Junior Ranger project review 2023

Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

186 37 Juni­or Rangers Part­ners 57 Juni­or Ranger ses­sions 16 Ranger ser­vices Juni­or Rangers col­lect­ing twinflower

Intro­duc­tion About the pro­ject The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Juni­or Ranger pro­ject is an excit­ing, fun and adven­tur­ous out­door learn­ing pro­gramme for young people aged 11 – 18 years based on the EURO­PARC model.

The pro­ject aims to: • Engage young people liv­ing with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park catch­ment area and give them the oppor­tun­ity to act as advoc­ates for the Nation­al Park. • Increase the under­stand­ing of the work of Ranger Ser­vices in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. • Devel­op the skills and exper­i­ence of young people and provide a spring­board for employ­ment in the conservation/​land man­age­ment sec­tor. • Edu­cate young people about the cli­mate emer­gency and empower them with oppor­tun­it­ies to tackle this at a loc­al and region­al level. • Be a lead­ing example of a Juni­or Ranger Pro­ject and work with col­leagues through the Scot­tish Coun­tryside Ranger Asso­ci­ation, Nation­al Parks UK and EURO­PARC to pro­mote and increase the bene­fits of these projects.

The pro­ject is a part of col­lect­ive efforts to meet four of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives – B9 Men­tal and phys­ic­al health, B10 Park for all, B11 Volun­teer­ing and out­door learn­ing and B4 Skills and training.

Above: Juni­or Rangers try­ing out kit used in deer­stalk­ing at Hill to Grill, a Cairngorms Con­nect com­munity event Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review 2

Part­ner­ship work­ing The sup­port of the fam­ily of ranger ser­vices and related pro­fes­sion­als through­out the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is essen­tial to the suc­cess of the Juni­or Ranger pro­ject. The pro­ject is co-ordin­ated by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ranger Ser­vice and is delivered by the fam­ily of ranger ser­vices and oth­er related pro­fes­sion­als oper­at­ing in or close to the Nation­al Park.

This part­ner­ship approach is fun­da­ment­al to the programme’s suc­cess; allow­ing Juni­or Rangers to bene­fit from a wide breadth of know­ledge and exper­i­ence and explore a range of sites around the Cairngorms, whilst allow­ing dif­fer­ent Ranger Ser­vices and related pro­fes­sion­als to con­trib­ute in a way that is sus­tain­able for them. The schools pro­gramme is also reli­ant on the com­mit­ment of the six schools involved and their ded­ic­ated teach­ing staff, whilst the monthly pro­gramme couldn’t hap­pen without the sup­port of parents.

We are extremely grate­ful to every­one that have helped to make the pro­ject hap­pen this year. Thank you!

Juni­or Rangers clear­ing paths with Cairngorm Moun­tain Ranger Ruar­idh and Park Author­ity Ranger Sarah

Ranger ser­vices Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Atholl Estates Bal­mor­al Estates Cairngorm Moun­tain Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Dorenell Ranger Ser­vice Forestry and Land Scot­land Glen Tanar Char­it­able Trust Ranger Ser­vice Glen­liv­et Estate High­life High­land NatureScot High­life High­land NTS Kil­liecrankie Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Rothiemurchus Estate RSPB Aber­nethy and Insh Marshes Oth­er part­ners Able2Adventure Alzheimer Scot­land Badenoch and Strath­spey Goldeneye Study Group Bumble­bee Con­ser­va­tion Trust Cairngorms Con­nect High­land Folk Museum High­land Perth­shire Com­munit­ies Land Trust High­land Wild­life Park (RZSS) Plant­Life Ride in Peace Adven­tures River Dee Trust Rothes Com­munity Trust Scot­tish Coun­tryside Rangers Asso­ci­ation (SCRA) Sus­trans Wild­land Ltd Schools Aboyne Academy Alford Academy Grant­own Gram­mar School Kin­gussie High School Pit­lo­chry High School Spey­side High School

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Schools pro­gramme Intro­duc­tion In 2023 the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Juni­or Ranger pro­ject con­tin­ued its work with loc­al high schools fol­low­ing on from the suc­cess of 2022. The pro­gramme of activ­it­ies again took shape as a series of five-day Juni­or Ranger ​‘Dis­cov­ery Weeks’ with the six high schools in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park catchment.

