cairn

spring 2023

The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Rangers

Meet the team help­ing us care for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Inside

Com­munity news: Afford­able hous­ing push

Nature spot­light: Bring­ing back beavers

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To find out more inform­a­tion on the stor­ies with­in this magazine please scan the QR code

Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Do you have a ques­tion about some­thing in the Nation­al Park? The con­tacts on this page will help you to get to the cor­rect per­son or organ­isa­tion to help you.

Busi­ness sup­port Grow­Biz connect@​growbiz.​co.​uk Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship office@​visitcairngorms.​com

Paths and access­ing the Nation­al Park outdooraccess@​cairngorms.​co.​uk outdooraccess-scotland.scot

Volun­teer­ing volunteers@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Loc­al coun­cil ser­vices Aber­deen­shire: 01467 534 333 Angus: angus​.gov​.uk High­land: 01349 886 608 Moray: 0300 123 4561 Perth & Kinross: 01738 475 000

Plan­ning All plan­ning ques­tions should go to the rel­ev­ant loc­al author­ity in the first instance (see con­tacts on left) or vis­it eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk to view and com­ment on live applications.

Vis­it­or inform­a­tion vis​it​cairngorms​.com vis​itscot​land​.com

Land man­age­ment and con­ser­va­tion landmanagement@​cairngorms.​co.​uk nature@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Recruit­ment and cur­rent vacan­cies recruitment@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Some­thing else? enquiries@​cairngorms.​co.​uk Switch­board: 01479 873 535

Or to vis­it in per­son: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own on Spey PH26 3HG

Front cov­er image: sea­son­al ranger Craig out in the Nation­al Park. Oth­er images Alpha Pro­jects, Air­borne Lens, Beaver Trust, Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Ltd, Cairngorms Con­nect, Cairngorms Nation­al Park rangers, Cath­leen Nicol, Char­lotte Mil­burn, Dav­id Lin­tern, High­land One World, James Lee, Josie Slade, Juno Snow­don, Laurie Camp­bell, Louise Fen­lon, Luke Mas­sey / 2020VISION, Mark Ham­blin, Markus Stitz, Naomi McIn­tosh, Nation­al Trust for Scot­land, Pete Short, Rachel Keen­an, RSPB Scot­land and Sav­ing Wildcats.

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The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Issue high­lights

Fáilte / Welcome

Wel­come to the spring edi­tion of Cairn, a magazine which has been cre­ated for all the folk who live and work in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

We all know how spe­cial the Nation­al Park is our majest­ic mun­ros, rivers and lochs, the vari­ety of rare and endangered spe­cies found here, our rich and diverse cul­tur­al heritage.

This magazine will bring you news of what’s tak­ing place in your area, as well as across the whole Nation­al Park.

The Park Author­ity exists to pro­tect and enhance all the things that make the Cairngorms spe­cial and this magazine which comes out three times a year show­cases how we and over 100 part­ners are going about it.

It will let you know how you can get involved and who to con­tact if you have ideas or ques­tions for us.

Col­lect­ively, we sup­port pro­jects and activ­it­ies in every com­munity across the Nation­al Park, from nature con­ser­va­tion to plan­ning and busi­ness support.

We’ve also taken steps to ensure this pub­lic­a­tion is as envir­on­ment­ally friendly as pos­sible. Prin­ted on 100% recycled paper using veget­able- based inks, we’ll bal­ance any car­bon impacts by cre­at­ing nat­ive Scots pine, birch, row­an, wil­low and aspen wood­land right here in the Nation­al Park.

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Hous­ing hope

Page 11

Nature Fest­iv­al

We’d love to hear what you think of this spring edi­tion. You can get in touch with us by call­ing 01479 873 535 or you can email us on haveyoursay@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Page 14

Cairngorms 2030

Please pass this on when you’re fin­ished, or recycle

Page 18

Beaver tales

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In brief

Green shoots A new pro­gramme is reach­ing out to people that don’t usu­ally have a chance to exper­i­ence the Nation­al Park. The Park Author­ity and part­ners are provid­ing safe and enga­ging intro­duc­tions to volun­teer­ing. See cairngorms​.co​.uk/​v​o​l​u​n​teers.

Hous­ing hope 12 new homes have been com­pleted in Tomintoul.

