sum­mer 2023

cairn

The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

[Image of a woman in a wheel­chair on the shore of a loch with a Free­Wheel attachment]

Park for all

Gear­ing up for sum­mer in the Nation­al Park

Inside

Cool for cats Wild­cats released in the Cairngorms

Sow­ing the seed Meet the farm­er on track for net zero

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

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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.

[Image of a per­son with their arms raised in celebration]

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

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Loc­al coun­cil services

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

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

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

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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.

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

[Image of a per­son volunteering]

Volun­teer­ing volunteers@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

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

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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: A per­son in an offroad wheel­chair at Loch Mor­lich © Dav­id Lin­tern. Oth­er images Alaska Stikova, Alex Macleod, Alice Fogg, Beaver Trust, Becky Wilson, Black Scot­tish Adven­tur­ers, Bo Mansell, Cairngorms Con­nect, Char­lotte Mil­burn, Dav­id Lin­tern, Ed Smith, Fiona Toovey, James Lee, Jam­ie Mar­tin, Jenny Allen, Joanna Hampson, Mark Craig / Air­borne Lens, Markus Stitz, Pat Dou­glass, Paul Hughes, Peter Cairns / North­shots, Rachel Keen­an, Scot­land: The Big Pic­ture, Wee Epics.

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The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Issue high­lights

Fáilte / Welcome

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

Sum­mer is always a busy time of year, with one mil­lion vis­it­ors expec­ted to come to the Cairngorms over the next few months. These vis­it­ors are hugely import­ant to the loc­al eco­nomy – more people are employed in tour­ism than any oth­er sec­tor – and the warm wel­come vis­it­ors receive is one of the main reas­ons why people return again and again to the area.

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We also recog­nise, though, that high vis­it­or num­bers can bring real chal­lenges to our com­munit­ies. It’s for this reas­on that we’ve com­mit­ted to sta­bil­ising vis­it­or num­bers in the peak sea­son and encour­aging more people to come dur­ing the off-season.

And whilst we don’t own or man­age any land dir­ectly, we’re work­ing closely with part­ners over the sum­mer to ensure every­one enjoys the Cairngorms respons­ibly. In this issue you’ll find out a little bit more about what that involves, togeth­er with all the latest nature and com­munity news from every corner of the Nation­al Park.

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

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

[Image of a per­son on a trike] Page 6 Top gear

[Image of a Scot­tish Wild­cat] Page 9 Feline good

[Image of a group of people] Page 12 All aboard!

[Image of wild­flowers] Page 15 Future farm­ing

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In your community

Dul­nain Bridge to Grant­own offroad route steps up a gear

Fund­ing from Scot­tish Government’s Act­ive Travel Trans­form­a­tion Fund means that work can begin on the con­struc­tion of a safe offroad route between Grant­own on Spey and Dul­nain Bridge.

The Park Author­ity applied to the fund on behalf of the Dul­nain Bridge com­munity who – with sup­port from

Sus­trans – have led the pro­ject to this cru­cial stage. £630,000 has been alloc­ated, with fur­ther fund­ing com­ing from the plan­ning gain pro­cess asso­ci­ated with the Cairn Distillery.

The new route will include sec­tions of old road as well as pur­pose-built sec­tions, allow­ing people to walk, cycle or use a wheel­chair to travel between Grant­own and Dul­nain Bridge without hav­ing to use the busy A95 trunk road.

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Finn, Tilly, Kath­er­ine and Leah on a wil­low walk

Gath­er­ing together

Hun­dreds of people vis­ited us at the Atholl Gath­er­ing to make ​‘seed bombs’ with the rangers and find out more about our work in the Nation­al Park. We will be attend­ing the Grant­own Show and the Lon­ach Gath­er­ing later in the year so do stop by if you see us.

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Aviemore Adven­turer

Two new Stage­coach bus ser­vices have launched. The 36A will serve Aviemore to Aber­lour and Dufftown via Grant­own and the A95. The 30, also known as the ​‘Aviemore Adven­turer’, is tak­ing pas­sen­gers from Aviemore to Cairngorm Moun­tain. The bus has lock­ers for skis, bikes and out­door equip­ment, giv­ing people an easy option for get­ting to the start of their adventure!

