also part of the Busi­ness Com­munity Action Plan, Cairngorms Gravel aims to pro­mote gravel rid­ing in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The pro­ject stands to strengthen the Moun­tain Bik­ing and Vis­it­or Com­munity Action Plans by pro­mot­ing less sens­it­ive areas to vis­it­ing and res­id­ent cyc­lists and by deliv­er­ing pre and in ride inform­a­tion to enable cyc­lists to enjoy the Nation­al Park respons­ibly. A film and mul­tiple gravel rid­ing routes have been developed and pro­moted as part of the pro­ject. In the pre­vi­ous quarter issues were exper­i­enced regard­ing some routes which pro­moted sens­it­ive areas and oppor­tun­it­ies were missed to share mes­saging developed as part of the Moun­tain Bik­ing Com­munity work. A review meet­ing took place and changes were made to ways of work­ing to resolve these issues. The work is now back on track. The next key step is to scope and devel­op in ride inform­a­tion that will be delivered to riders through an app as part of their Cairngorms Gravel experience.
	Vis­it­or com­munity – Stage 3 As part of the Vis­it­or Com­munity Action Plan, Colin Mul­berg Con­sult­ing has com­pleted a vis­it­or exper­i­ence audit. The audit iden­ti­fies where and how Aber­nethy, Rothiemurchus and Glen­more ​‘speak’ to the dif­fer­ent vis­it­or seg­ments iden­ti­fied through the project’s vis­it­or research. The audit has been reviewed and the three sites have begun to identi­fy a range of deliv­er­ables to enable pro­gress towards the vis­ion for this area of work. The vis­ion is to devel­op and main­tain high qual­ity, sus­tain­able vis­it­or exper­i­ences and thriv­ing caper­cail­lie areas in Aber­nethy Nation­al Nature Reserve, Glen­more Forest Park and Rothiemurchus. The deliv­er­ables include staff train­ing, the devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion of a new map to improve the vis­it­or jour­ney on Rothiemurchus and assets to enhance vis­it­or exper­i­ences includ­ing remote cam­er­as to provide live stream foot­age from caper­cail­lie dust­baths and artist­ic responses to caper­cail­lie, e.g., carvings, at key access points to raise awareness.
Approved pur­pose	Sum­mary of progress	Status
	Deeside com­munit­ies – Stage 3 A ​‘Caper­cail­lie Catch-up’ was held on Glen Tanar in Feb­ru­ary to update loc­al land­man­agers and busi­nesses on the fol­low­ing actions from the Deeside Com­munity Action plan: Concept designs have been pro­duced for a vir­tu­al lek exper­i­ence in Bal­mor­al Castle for res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to enjoy. The vir­tu­al lek aims to provide an innov­at­ive and immers­ive way for people to ​‘see’ caper­cail­lie lekking, raise aware­ness of the plight of caper­cail­lie and tell the story of caper­cail­lie in Deeside. The project’s CaperMap has been exten­ded to include Deeside land­hold­ings out­with the Nation­al Park bound­ary. Advis­ory sup­port has been provided to improve hab­it­at and access Forestry Grant Scheme fund­ing for works on Bal­lo­gie Estate and Fin­zean (both just out­side the Nation­al Park bound­ary). This stands to com­pli­ment and strengthen action for caper­cail­lie on neigh­bour­ing land­hold­ings in the Nation­al Park. The project’s CaperMap has also been used to identi­fy and tri­al a tar­geted, sea­son­al man­age­ment inter­ven­tion on Bal­mor­al Estate to reduce dis­turb­ance in a crit­ic­al area for caper­cail­lie on the estate. Sea­son­al sig­nage will be installed advising people to take an altern­at­ive route to enjoy the same area. A baseline sur­vey of caper­cail­lie activ­ity has been con­duc­ted to identi­fy changes before and after the inter­ven­tion. Fre­quent volun­teer work parties have been delivered on Bal­mor­al Estate over the winter to improve and extend caper­cail­lie hab­it­at on the estate. The pro­ject has offered to facil­it­ate volun­teer work parties on oth­er Deeside estates and land­hold­ings. The oppor­tun­ity will be offered again in August. Deeside land­man­agers have been con­sul­ted on a sug­ges­ted approach to assess hab­it­at suit­ab­il­ity for caper­cail­lie in Deeside. This was iden­ti­fied as a need by Deeside land­man­agers at the end of last year. The sug­ges­ted approach would involve two key steps; firstly, a desk-based assess­ment using caper­cail­lie data, fence data, Nation­al forestry and veget­a­tion data and recre­ation data, fol­lowed by ground truth­ing. Whilst this approach would provide some insights, it was felt that upskilling land­man­agers to assess exist­ing hab­it­at qual­ity by sampling tran­sects every 200m with set cri­ter­ia, as per the approach used in the Black Forest, would provide a more accur­ate and up to date assess­ment that could also be repeated and sus­tained post project.