Beinn a’ Ghlò car­park In response to park­ing issues on sens­it­ive areas of Beinn a’ Ghlò, the Park Author­ity, Out­door Access Trust for Scot­land, NatureScot and the landown­er have cre­ated a 61-space car park on land away from the Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion. Funds raised will be rein­ves­ted in main­tain­ing paths and sup­port­ing volun­teer work.

The houses, developed by Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Devel­op­ment Trust, were built on the site of an old sec­ond­ary school and were made avail­able for afford­able rent and dis­coun­ted sale. The pro­ject was part-fun­ded by the Park Author­ity and sup­por­ted by the Com­munit­ies Hous­ing Trust.

Else­where, the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship — sup­por­ted by High­lands and Islands Enter­prise have launched a part­ner­ship to improve access to homes for loc­al work­ers. Four fam­il­ies who work for busi­nesses near Aviemore moved into new homes last year and around 30 mid-mar­ket rent­al prop­er­ties will be made avail­able over the com­ing years.

Tipi on tour Ahead of the open­ing of the UK’s first out­door demen­tia resource centre at Bad­aguish, Alzheimer Scot­land have pitched their tipi in loc­a­tions across Strath­spey, talk­ing to mem­bers of the com­munity liv­ing with demen­tia. Find out more about the pro­ject on page 17.

Cosy boxes 19 pro­jects have been awar­ded a total of £242,000 from the Cairngorms Com­munity Led Vis­ion Fund, a Cairngorms Trust ini­ti­at­ive sup­por­ted by the Park Authority.

Park for all We’ve partnered with LGBT Youth Scot­land on their charter mark, a pro­gramme that enables organ­isa­tions to pro­act­ively include LGB­TQ+ people in every aspect of their work. This included a series of blog pieces to mark LGBT His­tory Month in Feb­ru­ary. See cairngorms​.co​.uk/​v​oices for details.

Pro­jects which have received fund­ing include the cre­ation of a log bank in the Marr Area (to the east of the Park) and the pro­vi­sion of ​‘cosy boxes’ to help eld­erly res­id­ents facing fuel poverty in Badenoch. Three com­munit­ies also received fund­ing to help devel­op afford­able hous­ing, which will hope­fully inspire oth­er com­munity-led pro­jects to come forward.

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In your community

Cul­ture cab­in After a dec­ade of work and over 200 artist res­id­en­cies, Inshriach Bothy is being retired as a res­id­ency location.

Some of the final artists to bene­fit from this inspir­a­tion­al loc­a­tion came through a couple of recent Park Author­ity projects.

Fund­ing from the Cairngorms Trust enabled the Cairngorms Youth Action Team and the Bothy Pro­ject to run a res­id­ency spe­cific­ally for young artists. Rachael Hors­burgh was the first recip­i­ent and cre­ated a gor­geous inter­act­ive folk­lore map of the area around the bothy. She was suc­ceeded by Isa­bel McLeish, who has been work­ing on beau­ti­ful art cre­ations of elm trees.

Between Decem­ber and Janu­ary, Naomi Mcin­tosh also spent two weeks at the bothy as part of the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, explor­ing ideas around memory, the passing of time and our feel­ings about place.

Naomi Mcin­tosh. Cocoon 2, 2020 Photo by Juno Snowdon

Back on track The Cairngorm Moun­tain funicu­lar rail­way owned by High­lands and Islands Enter­prise and oper­ated by Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Ltd is back in action after an absence of four years.

Rein­state­ment works have included a com­plex engin­eer­ing pro­ject to strengthen the via­duct and install a new con­trol sys­tem, all with­in the strict envir­on­ment­al require­ments of a unique moun­tain envir­on­ment. This is Scotland’s only funicu­lar rail­way and is the highest in the UK, reach­ing the Ptar­mig­an build­ing at over 1,065m. Weath­er per­mit­ting, the two-kilo­metre rail­way will now run a reg­u­lar ser­vice tak­ing vis­it­ors to the top of the slopes in around five minutes.

The rein­state­ment of the rail­way comes along­side oth­er major improve­ment works includ­ing new ​‘magic car­pet’ con­vey­or belts for the begin­ner slopes, car park improve­ments and the refur­bish­ment of the Ptar­mig­an building.

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In your community

Youth voice Pupils at Spey­side High School have wel­comed Moray Council’s declar­a­tion of a nature emer­gency across the Shire.