The aim of the pro­gramme is to bet­ter con­nect young people to nature through prac­tic­al con­ser­va­tion work, adven­tur­ous activ­ity and the oppor­tun­ity to meet a wide range of rur­al work­ers. Par­ti­cipants work towards their John Muir Dis­cov­ery Award and deliv­er a short talk or video at the end of their exper­i­ence to teach­ers, par­ents, part­ners and peers. Most of the ses­sions are delivered in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity fund­ing any trans­port­a­tion costs or fees asso­ci­ated with adven­tur­ous activ­ity (bike / canoe hire, instruct­or daily rates). There are 13 – 15 places on each Juni­or Ranger week, depend­ing on the size of the school minibus, and most par­ti­cipants are in S2 year.

At the start of 2023 we hos­ted a devel­op­ment work­shop for teach­ers from the six schools involved in the Juni­or Ranger schools pro­gramme. Here we dis­cussed ideas and com­pared pro­grammes between schools to make the 2023 as good as it can be. It was a great oppor­tun­ity for teach­ers to net­work with oth­er schools in and around the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review Aboyne Academy Juni­or Rangers build­ing a leaky dam on Bal­mor­al Estate 5

2023 school weeks Aboyne Academy dis­cov­ery week Leader(s) Activ­ity Nation­al Trust for Scot­land Mar Deer stalk­ing and tree regen­er­a­tion Lodge Bal­mor­al Estates Ranger Ser­vice Peat­land res­tor­a­tion NatureScot Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Ranger Bio­lo­gic­al sur­vey­ing and land man­age­ment Ser­vice Glen Tanar Char­it­able Trust Ranger Vis­it­or man­age­ment, nav­ig­a­tion, bio­lo­gic­al Ser­vice sur­vey­ing, wild­fires and cyc­ling Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity John Muir Award present­a­tions Ranger Ser­vice Alford Academy dis­cov­ery week Leader(s) Activ­ity Dorenell Ranger Ser­vice Wind farm vis­it, land man­age­ment, bio­lo­gic­al sur­vey­ing Nature Scot Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Ranger Bio­lo­gic­al sur­vey­ing and land man­age­ment Ser­vice Glen Tanar Char­it­able Trust Vis­it­or man­age­ment, nav­ig­a­tion, bio­lo­gic­al Ranger Ser­vice sur­vey­ing, wild­fires and cyc­ling Bal­mor­al Estates Ranger Ser­vice Peat­land res­tor­a­tion Cairngorms Nation­al Park John Muir Award present­a­tions Author­ity Ranger Service

Alford Academy Juni­or Rangers cyc­ling on Glen Tanar Estate with Ranger Rory

Grant­own Gram­mar dis­cov­ery week Leader(s) Activ­ity Wild­land Ltd Grant­own Gram­mar School Dorenell Ranger Ser­vice Deer lar­der, estate hike and his­tory Glen­liv­et jour­ney on two wheels Wind farm vis­it Grant­own Gram­mar School River Spey des­cent on canoes

Grant­own Gram­mar Juni­or Rangers moun­tain bik­ing at Glen­liv­et Kin­gussie High School dis­cov­ery week Leader(s) Activ­ity Wild­land Ltd Out­door Act­ive Deer lar­der, ven­ison BBQ, lodge­pole pine remov­al River Spey des­cent on canoes Cairngorm Moun­tain Ranger Ser­vice Kin­gussie High School Park Author­ity Ranger Ser­vice Kin­gussie High School Cairngorm sum­mit hike and drain clear­ing Glen­liv­et jour­ney on two wheels Present­a­tion day Pit­lo­chry High School fol­low on ²²⁄₂₃ Leader(s) Activ­ity Cairngorms Nation­al Park Map / nav­ig­a­tion ses­sion Author­ity Ranger Ser­vice Cairngorms Nation­al Park Reflect­ive walk, canoe­ing on Loch Insh Author­ity Ranger Ser­vice Pit­lo­chry High School John Muir Award presentations

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Pit­lo­chry High School dis­cov­ery week ²³⁄₂₄ Leader(s) Activ­ity NTS — Kil­liecrankie Char­coal mak­ing and fence weav­ing Atholl Estates Ranger Ser­vice Hab­it­at main­ten­ance FLS Ranger Ser­vice Path main­ten­ance HPLCT Schiehal­lion drain clear­ing Pit­lo­chry High School John Muir Award present­a­tions Pit­lo­chry High School fol­low on ²³⁄₂₄ Leader(s) Activ­ity Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Map / nav­ig­a­tion ses­sion Ranger Ser­vice RZSS Intro to Cairngorms Nature Plan species