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In your community

Scal­ing new heights

We were delighted to wel­come Black Scot­tish Adven­tur­ers to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in May.

Black Scot­tish Adven­tur­ers are a fast-grow­ing com­munity of adven­ture seekers who are pas­sion­ate about intro­du­cing new people to the out­doors, no mat­ter what their background.

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We’re pleased they chose to come to the Cairngorms to explore Meall a’ Bhua­chaille, fol­lowed by some time at Loch Insh.

Thank you to the team and to all the 93 mem­bers who came along we look for­ward to wel­com­ing you again soon.

For more inform­a­tion vis­it blackscot​tishad​ven​tur​ers​.com

Tak­ing action

Wild­fire is a grow­ing con­cern giv­en the chan­ging cli­mate and we have been doing a lot of work with part­ners to pro­mote the mes­sage of ​‘no camp­fires’ and ​‘no dis­pos­able bar­be­cues’ dur­ing times of high fire risk.

There are over 45 rangers deal­ing with issues as they arise and there are plans for joint patrols at Glen­more with Police Scot­land, who

[Image of a High Fire Risk sign]

High Fire Risk Please: • Do not light any fires • Don’t use bar­be­cues • Make sure cigar­ettes are out

have wider powers of enforcement.

We are cur­rently explor­ing all options avail­able to tackle this prob­lem, one of which is the poten­tial to cre­ate fire man­age­ment byelaws. These options will be con­sidered at our Septem­ber board meeting.

Broad­band boost

Super­fast broad­band is being rolled out across Scot­land and, for those premises not covered by new infra­struc­ture, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have set up a scheme to ensure that every home and busi­ness will have access.

A sub­sidy of up to £5,000 is avail­able to all eli­gible premises and cov­ers all dir­ect install­a­tion costs. To see when super­fast broad­band is com­ing to your area and wheth­er your home or busi­ness is eli­gible for the R100 Scot­tish broad­band vouch­er scheme — vis­it scot​land​su​per​fast​.com and use their address checker.

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In your community

Free-wheel­ing

A new cyc­ling des­tin­a­tion page has been launched by Vis­it­Cairngorms for loc­als and vis­it­ors to explore the Nation­al Park by bike.

The Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship have worked with bike shops to digit­ally map routes from the centre of villages

and explore our var­ied path net­works, the major­ity of which are offroad. The routes have been cur­ated to show­case the best of the Cairngorms, whilst giv­ing riders the inform­a­tion they need to enjoy this spe­cial place respons­ibly. Routes will help guide cyc­lists with turn-by-turn instruc­tions and can be down­loaded to mobile and GPS devices for free via vis​it​cairngorms​.com/​cycle

Loos flash

After being closed for five years, the Burn­field toi­lets in Grant­own are set to re- open this summer.

The Grant­own Ini­ti­at­ive, a loc­al com­munity devel­op­ment trust run by volun­teers, acquired the site by com­munity asset trans­fer from High­land Coun­cil and Colin Lawson Build­ers have been work­ing on the improve­ments, which include a lar­ger dis­abled toi­let and a motorhome waste dis­pos­al unit for visitors.

Pupils from Grant­own Gram­mar School are cre­at­ing dec­or­at­ive wall tiles fea­tur­ing scenes and activ­it­ies of Grant­own. The Park Author­ity con­trib­uted £25,000 to the project.

Last­ing connections

A new volun­teer pro­gramme is help­ing mar­gin­al­ised groups bene­fit from being out in nature.

Designed for those seek­ing refugee and asylum sup­port, sexu­al viol­ence sur­viv­ors and loc­al fam­il­ies under extreme fin­an­cial pres­sure, the pro­gramme works with char­it­able groups to facil­it­ate safe, pos­it­ive and mem­or­able exper­i­ences in the Nation­al Park.

Each of these is not just a day out in nature, but a day where people can leave a last­ing impact and con­nect with wild­life and the out­doors – sup­port­ing their recov­ery, build­ing con­fid­ence and

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devel­op­ing green skills for those who wouldn’t oth­er­wise have a chance to do so.