	Dog walk­ing com­munity – Stage 2 Build­ing on the listen­ing ses­sions con­duc­ted with can­ine pro­fes­sion­als last sum­mer, 265 dog own­ers and can­ine pro­fes­sion­als com­pleted an online sur­vey to identi­fy the views held in the wider dog walk­ing com­munity in Badenoch and Strath­spey. The sur­vey res­ults iden­ti­fied clear com­mon ground with­in the scope of the pro­ject and a series of pro­fes­sion­ally facil­it­ated action plan­ning work­shops were delivered from Feb­ru­ary to March. Mem­bers of the res­id­ent dog walk­ing com­munity atten­ded the work­shops and used the sur­vey res­ults to identi­fy the fol­low­ing vis­ion and areas of action to take forward:
Raise aware­ness and increase under­stand­ing of the chal­lenges facing caper­cail­lie through a vari­ety of means includ­ing social media activ­it­ies and events, a new online engage­ment plat­form, volun­teer work, a pub­lic app, new resources for schools and genet­ics analysis.	Vis­ion: Dog friendly Cairngorms where wild­life can thrive Areas of action to help achieve the vis­ion: Dog-friendly spaces through­out Badenoch and Strath­spey to help wild­life thrive Build­ing a dog own­ing com­munity in Badenoch and Strath­spey Pos­it­ive and con­sist­ent sig­nage for loc­al and vis­it­ing dog walk­ers in Badenoch and Strath­spey The next steps are to host an open gath­er­ing to recruit more dog own­ers into this area of work to help with the devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of dog-friendly spaces and build­ing a dog own­ing com­munity. Action on sig­nage will be taken for­ward by the Park Author­ity with input from the mem­bers of the res­id­ent dog walk­ing com­munity who are now act­ively engaged with the pro­ject and oth­ers that come on-board over the com­ing months. This quarter the pro­ject web­site attrac­ted 307 return­ing vis­it­ors and 2,315 new vis­it­ors. The pro­ject Face­book page has 2,200 fol­low­ers. In part­ner­ship with BirdGuides, mem­bers of the bird­ing, pho­to­graphy and wild­life guid­ing com­munity and Police Scot­land, the pro­ject launched the Lek It Be cam­paign to reduce dis­turb­ance at lek sites dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. The cam­paign, which is focused on aware­ness-rais­ing and tar­geted enforce­ment, has the fol­low­ing inten­ded out­comes: 1. Less birders and pho­to­graph­ers found on lek sites. 2. Few­er images of caper­cail­lie taken and shared on social media by birders and pho­to­graph­ers dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. 3. Few­er requests to look for caper­cail­lie received by com­mer­cial oper­at­ors. 4. Less guid­ing for caper­cail­lie dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. This quarter the pro­ject fea­tured in the fol­low­ing media: Press & Journ­al (Cairngorms Gravel cov­er­age) Cyc­ling Europe (Cairngorms Gravel) Inter­na­tion­al Moun­tain bike Magazine (Cairngorms Gravel) Gravel​Cyc​list​.com (Cairngorms Gravel) Cykel​portalen​.dk (Cairngorms Gravel) BBC Scot­land and Alba (Fea­ture on the MTB com­munity work) BBC Radio Scot­land (Lek It Be cov­er­age) Oban Times (Lek It Be) BirdGuides​.com (Lek It Be) BBC News (Lek It Be) STV News (Lek It Be) Strath­spey Her­ald (Lek It Be) Forres Gaz­ette (Lek It Be) Grampi­an Online (Lek It Be) North­ern Scot (Lek It Be) VN Online (Lek It Be)