Pupils recently par­ti­cip­ated in a Cli­mate Learn­ing and Edu­ca­tion pro­ject, which aims to empower young people to take action to tackle cli­mate change and enhance nature across the Nation­al Park.

Part of the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, the pro­ject has involved pupils from sec­ond­ary schools in Kin­gussie, Grant­own on Spey, Aboyne, Alford and Aberlour.

Over the com­ing months, pupils from these schools will be work­ing to make their vis­ions a real­ity by devel­op­ing pro­jects which take pos­it­ive action in their communities.

Access Mhor A new adapt­ive bike and offroad wheel­chair hub has opened at Bad­aguish Out­door Centre.

Access Mhor hires out equip­ment to any­one who needs it, wheth­er that’s indi­vidu­als, fam­il­ies or groups.

It’s the first of its kind in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and makes it pos­sible for more people to get out and exper­i­ence what the Cairngorms has to offer.

“There is a real need in this area,” explains Gemma Hendry, Organ­isa­tion­al Man­ager from Able 2 Adven­ture. ​“Nor­mal wheel­chairs are just not suit­able for many of the trails

Pupils at Alford Academy tak­ing part in cli­mate workshops

we have here in the Cairngorms. Even small stones and gravel can make a flat path impassable.

“People have been get­ting in touch with us to hire offroad wheel­chairs or adapt­ive bikes for some time and now we can help. With the equip­ment people can explore the loc­al forest trails in Glen­more Forest and can ven­ture even fur­ther with our wheel­chair access vehicle.”

The hub would not be pos­sible without the sup­port of the Spey­side Trust, and thanks to sup­port from the Cairngorms Trust and SSE Hydro there are plans to build a fleet of dif­fer­ent adapt­ive bikes and offroad wheel­chairs, too.

Short-term lets The Park Author­ity has wel­comed a move by The High­land Coun­cil requir­ing short-term let hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion in Badenoch and Strath­spey to apply for plan­ning permission.

Evid­ence sug­gests that it has become increas­ingly dif­fi­cult for people to buy or rent in the loc­al area over the past few years. Requir­ing plan­ning per­mis­sion to turn a dwell­ing into a short-term hol­i­day let should help alle­vi­ate the prob­lem, along with oth­er policies such as a require­ment for 45% afford­able hous­ing in new devel­op­ments in the com­munit­ies that are under the most pres­sure, such as Aviemore.

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In your community

Way ahead A £191,000 pro­ject bring­ing major improve­ments to the Spey­side Way through Anagach Woods in Grant­own on Spey has been completed.

The pro­ject included resur­fa­cing the exist­ing path, upgrad­ing drain­age to remove muddy sec­tions, and cre­at­ing a large sec­tion of new path. New sig­nage and way­mark­ers were also installed.

The pro­ject was led by the Anagach Wood­land Trust and sup­por­ted by grant fund­ing via Scot­tish Government’s Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate Scheme, admin­istered by NatureScot.

Fur­ther path improve­ment works have been car­ried out recently in Kin­craig and work is ongo­ing to improve path net­works across the Nation­al Park.

| On your bike ​‘Bike­pack­ing’ a com­bin­a­tion of back­pack­ing and all-ter­rain cyc­ling is rising in pop­ular­ity and a new 165-mile route will help bikers explore the Nation­al Park sustainably.

The route has been designed by Bike­pack­ing Scot­land in part­ner­ship with Vis­it­Cairngorms and fol­lows old mil­it­ary and drovers’ roads. No new paths have been built; instead the route links and improves exist­ing trails.

Cyc­list and film­maker Markus Stitz has cre­ated a short film, ​‘Home Is Where The Trails Take You’, in which he doc­u­ments the route and meets the people and busi­nesses that call the Cairngorms home.

The pro­ject was sup­por­ted by the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund, Vis­itScot­land, Sco­trail and Schwalbe. To watch the film go to vis​it​cairngorms​.com/​cycle

In case you missed it

Roy-al open­ing 400 people gathered for the open­ing of Castle Roy last year. The open­ing was made pos­sible thanks to 29 years of com­munity- led fun­drais­ing by the Castle Roy Trust, includ­ing grant fund­ing from the Park Authority.