Park Author­ity staff have also been volun­teer­ing as part of ​‘The Big Help Out’ for the King’s coron­a­tion. In total 17 staff helped dig ponds, mon­it­or rap­tors, tend com­munity gar­dens and head out on patrol with our volun­teer rangers. Our staff love where they live and work and really enjoyed giv­ing back to this spe­cial place.

If you’re inter­ested in volun­teer­ing email volunteering@​cairngorms.​co.​uk and we’ll help find an activ­ity that suits you.

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In your community

Break­ing down barriers

Our Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Pan­el provides feed­back, advice and guid­ance on a wide range of equal­it­ies and inclu­sion top­ics. The pan­el is on the lookout for new mem­bers and we’d love to hear from people across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park who might be inter­ested in get­ting involved.

The pan­el was first estab­lished in Septem­ber 2020 to provide informed, evid­ence-based advice to sup­port the Park Author­ity, and ensure equal­ity and inclu­sion are thor­oughly embed­ded in all areas of our work. This cov­ers everything from the way we com­mu­nic­ate to the way we recruit and engage with dif­fer­ent com­munit­ies and under-rep­res­en­ted groups. The pan­el also helps pro­mote equal­ity and inclu­sion work with our part­ners across the Nation­al Park.

Over the past 12 months, the pan­el has made sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tions to keys pro­jects such as the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, our tour­ism infra­struc­ture and sus­tain­able tour­ism plans, as well as influ­en­cing our wider com­mu­nic­a­tions approach and help­ing diver­si­fy our recruit­ment pro­cess and cor­por­ate policies. They have also provided advice to a wide range of part­ner organisations.

Pan­el mem­bers are volun­teers and are recruited through an open recruit­ment pro­cess. The pan­el meets vir­tu­ally every month and meet­ings take place in the even­ings to allow more people to attend. For more inform­a­tion on the pan­el and to find out how you can get involved, scan the QR code below or email equalities@ cairngorms​.co​.uk. The dead­line for applic­a­tions is 20 August 2023.

In brief

Com­munity gains

Two excit­ing new grant fund­ing oppor­tun­it­ies are now open to com­munit­ies in the Nation­al Park. Applic­a­tions for the Nature Resi­li­ence Fund and the Com­munity Led Vis­ion Fund are being invited, with a total of £60,000 and £167,500 avail­able across the two funds. The Cairngorms Trust are look­ing for pro­jects that pro­mote capa­city build­ing and upskilling of com­munit­ies. Vis­it cairngorm​strust​.org​.uk for more inform­a­tion on how to apply.

Mak­ing tracks

A brand new blue grade moun­tain bike trail, part-fun­ded by the Park Author­ity, is being cre­ated at Lag­gan Wolftrax. Aimed at less exper­i­enced cyc­lists and fam­il­ies, the trail opens later in 2023 and com­ple­ments exist­ing trails, as well as help­ing spread vis­it­ors to quieter areas of the Nation­al Park.

“The Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el is a space to unpack and per­haps begin to resolve some of the bar­ri­ers to people feel­ing wel­come liv­ing in and vis­it­ing the Cairngorms.”

Bo (they/​them), Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el member

Sus­tain­able steps

With over two mil­lion vis­it­ors each year, we need to take steps to ensure the Cairngorms is a sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tion. We’ve held the European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas since 2005 and were recently reas­sessed. We’ll find out later this year if we’ve been successful.

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Loc­al Place Plans

Plan­ning ahead

Ensur­ing the Nation­al Park is a place where people and nature thrive is at the heart of all we do as a Park Author­ity, nowhere more so than in our plan­ning func­tion. Ensur­ing that the right kind of devel­op­ment takes place is one thing but it also needs to hap­pen in the right place and that is where Loc­al Place Plans come in.

Loc­al Place Plans have been intro­duced by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to encourage

com­munit­ies to set out their own pri­or­it­ies that will be taken into account when we work on the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. They provide an oppor­tun­ity for res­id­ents and busi­nesses to feed into the next plan by set­ting out their ideas and aspir­a­tions, as well as pro­pos­als, on how land is developed and used in their loc­al area.

Many com­munit­ies with­in the Nation­al Park are already involved in pre­par­ing Com­munity Action Plans. Loc­al Place Plans will not replace these but can sit along­side them and both plans may be taken into account in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan process.