	Police Scot­land (Lek It Be) High­land Envir­on­ment For­um (Lek It Be) Sunday Post (Lek It Be) Scot­tish Daily Mail (Lek It Be) The Scots­man (Lek It Be) Out­door Pho­to­graphy Magazine (Lek It Be) To date, volun­teers aged 16 to 60+ have donated over 3,330 hours or £71,300 of unskilled, skilled and pro­fes­sion­al time to the pro­ject. Five hab­it­at improve­ment ses­sions for volun­teers have taken place in the last quarter on Bal­mor­al and Seafield Estate. The pro­ject hos­ted a vis­it from Raf­fael Kratzer, the Caper­cail­lie Man­ager in Germany’s Black Forest Nation­al Park which is now home to less than 200 caper­cail­lie. Respons­ible for mon­it­or­ing and man­aging caper­cail­lie in the Nation­al Park, Raf­fael atten­ded six site vis­its in the Cairngorms to meet pro­ject staff and part­ners to share and dis­cuss insights about the suc­cesses and chal­lenges of caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion in the Black Forest where meas­ures to pro­tect caper­cail­lie are cur­rently focused on redu­cing human dis­turb­ance, improv­ing hab­it­at and redu­cing mor­tal­ity from pred­at­ors. As part of his vis­it Raf­fael also gave a pub­lic talk in Boat of Garten atten­ded in per­son by around 80 people and watched online by over 120. The second phase of the pilot genet­ic lek sur­vey is under­way. 182 drop­pings col­lec­ted at 2 lek sites last spring are cur­rently being ana­lysed to identi­fy the num­ber of indi­vidu­al birds that atten­ded the lek sites and their sex. The res­ults of the ana­lys­is will then be com­pared to the num­ber of birds seen. The final report is on track to be com­pleted by Septem­ber. Work is ongo­ing by RZSS to identi­fy the genet­ic diversity of the Scot­tish caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion using feath­ers col­lec­ted by the pro­ject from across the Nation­al Park. Ini­tial insights from this work have been shared with groups involved with the pro­ject and the Scot­tish Caper­cail­lie Group. The final report is on track to be com­pleted by early April. The tender re-pub­lished on Pub­lic Con­tracts Scot­land for devel­op­ing and pro­du­cing caper­cail­lie related learn­ing resources did not receive any bids of suf­fi­cient qual­ity. Rather the re-pub­lish the tender for a third time, scop­ing work is now under­way to devel­op learn­ing resources and exper­i­ences in part­ner­ship with the High­land Wild­life Park for deliv­ery post project.
Work with landown­ers to imple­ment plans to improve and man­age around 9,000 hec­tares of hab­it­at across six estates for the bene­fit of caper­cail­lie; enable landown­ers to play their part in caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion via a third-party grant scheme tar­get­ing land­hold­ings in caper­cail­lie areas.	The fol­low­ing hab­it­at improve­ment work was delivered this quarter, improv­ing over 8,900 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie: Aber­nethy: Field lay­er man­age­ment using a rob­ocut­ter to enable blae­berry to grow and caper­cail­lie to move around more freely. Bal­mor­al Estate: Remov­ing non-nat­ive trees to allow Scots pine to regen­er­ate, plant­ing mixed broad leaves to expand caper­cail­lie hab­it­at and block­ing man-made ditches to re-wet and restore forest bogs; an essen­tial hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie. Rothiemurchus Estate: Ongo­ing con­trol of foxes and crows to enhance caper­cail­lie sur­viv­al and mark­ing has been improved on stra­tegic fences to avoid col­li­sions. Seafield Estate: Ongo­ing con­trol of foxes and crows to enhance caper­cail­lie sur­viv­al. Mark­ing has been replaced on stra­tegic fences to avoid col­li­sions. Hab­it­at has also been expan­ded by replant­ing an area with Scots pine and nat­ive broadleaves. Tom an Uird Forest: Enhanced deer con­trol to improve the field lay­er over 300 hec­tares for the bene­fit of capercaillie.