Power up A new bat­tery energy stor­age facil­ity has been approved by the Park Authority’s Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. The 49.9 MW facil­ity will be built just out­side Boat of Garten, next to an exist­ing elec­tri­city sub-sta­tion. The com­mit­tee also approved a 200m sur­face tow on Cairngorm Mountain.

Spot­light An innov­at­ive, low-impact light­ing pro­ject has illu­min­ated nation­al parks includ­ing the Cairngorms. Green Space Dark Skies brought togeth­er people from all walks of life for a unique exper­i­ence at Loch Insh. A Coun­try­file spe­cial on the pro­ject can be seen at bbc​.co​.uk/ programmes/​m001drlr

Top of the range Juni­or Rangers is an excit­ing out­door learn­ing pro­gramme for ages 11 to 18. Monthly ses­sions run in Badenoch and Strath­spey and Deeside, and five-day Juni­or Ranger weeks are also avail­able through loc­al high schools. Check out cairngorms​.co​.uk/​j​u​n​i​o​r​-​r​a​ngers

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Nature news

Top cats The Sav­ing Wild­cats pro­ject is cel­eb­rat­ing a suc­cess­ful breed­ing sea­son. 22 wild­cat kit­tens were born last year in a ded­ic­ated breed­ing for release centre in a quiet area away from vis­it­ors at the High­land Wild­life Park, near Kincraig.

It’s hoped these kit­tens will be amongst the first of their kind to be released into the wild in the Cairngorms this year.

Led by the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land, along­side part­ners includ­ing the Park Author­ity, the pro­ject team have been busy con­duct­ing field­work across the Cairngorms in pre­par­a­tion for these releases.

They have gathered a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of inform­a­tion about spe­cies pres­ence in poten­tial release areas and, whilst there’s a lot still to do, many pro­ject mile­stones have already been reached. Vis­it sav​ing​wild​cats​.org​.uk/ news-events to find out more.

Bird’s eye view The Park Author­ity is work­ing with land man­agers, con­ser­va­tion part­ners, loc­al com­munit­ies and gov­ern­ment to secure the long-term future of the crit­ic­ally endangered capercaillie.

The latest nation­al caper­cail­lie sur­vey, under­taken by RSPB Scot­land and part-fun­ded by the Park Author­ity, has estim­ated that only 542 of the birds remain in Scot­land, with 85% liv­ing in the Nation­al Park.

Talon-ted volun­teers The team at RSPB Loch Garten are work­ing with res­id­ents on a volun­teer­ing ini­ti­at­ive to pro­tect ospreys at the site.

Last sea­son a group of 15 volun­teers ded­ic­ated their even­ings to observing the nest and mak­ing sure that human dis­turb­ance did not upset the breed­ing chances of the birds.

The breed­ing pair (affec­tion­ately known to some as Asha and Axel) were the first to use the site in five years and they reared two chicks. Their suc­cess is in part down to the won­der­ful people who helped keep watch for them.

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Hopes are high that the pair will return this spring and, if you are inter­ested in volun­teer­ing, the team at RSPB Loch Garten would be delighted to hear from you.

There are sev­er­al issues facing caper­cail­lie, not least avail­able hab­it­at, pred­at­ors and human dis­turb­ance. The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject is work­ing with com­munit­ies and land man­agers to increase aware­ness of the bird’s plight; redu­cing dis­turb­ance in sens­it­ive areas along­side moun­tain bikers, dog walk­ers and oth­er recre­ation­al users; and fund­ing pred­at­or con­trol work through a ded­ic­ated pro­ject gamekeeper.

The pro­ject is also wait­ing on the res­ults of a genet­ic diversity study into the caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion to determ­ine wheth­er the gene pool needs to be expan­ded. To find out more vis­it cairngormscapercaillie.scot

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Nature news

For peat’s sake Our Peat­land ACTION team has been work­ing with loc­al civil and plant busi­nesses to increase the num­ber of skilled con­tract­ors able to carry out peat­land res­tor­a­tion work.

Peat­land res­tor­a­tion forms a key part of the new Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, with a tar­get of restor­ing at least 38,000 hec­tares by 2045. Con­tract­or avail­ab­il­ity is a major hurdle to scal­ing up activ­ity. To tackle this and to cre­ate fur­ther green rur­al jobs a new entrants’ pro­gramme has been cre­ated, provid­ing train­ing for eight loc­al con­tract­ors so far (with more to fol­low). To get involved or to learn more see cairngorms​.co​.uk/ peatland-action

dfair PC Project

High fly­ers Crit­ic­ally endangered pine hov­er­flies have bred suc­cess­fully thanks to con­ser­va­tion efforts by the Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms part­ner­ship, part- fun­ded by the Park Authority.