Kin­gussie High Juni­or Rangers with Wild­land Ltd Con­ser­va­tion Assist­ant Ron­an Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review Pit­lo­chry High Juni­or Rangers cre­at­ing map­ping mod­els above Brae­mar 8

Spey­side High School dis­cov­ery week Leader(s) Activ­ity Cairngorms Con­nect Dorenell Ranger Ser­vice Rothes Com­munity Trust Glen­liv­et Estate Ranger Ser­vice Spey­side High School Out­door Act­ive Dead­wood and deer lar­der work­shops Wind farm vis­it Path main­ten­ance Peat­land res­tor­a­tion, spruce regen remov­al and pond dip­ping Present­a­tion day Spey des­cent on canoes

Intergen­er­a­tion­al tree plant­ing — Juni­or Ranger with Rothes Com­munity Trust mem­ber Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review 9

Monthly pro­gramme We are delighted that the monthly pro­gramme, open to any 11 – 17 year old liv­ing in and around the Park, has con­tin­ued to grow since being reju­ven­ated in Novem­ber 2021. On Spey­side the group has grown so big that for many ses­sions we need to split it in two and the Deeside group is almost in the same position.

With the sup­port of ded­ic­ated part­ner Ranger Ser­vices and related pro­fes­sion­als a var­ied pro­gramme of ses­sions has been delivered on week­ends through­out the year. As the table on the fol­low­ing pages sets out, the ses­sions have giv­en the Juni­or Rangers oppor­tun­it­ies to devel­op their skills and know­ledge across many top­ics whilst help­ing to look after the Cairngorms.

Juni­or Rangers build­ing goldeneye boxes

2023 Pro­gramme table Month Loc­a­tion Lead­er Activ­ity Attendees Jan High­land High­land Polar Bear enclos­ure Wild­life Park Wild­life Park improve­ment and 34 (RZSS) self-guided walk Deer man­age­ment Rothiemurchus Rothiemurchus Estate Ranger and path 21 Ser­vice improve­ment Feb Bal­later Cairngorms Pub­lic engage­ment Nation­al Park ses­sion plan­ning and 17 Author­ity lit­ter pick Ranger Ser­vice Cairngorms Nav­ig­a­tion skills and Mar Glen­more Nation­al Park path improve­ment 25 Vis­it­or Centre Author­ity Ranger Ser­vice Loch Muick Bal­mor­al Estate Peat­land res­tor­a­tion 19 Ranger Ser­vice Tree main­ten­ance Glen­liv­et Estate Glen­liv­et Estate and con­struct­ing a 22 Apr Ranger Ser­vice wil­low screen Bumble­bee Bumble­bee ID and Muir of Din­net 18 Con­ser­va­tion bug hotel build­ing Trust Glen­liv­et Estate Dru­min Wood Twin­flower plant­ing 7 Ranger Ser­vice plot pre­par­a­tion and Plant­Life RSPB and River kick sampling May Forest Lodge, Bumble­bee 30 and sweep net­ting Aber­nethy Con­ser­va­tion Trust Bal­mor­al Bal­mor­al Estate Path improve­ment 19 Ranger Ser­vice Cairngorm Cairngorms Wil­low walk 4 Moun­tain Con­nect Reindeer, wood­land Forestry and Jun Glen­more activ­it­ies and 15 Land Scot­land out­door cook­ing Glen Tanar Tree nurs­ery, Glen Tanar Char­it­able Trust nav­ig­a­tion and 19 Ranger Ser­vice emer­gency situations