Mon­it­or, test and eval­u­ate ideas through­out deliv­ery, apply­ing learn­ing from the pro­ject to refine activ­it­ies includ­ing hab­it­at improve­ment work, sur­vey tech­niques, pro­mo­tion­al activ­it­ies and the com­munity action plan­ning model.	An inter­im eval­u­ation of all pro­ject activ­it­ies to date was con­duc­ted by Her­it­age Pathfind­er at the end of last year. The project’s Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team, Pro­ject Board and NLHF reviewed and dis­cussed the find­ings in Janu­ary, which included les­sons and evid­ence of the project’s impact so far. Work is ongo­ing to pre­pare for a final eval­u­ation of the pro­ject which will be avail­able in Decem­ber. As pro­ject activ­it­ies are com­pleted, they will be eval­u­ated start­ing with the Caper­cail­lie Hab­it­at Grant Scheme and Fence Mon­it­or­ing Volun­teers in May.
Devel­op an innov­at­ive and rep­lic­able mod­el for com­munity-led spe­cies con­ser­va­tion that enables com­munit­ies to suc­cess­fully coex­ist with their nat­ur­al her­it­age, shar­ing the project’s find­ings intern­ally and extern­ally with UK organ­isa­tions, and fur­ther afield, to cre­ate a leg­acy of learning.	The mod­el for com­munity-led spe­cies con­ser­va­tion, developed through ini­tial work with Car­rbridge and sub­sequently mod­i­fied through adapt­ive learn­ing con­tin­ues to be used effect­ively across the pro­ject, includ­ing, most recently, with the dog walk­ing com­munity. Plans are under­way to part­ner with the Cairngorms 2030 pro­ject to host a series of ​‘Shar­ing the learn­ing’ events in Septem­ber. The events will see key learn­ings shared from both the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject and Cairngorms 2030’s devel­op­ment phase. The inten­ded out­come for the events is that learn­ing from the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject strengthens future com­munity-led action across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and bey­ond. Work by the James Hut­ton Insti­tute (JHI) is ongo­ing to doc­u­ment on film the pro­cess and out­comes of the Trail Feath­ers pro­ject (the project’s work with the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity) to provide inspir­a­tion, earn­ing and evid­ence in a way that can stim­u­late fur­ther debate and learning.

Mile­stones

Green	Deliv­ery is on track
Amber	Minor issues are impact­ing delivery
Red	Major issues are impact­ing delivery

	2020	2021	2022	2023
Recruit­ment
Recruit Pro­ject Officer, Com­mu­nic­a­tions Officer, Pro­ject Admin­is­trat­or, Com­munity Ranger and Caper­cail­lie Advis­ory Assistant
Rais­ing awareness
Devel­op a Comms Plan
Launch a new pro­ject website
Com­mis­sion the design of caper­cail­lie related resources for primary schools
Genet­ic research
Ana­lyse DNA from caper­cail­lie feath­ers col­lec­ted from across the Nation­al Park
Deliv­er an action plan­ning work­shop in response to find­ings from the DNA analysis
Tri­al a genet­ic lek survey
Hab­it­at improvement
Improve over 300 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in Aber­nethy Forest
Improve over 30 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in Bad­den­gorm Woods
Improve over 400 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie on Bal­mor­al Estate
Improve over 300 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in Tom an Uird Forest
Improve over 4,500 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie on Rothiemurchus Estate (includes pred­at­or control)
Improve over 3,000 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie on Seafield and Strath­spey Estates (includes pred­at­or control)
Launch a grant scheme to enable fur­ther hab­it­at improve­ment for capercaillie

	2020	2021	2022	2023
Caper­cail­lie monitoring
Launch a pub­lic caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing app
Con­duct brood, lek and occu­pancy surveys
Pro­ject mon­it­or­ing and evaluation
Devel­op a Mon­it­or­ing and Eval­u­ation Framework
Com­munity-led action — Car­rbridge com­munity (research­ing com­munity views was com­pleted in the pre­vi­ous phase)
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action – moun­tain bik­ing community
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action – vis­it­or community