The spe­cies is only found in a single loc­a­tion in the UK, a small forest patch in the Nation­al Park. Sur­veys found lar­vae in pre­vi­ously unoc­cu­pied tree stumps, mean­ing at least some of the pine hov­er­flies bred by the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land and released across three sites in Octo­ber 2021 and March 2022 have com­pleted a full breed­ing cycle, mark­ing a real step for­ward in efforts to save the species.

Wader work Des­pite declin­ing nation­ally, waders con­tin­ue to do well in the east­ern Cairngorms, where mem­bers of the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship have taken steps to con­serve these spe­cial birds. Latest fig­ures show that pop­u­la­tions of a vari­ety of wader spe­cies on part­ner land­hold­ings remain stable.

Loc­al ven­ison Cairngorms Con­nect have partnered with Lyn­breck Croft to pro­duce a range of ven­ison products. Pro­ject part­ners con­trol deer on their land to reduce the impact of graz­ing on the land­scape, and this qual­ity loc­al pro­duce is not only sus­tain­able but helps sup­port con­ser­va­tion work on the ground.

Comeet Ven­ison Mince 2−06−323

Per­fect pair Efforts to pro­tect the rare twin­flower have been show­cased in an epis­ode of the BBC’s Land­ward. The Cairngorms Rare Plants and Wild Con­nec­tions Pro­ject, led by Plant­life and sup­por­ted by the Park Author­ity, fea­tures in epis­ode 19 of the pro­gramme and can be viewed at bbc​.co​.uk/​i​p​l​a​y​e​r​/​e​p​i​s​o​d​e​/​m​0​0​1dljp

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Nature news

Moo-ve along If you’re out in RSPB Scotland’s Aber­nethy reserve you might spot some cattle free-graz­ing in the forest and won­der where they’ve come from. Far from being escapees, how­ever, this herd is being care­fully con­trolled by a com­bin­a­tion of col­lars, satel­lites and a ded­ic­ated phone app.

The innov­at­ive ​‘no-fence’ sys­tem allows the farm­er to define spe­cif­ic areas to graze and those to avoid, such as around wood ant nests. Each anim­al wears a col­lar and the phone app is used to cre­ate a vir­tu­al fence. If cattle cross the invis­ible bound­ary the col­lar will ​‘buzz’ and they soon learn this means they should turn around and return to the herd.

This approach rep­lic­ates the beha­viour of ancient cattle who grazed on heath­er and churned up the ground with their hooves, cre­at­ing space for new flushes of blae­ber­ries and crow­ber­ries, which tri­als have shown bene­fit many spe­cies, includ­ing capercaillie.

The pro­ject is being sup­por­ted by LIFE 100% For Nature pro­ject, the Endangered Land­scapes Pro­gramme and The Fam­ous Grouse.

Nature net­work­ing Work is under­way to restore hab­it­ats in Glen Gel­die on the Nation­al Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge Estate. The Gel­die is a trib­u­tary of the River Dee and its banks are mostly tree­less, with little shade for aquat­ic spe­cies such as Atlantic salmon.

Over 100,000 nat­ive trees will be planted on the Geldie’s banks across a total of 120 hec­tares. The trees will be planted irreg­u­larly to mim­ic nat­ur­al wood­land and a diversity of nat­ive spe­cies will be used. Over time these trees will provide cool­ing shade and leaf lit­ter to enrich the nutri­ent-poor water. 10 cairn spring 2023

The pro­ject will also see wood­land hab­it­at between the catch­ments of the Dee and Spey recon­nec­ted. The new plant­ing will extend wood­land west­wards up the Dee catch­ment, bring­ing it to with­in a kilo­metre of the River Fesh­ie, where Wild­land Ltd are work­ing to expand nat­ive wood­land east­wards. This restored nature net­work in the heart of the Nation­al Park could bene­fit a wide range of both aquat­ic and wood­land species.

The Gel­die Wood­land Pro­ject is led by the Nation­al Trust for Scot­land and delivered in part­ner­ship with the Park Author­ity, Dee Dis­trict Sal­mon Fish­ery Board, River Dee Trust and Scot­tish Forestry.