We’re invit­ing com­munity coun­cils and oth­er com­munity bod­ies to get to work on cre­at­ing their own com­munity-led Loc­al Place Plans in good time. It is up to each com­munity body to decide if they want to pre­pare one it is not a leg­al require­ment. How­ever, it’s import­ant there is enough time for it to be sub­mit­ted and checked. Based on cur­rent times­cales this would mean hav­ing Loc­al Place Plans sub­mit­ted to the Park Author­ity by the end of May

1. For advice and guid­ance on how to take this for­ward in your com­munity, or if you have any ques­tions, vis­it cairngorms​.co​.uk/​l​o​c​a​l​-​p​l​a​c​e​-​plans

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Nature news

Call of the wild

The Sav­ing Wild­cats pro­ject has reached an his­tor­ic mile­stone as part of land­mark efforts to help restore Scotland’s crit­ic­ally endangered wild­cat population.

Fol­low­ing years of pre­par­a­tion, around 20 wild­cats are being released into the Cairngorms Con­nect pro­ject area. The team have under­taken wide­spread engage­ment with loc­al com­munit­ies and drawn on glob­al con­ser­va­tion and sci­entif­ic expert­ise to fur­ther under­stand wild­cat eco­logy and behaviour.

Ahead of their release, cats were moved into large, nat­ur­al enclos­ures at the High­land Wild­life Park, designed to help them pre­pare for the chal­lenges of life in the wild. The cats were also fit­ted with GPS col­lars to allow the team to mon­it­or their movements.

Wild­cats are elu­sive creatures and sight­ings will be incred­ibly rare. If you do catch a glimpse, please inform the Sav­ing Wild­cats team but don’t share the loc­a­tion with oth­ers (espe­cially not on social media) as leav­ing them undis­turbed gives them the best chance of sur­viv­al. You can report sight­ings dir­ectly at sav­ing­wild­cats. org​.uk/​h​a​v​e​y​o​u​s​e​e​n​a​w​i​ldcat

Stand­ing up

Aspen is a unique tree which regen­er­ates by put­ting out suck­ers; in this way, a stand of aspen can come from a single parent.

Found in areas through­out the Nation­al Park, aspen sup­port an array of rare and spe­cial­ist wild­life. We’re work­ing with the Cairngorms Aspen Group, Scot­land: The Big Pic­ture and landown­ers to map aspen and con­nect exist­ing stands to cre­ate a net­work of trees at dif­fer­ent stages, help­ing them sup­port more wildlife.

Two bee or not two bee

We’ve joined forces with the Bumble­bee Con­ser­va­tion Trust to help mon­it­or bumble­bees in the Nation­al Park.

For the next few years, volun­teers will vis­it vari­ous sites between March and Octo­ber to count and record the dif­fer­ent spe­cies of bees along a fixed route (or transect).

These loc­a­tions include farms involved in the Cairngorms Future Farm­ing pro­ject, part of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. Mon­it­or­ing efforts will help estab­lish if there are changes to the num­ber and spe­cies of bumble­bees as farm­ers work to sup­port more biod­iversity on their farms.

The pro­ject is also look­ing for volun­teers. You will be trained in what to look for and how to record them. For more info vis­it bumble​bee​con​ser​va​tion​.org/ skills-for-bees-scotland

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In brief

Mak­ing connections

The High­land Wild­life Park has launched a new weekly group to give people a chance to spend time togeth­er in nature. It includes a fully access­ible pro­gramme of activ­it­ies such as pond dip­ping and bird­watch­ing. For more info con­tact Jess Wise: jwise@​rzss.​org.​uk

Nature news

Top dogs

The Nation­al Park is a spe­cial place to enjoy the out­doors with our dogs but it is also home to some of the UK’s rarest wildlife.

Caper­cail­lie are now rais­ing their young until late August and dogs can eas­ily cause them harm. We’ve col­lab­or­ated with loc­al dog walk­er Kaz Dalby at Bark + Ride Sports on a short video packed with tips on how you can help. Scan the QR code to watch Kaz’s video.