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action – busi­ness community
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action — Deeside communities
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action — dog walk­ing community
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions

Risks and Issues

Risk / Issue	Like­li­hood	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Pri­or­ity
1. Reduced capa­city in the last 12 months of the pro­ject due to staff leav­ing fixed-term posts early to secure future employment.	High	High	Ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tions with pro­ject staff to ensure early notice of inten­tions / plans to leave their posts. Scope to change exist­ing part-time con­tracts to full time if required. Exist­ing ways of work­ing lend them­selves to pro­ject staff being able to pick up work rel­at­ively eas­ily from col­leagues if required.	High No change
2. Reduced abil­ity to deliv­er actions in the last 12 months due to time con­straints and con­tract­or availability.	High	High	Dynam­ic approach to pro­ject plan­ning and timetabling.	High No change
3. Pro­ject inform­a­tion is used to under­mine pub­lic sup­port for the project.	Medi­um	Medi­um	Pro­ject Board have stra­tegic respons­ib­il­ity for pro­ject com­mu­nic­a­tions. A Comms Plan is in place and ongo­ing stra­tegic sup­port is provided by the Park Author­ity Comms Teams. All pro­ject doc­u­ments are writ­ten for a pub­lic audi­ence and pub­lished on the pro­ject web­site (as far as appropriate).	High No change
4. Mon­it­or­ing and eval­u­ation inform­a­tion and pro­cesses are not used effect­ively to strengthen the pro­ject; inform leg­acy plan­ning; and help safe­guard the pro­ject from inher­ent risks.	Low	High	An Eval­u­ation Frame­work is in place. Inter­im eval­u­ation con­duc­ted. A cul­ture of reflec­tion is embed­ded in the pro­ject and pro­fes­sion­ally facil­it­ated where possible.	Medi­um No change
5. Com­munity-led ele­ments are not con­duc­ted in an effect­ive, trans­par­ent and defens­ible way lim­it­ing bene­fits and caus­ing dis­en­gage­ment and mis­trust in communities.	Medi­um	Medi­um	All learn­ing cap­tured from the devel­op­ment phase and ongo­ing learn­ing in the deliv­ery phase is being applied. The Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team includes rep­res­ent­at­ives from all com­munity groups and organ­isa­tions involved. A three-stage mod­el is in place to ensure work with com­munit­ies is only car­ried out if it’s con­sidered with­in the scope of the pro­ject and the com­munity is con­sidered viable to work with with the pro­ject resource available.	Medi­um No change
Risk / Issue	Like­li­hood	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Pri­or­ity
6. The diverse range of interests, organ­isa­tions and groups involved in the pro­ject presents chal­lenges to effect­ive part­ner­ship working.	Medi­um	Medi­um	All part­ners and areas of work are rep­res­en­ted on the Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team. The Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team oper­ates under a Part­ner­ship Agree­ment. Mem­bers of the Park Author­ity Board and Seni­or Man­age­ment Team are mem­bers of the Pro­ject Board. The Pro­ject Board oper­ate under a Memor­andum of Agreement.	Medi­um No change
8. The pro­ject increases caper­cail­lie dis­turb­ance or is per­ceived to do so.	Medi­um	Medi­um	Staff work closely with landown­ers, land­man­agers and com­munity mem­bers to stay informed and respond to any issues or per­cep­tions related to dis­turb­ance. Comms assets are act­ively shared with part­ners and third parties to reduce the need for caper­cail­lie film­ing and pho­to­graphy. All sur­vey work is com­pleted under licence and all hab­it­at improve­ment and mon­it­or­ing work is car­ried out in accord­ance with rel­ev­ant legis­la­tion. The pro­ject oper­ates with­in the Caper­cail­lie Data Shar­ing Policy.	Medi­um No change
9. Hab­it­at improve­ment work delayed or unvi­able due to changes onsite, delays in the pro­cess of apply­ing for FGS fund­ing and or con­flict­ing advice.	Low	Medi­um	Part­ners apply­ing for FGS fund­ing are exper­i­enced in the pro­cess and have a good track record of secur­ing fund­ing. Addi­tion­al resource is provided by the pro­ject to help strengthen applic­a­tions. Scot­tish Forestry and NatureScot are pro­ject part­ners and mem­bers of the Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team.	Medi­um Was High