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Nature news

CAIRNGORMS NATURE FEST­IV­AL FEIS NADAIR A’ MHON­AIDH RUAIDH

The Cairngorms Nature Fest­iv­al is com­ing, 12 – 21 May 2023

The Cairngorms Nature BIG Week­end has evolved! With two whole week­ends of pub­lic events and a week in between full of com­munity events, this year prom­ises to be big­ger and bet­ter than ever.

The Cairngorms Nature Fest­iv­al brings togeth­er people, busi­nesses and organ­isa­tions who love, sup­port and depend upon the nature of the Cairngorms to cre­ate this unmiss­able show­case of all the Cairngorms has to offer.

Now span­ning 10 days, there will be a huge range of events to interest every­one. Guided walks, online talks, self-guided trails, volun­teer exper­i­ences, fam­ily activ­it­ies, arts and crafts work­shops, nature mas­ter­classes, cul­tur­al high­lights, adven­ture activ­it­ies and much more… All cel­eb­rat­ing the spec­tac­u­lar and unique nature of the Cairngorms and giv­ing you the chance to exper­i­ence it like nev­er before.

You will not want to miss it! A new web­site for the fest­iv­al is cur­rently in the works where you will be able to find event inform­a­tion and book spe­cif­ic events. Sign up for all the latest updates by vis­it­ing cairngorm​snaturefest​iv​al​.co​.uk

And if you’re a busi­ness, char­ity, com­munity group or oth­er organ­isa­tion in and around the Nation­al Park we’d love to chat to you about how you can get involved. Email nature@​cairngorms.​co.​uk for more info.

Nature Fest­iv­al in numbers

10 50 days partners

75+ events

Ages 0 – 120 welcome

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Rangers

A ranger year in numbers

51 rangers in total

over 31k people engaged

192 live fires dealt with

595 bags of lit­ter removed

440 dogs off a lead secured 12 cairn spring 2023

Far-ran­ging The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is a world-class des­tin­a­tion for nature and attracts vis­it­ors from across Scot­land and bey­ond. This year around two mil­lion people will vis­it the area and a third of these will be com­ing for the very first time. Hap­pily, we have a ded­ic­ated ranger team ready and wait­ing to wel­come them when they arrive.

The team of 20 Cairngorms Nation­al Park rangers work­ing side-by- side with over 30 rangers in part­ner organ­isa­tions and estates exists to help every­one enjoy the Nation­al Park in a caring and respons­ible way. They are skilled in work­ing with all sorts of people, from fam­il­ies with chil­dren to young­er vis­it­ors, spe­cial interest groups and loc­al residents.

“My team are pas­sion­ate about shar­ing their know­ledge and help­ing vis­it­ors enjoy and care for the Nation­al Park,” says Lucy Ford, Ranger Man­ager at the Park Author­ity. ​“Wheth­er it’s find­ing the best places to spot a red squir­rel or the best place to park, rangers are here to help guide people and sup­port loc­al com­munit­ies so that every­one benefits.

“Dur­ing busy peri­ods, a ranger is likely to speak to hun­dreds of people each week. Some of these people will be con­fid­ent in the coun­tryside, but many oth­ers need a bit more help and guidance.”

The Park Author­ity employs five coun­tryside rangers all-year-round, and they work in part­ner­ship with loc­al author­ity rangers and those employed by estates. How­ever, cov­er­ing the whole of the Nation­al Park dur­ing the busy vis­it­or sea­son is too big a job for this core team, so early in the new year recruit­ment starts for a team of sea­son­al rangers, who play a key role in ensur­ing every­one has an enjoy­able and safe visit.

Mem­bers of the 1^st Skene-West­hill Boys’ Bri­gade, our ranger ser­vice and Forestry and Land Scot­land help clear west­ern hem­lock and Sitka spruce sap­lings in Glen­more Forest Park

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Rangers

A ranger clear­ing an old fire site on Deeside 66 ​“My team are pas­sion­ate about shar­ing their know­ledge and help­ing vis­it­ors enjoy and care for the Nation­al Park.” Lucy Ford, Ranger Manager

Fiona Brewis is one of this year’s team and her day job can vary enorm­ously. ​“Since I star­ted I’ve been lucky enough to see an array of wild­life a cau­tious slow­worm, mat­ing adders, an osprey feed­ing chicks and I’ve also had to inter­vene to help a group of lads float­ing down the River Dee on a slowly deflat­ing kayak.