Cairngorms 2030

Over the past year we’ve been gath­er­ing views from people across the Nation­al Park to inform Cairngorms 2030, our pro­gramme to tackle the nature and cli­mate crisis. Thank you to the over 4,000 of you who took part in one of nearly 150 events. Your views have helped shape a final pro­pos­al to The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund. If suc­cess­ful, the next stage will kick off in Janu­ary and last for five years. For all the latest and to see how you can get involved see cairngorm​s2030​.com​mon​place​.is

Cli­mate action

Teach­ing staff from five Nation­al Park high schools gathered in Tomin­toul in June for a shared learn­ing event as part of the Cairngorms 2030 programme’s Cli­mate Learn­ing and Edu­ca­tion pro­ject. Teach­ers were presen­ted with key find­ings from the pro­ject work so far, includ­ing the key cli­mate pri­or­it­ies that stu­dents have iden­ti­fied as most import­ant to them.

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Flower power

An excit­ing pro­ject is aim­ing to help rare plant pop­u­la­tions in the Cairngorms by encour­aging volun­teers to raise twin­flower cut­tings in their own gar­dens, before being replanted back in the wild. The pro­ject is led by Plant­life Scot­land and sup­por­ted by the Park Author­ity and The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund.

Mean­while on Deeside, Bal­mor­al Estate staff have set up a twin­flower clone bank. Plants are being propag­ated for trans­lo­ca­tion to rein­force exist­ing pop­u­la­tions with new genet­ic mater­i­al. It is hoped this will enable cross-pol­lin­a­tion to ensure new plants have a wider gene base, boost­ing the resi­li­ence of the species.

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Nature news

Beaver bleth­ers

A six-week form­al engage­ment on beavers starts in early August, giv­ing every­one a chance to share their thoughts on the return of the spe­cies to the upper Spey. The drop-in ses­sions will give res­id­ents and land man­agers a chance to hear about our pro­pos­als, ask any ques­tions and explore any issues that need to be addressed.

Quite the catch

Fear­gal Shar­key, former Under­tones front­man and pas­sion­ate angler, has lent his sup­port to the Spey Catch­ment Ini­ti­at­ive. Newly launched as a char­ity, the ini­ti­at­ive works closely with com­munit­ies and land man­agers to deliv­er vital river res­tor­a­tion pro­jects. They plan to restore large stretches of the river over the com­ing years and we are proud to part­ner with such a pro­act­ive organ­isa­tion, address­ing key envir­on­ment­al issues on the Spey. Find out more at speycatch​ment​.org

Peat­land progress

The Park Authority’s Peat­land Action team have helped deliv­er over 1,000 hec­tares of peat­land res­tor­a­tion in a single year for the first time. Work­ing closely with landown­ers and land man­agers across the Nation­al Park, the team com­pleted 15 pro­jects across 10 dif­fer­ent estates. Activ­ity focused on block­ing man-made drains, re-veget­at­ing and re-wet­ting act­ively erod­ing areas.

Top of the range

In every corner of the Nation­al Park, teams of pas­sion­ate, ded­ic­ated and know­ledge­able people are help­ing ensure vis­it­ors enjoy the Cairngorms responsibly.

Along­side our in-house team of 20 Park Author­ity rangers, we work with 13 addi­tion­al ranger ser­vices who are employed by a vari­ety of organ­isa­tions, includ­ing loc­al author­it­ies, private estates and charities.

Rangers play a vital role in the Nation­al Park, pro­mot­ing respons­ible beha­viour, staff­ing volun­teer events

and facil­it­at­ing vis­its from schools and under-rep­res­en­ted groups. They also get involved in bio­lo­gic­al mon­it­or­ing and main­ten­ance work of paths and oth­er infrastructure.

The work of rangers is paid for by their employ­er and in many cases is sup­por­ted by grant aid from the Park Author­ity, as well as con­tri­bu­tions from the pub­lic through dona­tions, car park charges and so on.

Work­ing togeth­er as a single fam­ily of Cairngorms Nation­al Park rangers, this part­ner­ship is what helps to make our Nation­al Park a place where every­one feels wel­come, con­nec­ted and safe.

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Board news

Recon­ven­ing

Every Park Author­ity board needs a Con­vener to chair meet­ings and ensure everything runs smoothly and for the past five years that role has fallen to Xan­der McDade.