10. Pro­ject activ­it­ies con­flict with oth­er ini­ti­at­ives, e.g. wader conservation.	Low	Medi­um	Organ­isa­tions involved in poten­tially con­flict­ing activ­it­ies are pro­ject part­ners rep­res­en­ted on the Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team and Pro­ject Board, oper­at­ing respect­ively under a Part­ner­ship Agree­ment and MoA.	Low No change
11. Con­tin­ued cold and wet weath­er dur­ing caper­cail­lie nest­ing and breed­ing sea­son could over­whelm the bene­fits of the project.	Low	Medi­um	Con­tin­ue deliv­ery — the project’s work is vital to enhance caper­cail­lie sur­viv­al, even in dif­fi­cult years; main­tain pro­act­ive comms intern­ally and extern­ally; review the issue at Pro­ject Board to identi­fy a way forward.	Low No change
12. Genet­ic ana­lys­is reveals caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion in the UK is at risk of becom­ing func­tion­ally extinct.	Low	Medi­um	Con­tin­ue deliv­ery and fast track the action plan­ning work sched­uled in response to the genet­ic ana­lys­is; review the issue at Pro­ject Board to identi­fy a way forward.	Low No change

Budget

Income	Expec­ted	Received to date
Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund	2,036,100	1,349,497
Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority	60,280	50,280
Nature Scot	50,000	50,000
Scot­tish Forestry	28,000	28,000
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	127,473	27,789
RSPB	40,000	30,000
RSPB Aber­nethy	10,000	3,080
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	224,144	107,036
Rothiemurchus Estate	41,669	26,982
Bal­mor­al Estate	11,500	2,500
Bad­den­gorm Woods	48,240	0
Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scotland	75,000	1,440
Volun­teer time (in-kind)	120,000	71,300
RSPB in-kind (tech­nic­al sup­port for the app and online hub)	27,800	3,593
Total	2,900,206	1,751,497

Break­down of income / con­tri­bu­tions received		Total to date
Part­ner / Funder	Nature of contribution
Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund	Grant	1,349,497
Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority	Dona­tion	50,280
Nature Scot	Dona­tion	50,000
Scot­tish Forestry	Dona­tion	28,000
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	Pred­at­or con­trol on Rothiemurchus Estate	16,176
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	Wood­land regen­er­a­tion on Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	11,613
Rothiemurchus Estate	Estate con­tri­bu­tion to pred­at­or con­trol work	26,982
RSPB	Dona­tion	30,000
RSPB Aber­nethy	Con­tract­or pay­ment — field lay­er sur­vey pri­or to heath­er cutting	3,080
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — replanting	38,184
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — fence remov­al & repair pri­or to replanting	36,092
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — ground­work pri­or to felling and replanting	17,460
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — fence remov­al, replace­ment and marking	15,300
Bal­mor­al Estate	Con­tract­or pay­ment — remov­al of 1,100m of deer fence	2,500
Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scotland	Con­tract­or pay­ment — trail main­ten­ance and inspec­tion training	1,440
Total		1,676,604
Part­ner / Funder	Nature of con­tri­bu­tion (Added value — not in the ori­gin­al budget)	Total to date
Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority	6‑month intern­ship to sup­port MTB com­munity work	6,762
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	Fence mark­ing on Seafield Estate	22,752
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	Scar­i­fy­ing to pro­mote nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion on Seafield Estate	5,672
RSPB	Pilot genet­ic lek survey	5,000
Total		40,186

Volun­teer time (in-kind con­tri­bu­tion)	Total to date
Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group	17,505
Moun­tain bik­ing (Trail Feath­ers) group	16,106
Dog walk­ing com­munity volunteers	1,286
Volun­teers deliv­er­ing hab­it­at improve­ment work	5,264
Fence Mon­it­or­ing Volunteers	12,407
Caper­cail­lie monitoring	6,632
Digit­al volun­teer (pro­ject website