“I’ve been offered refresh­ments by kind campers, learned how to firmly but politely encour­age someone not to do some­thing, and how to entice vis­it­ors to a stall about respons­ible toi­let­ing by dan­cing around in an emoji poo costume.”

A huge part of the rangers’ job is to edu­cate vis­it­ors and help them act respons­ibly, wheth­er that’s encour­aging them to use a camp­ing stove or teach­ing them about the impact of wild­life disturbance.

Lucy con­tin­ues: ​“We want people to have a won­der­ful exper­i­ence when they vis­it but we also need to ensure that our wild hab­it­ats and com­munit­ies are cared for. Thank­fully most people do act respons­ibly and our fam­ily of rangers will be out on the ground this sea­son to ensure that every­one has a pos­it­ive exper­i­ence in the Cairngorms.”

If you see a ranger out in your com­munity, please do stop and have a chat: they’re always look­ing to add to their stock of loc­al know­ledge and are always delighted to meet res­id­ents. If you would like to find out more about the work of our rangers vis­it cairngorms​.co​.uk/ rangers-ser­vices or email rangers@​cairngorms.​co.​uk spring 2023 cairn 13

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Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030

New hori­zons 14 cairn spring 2023

It’s easy to feel power­less in the face of a glob­al cli­mate and nature crisis. We believe it doesn’t have to be this way. Inspired by the Gael­ic word Dùthchas the deep-rooted con­nec­tion between people and nature we’re giv­ing the people of the Cairngorms the power to do some­thing about it.

In July 2021 the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund awar­ded up to £12.5 mil­lion for Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030, a pro­gramme led by the Park Author­ity and over 45 com­mit­ted part­ners. Its aims over the next five years are:

To put loc­al people at the heart of decision-making

To work with land man­agers to restore and enhance land­scapes To make get­ting around the Nation­al Park easi­er, safer and greener

To foster health­i­er, hap­pi­er com­munit­ies with well­being at their heart

In order to help shape this work we’ve been gath­er­ing the views of people who live, vis­it and work in the Nation­al Park. Over 30 com­munity events and work­shops have taken place so far and more than 1,200 responses have been received online. Whilst many of these con­ver­sa­tions are ongo­ing, pro­gress has been made on a num­ber of fronts.

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People and nature thriv­ing together

Empower­ing com­munit­ies We don’t just want com­munit­ies to have a say in what pro­jects are taken for­ward, we want them to be able to access fund­ing to make them a real­ity. In part­ner­ship with the Cairngorms Trust we’ve explored new ways of giv­ing out fund­ing, work­ing with a youth pan­el to dis­trib­ute £19,000 of Loc­al Action Group fund­ing, and cre­at­ing a £37,900 Nature Resi­li­ence Fund for small and medi­um-sized com­munity projects.

We’ve increased people’s aware­ness and con­fid­ence around cli­mate issues via 10 work­shops with Keep Scot­land Beau­ti­ful, and worked with schools to cap­ture their vis­ion for a fairer, more sus­tain­able future. And we’re work­ing with artists across the Nation­al Park to see how the cre­at­ive sec­tor might encour­age beha­viour change around the cli­mate and nature crisis.

Restor­ing land­scapes Redu­cing flood risk for com­munit­ies and encour­aging nature-friendly farm­ing prac­tices on six tri­al farms have been key aspects of the programme.

Our peat­land team have iden­ti­fied 3,500 hec­tares of peat­land for res­tor­a­tion over the next five years along­side 7,000 hec­tares of wood­land expan­sion, whilst new mod­els of green private fin­ance are being tri­alled on part­ner estates, with the aim of bene­fit­ing both nature and communities.

Aspect con­nectiv­ity Con­sulta­tions have taken place across Badenoch and Strath­spey, Blair Atholl and Deeside to ask people what would make it easi­er to walk, bike or use a wheel­chair in their area. Ideas from these ses­sions have been col­lated and a series of new pro­pos­als drawn up.

Feb­ru­ary and early March saw the pro­ject team going back to com­munit­ies for fur­ther feed­back. You can also view and com­ment on these plans online.