Xan­der became the young­est ever Con­vener of the Park Author­ity board when he was elec­ted to the role in 2018 aged 23. Hav­ing led the board through the Cov­id-19 pan­dem­ic, the cre­ation of a Park Author­ity ranger ser­vice, the launch of our fourth Part­ner­ship Plan and the devel­op­ment of our Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, he feels that now is the time for fresh leadership.

We are grate­ful to Xan­der for his con­tri­bu­tion to the board at a time of extraordin­ary change and growth for the Nation­al Park, and wel­come his suc­cessor Sandy Brem­ner, who was elec­ted by his fel­low board mem­bers in late June and will serve for an ini­tial three- year term from August.

There has also been a change in the Deputy Con­vener role, with Janet Hunter step­ping down from the board in Septem­ber and Elean­or Mack­in­tosh repla­cing her. Janet chaired the Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship and led on the devel­op­ment of a new Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan. Elean­or has served on the board since 2003 and pre­vi­ously held the role of Plan­ning Con­vener. Thanks go to Janet for her lead­er­ship and wise coun­sel over the past eight years.

All aboard

Caring for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is a col­lect­ive respons­ib­il­ity, but one group of people have the spe­cif­ic job of ensur­ing the pri­or­it­ies set out in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan are delivered: the Park Author­ity board.

Their role is set out in Scot­tish law to agree the long-term object­ives for the Nation­al Park, work­ing with the CEO and staff to set the pri­or­it­ies for

the Park Author­ity, and ensure that both the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment and the loc­al com­munit­ies in the Cairngorms are cared for and sustained.

The board is made up of 19 people: sev­en are appoin­ted from loc­al coun­cils, sev­en are appoin­ted by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and five are dir­ectly elec­ted by you the residents.

Elec­tions took place earli­er in the year, as did some new Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment appoint­ments, and we’d like to intro­duce you to the new faces for 2023.

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New board members

Dir­ectly elected

Kenny Deans (Ward 1)

Born in Suth­er­land and raised in Edin­burgh, Kenny taught for 34 years at Kin­gussie High. An award-win­ning sports coach and com­munity lead­er, he is cur­rently a dir­ect­or with Kin­gussie Com­munity Devel­op­ment Company.

Lauren Mac­Cal­lum (Ward 2)

Lauren is an author, broad­caster and gen­er­al man­ager of cli­mate action char­ity Pro­tect Our Win­ters UK, which helps pas­sion­ate out­door people become effect­ive cli­mate advoc­ates to achieve sys­tem­ic solu­tions to cli­mate change.

John Kirk (Ward 3)

A farm­er in Nethy Bridge, John also ran his own agri­cul­tur­al / plant hire busi­ness until 2021. He is pas­sion­ate about see­ing the wild­life of the Nation­al Park improve for future generations.

Dal­whin­nie Blair Atholl

Elean­or Mackintosh

(Ward 4)

Elean­or is a former fin­an­cial advisor with Cly­des­dale Bank and serves on vari­ous com­munity groups. She is also the Scot­tish North­ern Rep­res­ent­at­ive on the Brit­ish Wool Board.

Paul Gibb

(Ward 5)

Paul is a geo­lo­gist and has also spent sev­er­al years rep­res­ent­ing the com­munit­ies of Upper Deeside and Don­side. He man­ages his own busi­ness and has an interest in the loc­al eco­nomy, afford­able hous­ing, trans­port and river catch­ment management.

[Image of a map of the Cairngorms region]

For info on all our board

mem­bers scan the QR code

Gov­ern­ment

appoin­ted

Sandy Brem­ner

Formerly a report­er and edit­or for BBC Scot­land for nearly 30 years, Sandy is the cur­rent Chair of the River Dee Trust and launched the scheme to plant a mil­lion nat­ive trees along the Dee’s riverbanks.

Dr Pete Cosgrove

Pete has lived and worked in the Cairngorms since 1998 and has pub­lic, private and third sec­tor exper­i­ence on land-use and con­ser­va­tion. His focus is on cli­mate change and its impact on live­li­hoods and biodiversity.

Dr Han­nah Grist

Han­nah is a lec­turer at Scotland’s Rur­al Col­lege and Deputy Pro­gramme Dir­ect­or of the Uni­ver­sity of Edin­burgh MSc in Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment and Pro­tec­tion. She is a keen moun­tain wan­der­er with a pas­sion for nature and heritage.