Improv­ing health and well­being We have been work­ing with busi­nesses and part­ners to explore green solu­tions to pub­lic health issues and dis­cuss what an eco­nomy focused on well­being might mean in practice.

Next month the UK’s first out­door demen­tia resource centre will open at Bad­aguish. Later in the year we’ll launch a new NHS green health refer­ral pro­gramme, enabling GPs to ​‘pre­scribe’ nature to bene­fit people’s health and wellbeing.

What hap­pens next? We’re cur­rently pulling togeth­er all our find­ings from the last 12 months into a final pro­pos­al to the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund. If suc­cess­ful, we hope that the next stage of the pro­gramme will kick off in Janu­ary 2024. To see how you can get involved and to sign up for updates check out our pro­ject web­site cairngorm​s2030​.com​mon​place​.is spring 2023 cairn 15

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Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 16 cairn spring 2023

Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 is empower­ing people who live, vis­it and work in the UK’s largest nation­al park to tackle the cli­mate and nature crisis.

£ €€ 24 unique pro­jects Over 45 part­ners £12.5m Lot­tery funding

[noun, ​‘tu:xəs/] Dùthchas The deep-rooted con­nec­tion between people and nature

T Five foot­ball pitches of new wood­land a week

Trans­form­ing pub­lic trans­port and act­ive travel routes 3,500 ha of peat­land restored

Six pilot net zero farm­ing projects

شما Cre­at­ing the first out­door centre for people liv­ing with dementia

Pre­scrib­ing nature on the NHS Devel­op­ing a well­being eco­nomy for people and nature

Giv­ing com­munit­ies power to decide which pro­jects to fund

Con­nect­ing people and nature through arts and cul­ture To find out how you can get involved vis­it cairngorms​.co​.uk/​c​a​i​r​n​g​o​r​m​s2030

aboot wi help fae Made pos­sible with ♡ Her­it­age Fund

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Cairngorms voices

In con­ver­sa­tion with Gil­lian Councill

Gil­lian works for Alzheimer Scot­land as their Asso­ci­ate Exec­ut­ive Lead for Loc­al­it­ies. She lives in Grant­own with her hus­band and their dog Reiff.

Gil­lian at Bad­aguish near Aviemore, home of the new out­door demen­tia resource centre

What does the Cairngorms mean to you? The Park really is my play­ground. Moun­tains are my favour­ite place to be and liv­ing in Grant­own there are lots of oppor­tun­it­ies to get out and about. Last year I com­pleted all the mun­ros and we biked the North Coast 500 a few years ago. There’s a wel­com­ing com­munity here and that’s one of the things I find most spe­cial about the place.

Tell us about the Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre The pro­ject is part of the Park Authority’s Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme and sup­ports loc­al people with demen­tia. People can be for­got­ten when they get older and that’s not good enough. The centre is the first of its kind in the UK and sup­ports people with demen­tia, their fam­il­ies and care­givers to have enrich­ing out­door exper­i­ences. Any­one can get in touch with us and get support.

What role can nature and the out­doors play? If someone has demen­tia, their brain is work­ing hard to oper­ate and when you add in a noisy house or traffic it can be chal­len­ging. Nature is really good for our men­tal health but there’s also some­thing about just being in the moment, with gentle stim­uli such as bird­song, rain and wind. The centre gives people a redis­covered sense of free­dom to explore the out­doors at their own pace.

What are your hopes for the future of the pro­ject? I’d like us to show how well this type of activ­ity works in prac­tice and demon­strate that clear refer­ral path­ways are in place, work­ing with the NHS. Nature could be ​‘pre­scribed’ as an altern­at­ive to med­ic­a­tion in some cases. Ulti­mately, I hope our pro­ject can become a blue­print for oth­er com­munit­ies to fol­low. spring 2023 cairn 17

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Beavers Bring­ing back beavers

Beavers have been miss­ing from the Cairngorms and much of Scot­land since the 16^th cen­tury but all that is about to change with a new rein­tro­duc­tion pro­ject on the upper Spey. 18 cairn spring 2023

They are often called ​‘nature’s engin­eers’ a spe­cies with a unique abil­ity to shape the land­scape around them. To restore and cre­ate new wet­lands, to nat­ur­ally cop­pice trees to regen­er­ate wood­land and to improve hab­it­ats for a wide range of spe­cies. Beavers may have been missing