Steve Mickle­wright

A trained eco­lo­gist, Steve has worked in nature con­ser­va­tion for over 30 years. He is cur­rently Chief Exec­ut­ive of con­ser­va­tion char­ity Trees for Life and Con­ven­or of the Scot­tish Rewild­ing Alliance.

sum­mer 2023 cairn 13

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Cairngorms Nature Festival

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is world-renowned as an import­ant place for nature and look­ing after it is very much a joint effort.

The Park Author­ity draws togeth­er many part­ners, from estates and com­munity groups to organ­isa­tions and char­it­ies, who work on all man­ner of con­ser­va­tion pro­jects. Each group and indi­vidu­al plays a crit­ic­al part in help­ing to con­serve and enhance our wild­life and land­scapes in the Nation­al Park.

The Cairngorms Nature Fest­iv­al takes place every May and is a cel­eb­ra­tion of all that work. This year over 60 part­ners and 10 ranger ser­vices came

togeth­er to put on the 10-day nature extra­vag­anza, with over 100 events and 1,800 people in attend­ance. From fam­ily-friendly trails to bespoke walks and access­ible activ­it­ies for those with dis­ab­il­it­ies, the sheer vari­ety of events that took place is a test­a­ment to the hard work of our part­ners and rangers.

The fest­iv­al is also an oppor­tun­ity for busi­nesses and com­munit­ies to cel­eb­rate their place in the Nation­al Park and get involved, wheth­er that is by host­ing an event or run­ning a pro­mo­tion dur­ing the fest­iv­al week. We offer sup­port and pro­mo­tion for all our part­ners and would love to hear from any­one who’d like to get involved next year: email nature@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

14 cairn sum­mer 2023

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Cairngorms voices

In con­ver­sa­tion with Dav­id Toovey

Dav­id Toovey took over Rhindhu Farm near Tomin­toul from his fath­er-in-law 20 years ago. Now, as part of the Cairngorms Future Farm­ing pro­ject, he and five oth­er farms are explor­ing ways of redu­cing their car­bon foot­print as part of the Cairngorms 2030 programme.

Why did you get involved with the Cairngorms Future Farm­ing project?

Over the years I’ve noticed changes in nature around the farm and the area. More recently I’ve seen changes hap­pen­ing more often and for the worse in terms of our wild­life and their hab­it­ats. I’m keen to help wild­life and their hab­it­ats while keep­ing our farm viable – that can only be a good thing.

Can you tell us about some of the changes you’ve been exploring?

When we went through the pro­cess of meas­ur­ing our car­bon foot­print, the res­ults were quite good. We’ve long been an envir­on­ment­ally- minded farm and have been part of nation­al envir­on­ment­al schemes since the 1990s.

How­ever, this pro­ject is spe­cif­ic to the Cairngorms and allows us to meas­ure what we’re doing now and see how to reduce our emis­sions and improve hab­it­ats around the farm. It’s very rel­ev­ant to us.

Some of the things we’ve iden­ti­fied include installing bat and barn owl boxes in exist­ing build­ings, intro­du­cing strips of pol­len and nec­tar mixes and wild bird cov­er, man­aging scrub and exist­ing wood­lands (includ­ing restruc­tur­ing the con­ifer plant­a­tion) and cre­at­ing ponds in the flood­plain for dif­fer­ent inver­teb­rates, wet­land plants and amphibians.

Do you fore­see any chal­lenges with this approach?

We have iden­ti­fied many small actions to take and togeth­er they will have a big impact. I don’t think it will be chal­len­ging to imple­ment a com­bin­a­tion of the changes we’ve iden­ti­fied and I don’t believe any of them will neg­at­ively impact our farm­ing business.

What are your hopes for the future of the project?

I hope through this pro­ject and mak­ing a com­bin­a­tion of changes we can improve things for the next gen­er­a­tion. We need to do some­thing now to stop the biod­iversity loss that is hap­pen­ing so the next gen­er­a­tion can enjoy what we had when we were young. It’s not until we lose things that we real­ise what we have lost but it’s not too late to do some­thing about it.

sum­mer 2023 cairn 15