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2023 Pro­gramme table Month Loc­a­tion Lead­er Activ­ity Attendees Nature Scot and Bat and moth Aug Muir of Din­net 10 Aber­deen­shire night Coun­cil Cairngorms Nation­al Bad­aguish Cairngorms Con­nect Park Author­ity Juni­or Ranger 43 Forestry and Land camp Ranger Ser­vice, Sep Able2Adventure Scot­land, RSPB and Deer lar­der Forest Cairngorms Con­nect ses­sion / bat 10 Lodge walk Cairngorms Nation­al Juni­or Rangers Bal­later 19 Park Author­ity and at Thrive NatureScot Twin­flower Anagach Plant­Life plant­ing plot 3 Woods Oct pre­par­a­tion Glen­liv­et Twin­flower Plant­life 2 Estate plant­ing Nethy Cairngorms Con­nect Hill to grill Bridge 10 and RSPB event play­ing field Cam­bus River sampling River Dee Trust and tree 17 Nov O’May plant­ing High­land High­land Wild­life Enclos­ure Wild­life Park Park (RZSS) improve­ment 26 and self-guided walk Glen­liv­et Estate Sitka spruce Glen­liv­et Ranger Ser­vice and Dec remov­al and 34 Cairngorms Nation­al BBQ Park Author­ity Ranger Service

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Cairngorms Juni­or Ranger Camp In Septem­ber, 43 Juni­or Rangers spent a fant­ast­ic week­end at Bad­aguish Out­door Centre tak­ing part in var­ied activ­it­ies lead by a range of part­ners. They got hands-on learn­ing about widen­ing out­door access through adapt­ive bikes and wheel­chairs, built goldeneye nest boxes, explored the forest in a new way as part of an art pro­ject, cre­ated a wild­flower mead­ow for the Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre and improved their nav­ig­a­tion skills by orienteering.

Just as import­antly, they forged deep­er rela­tion­ships with each oth­er, developed team­work and resi­li­ence away from home and showed off their cook­ing and clean­ing skills! But what did the Juni­or Rangers think about it?

“I think I have gained more trust in dif­fer­ent people and have become more con­nec­ted to nature! (Even though I already am!)”

“I have met new people in a dif­fer­ent envir­on­ment and had the chance to be more independent.”

“I have a broad­er know­ledge of nature/​wild­life and it has also helped me appre­ci­ate the out­doors more.” Explor­ing the forest in new ways

Top: all cheer­ing togeth­er Left: cre­at­ing a wild­flower mead­ow Right: try­ing out off-road wheel­chairs Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review MEZC­AL 27.5X1 DOWN 14

EURO­PARC Juni­or Ranger Camp We are con­nec­ted to an inter­est­ing array of sim­il­ar pro­jects across Europe who are also based on the EURO­PARC mod­el of enga­ging young people in pro­tec­ted areas. Shar­ing exper­i­ences and know­ledge is a key com­pon­ent of this mod­el. So, after a hiatus due to Cov­id and a com­pet­it­ive applic­a­tion pro­cess, two excited Juni­or Rangers pre­pared a bril­liant present­a­tion and headed to north­ern Den­mark for a week of dis­cov­ery with Juni­or Rangers from 11 coun­tries across Europe.

Juni­or Rangers from around Europe with their flags EURO­PARC Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review 15

Kath­er­ine ​“Some­times it was chal­len­ging to get into a routine, but I made an effort to push myself out of my com­fort zone, and it helped that I made some spe­cial memor­ies and bonds on the camp. One even­ing I got to bring some­thing I love about Scot­tish cul­ture to our inter­na­tion­al group by shar­ing one of my favour­ite ceilidh dances, Strip the Wil­low! The even­ing felt full of laughter, joy and a shared sense of com­munity.” Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review ngorms Tilly ​“For me there were too many good things about the trip to high­light just one or two. I enjoyed all of it – from the food to the people and the dif­fer­ent his­tory and old tra­di­tions they showed us. I loved going to the point where the North Sea meets the Balt­ic Sea and dip­ping my toes in each of them. I learned a lot from oth­er Juni­or Rangers around Europe, but some­thing thing that stuck out was what I learned about the dif­fer­ent spe­cies they are pro­tect­ing across Europe, and the many dif­fer­ent ways and ideas they have designed to help and pre­serve the anim­als in their Nation­al Parks.” 16

To start from zero and now have 91 signed up Juni­or Rangers is more than we could have dreamed of and has only been pos­sible thanks to the sup­port of all the ranger ser­vices and oth­er part­ners that have delivered ses­sions. Oct-21 Dec-21 Feb-22 Apr-22 Jun-22 Aug-22 Oct-22 Dec-22 Feb-23 Apr-23 Growth and suc­cess It feels like the two years since reju­ven­at­ing the monthly Juni­or Ranger pro­gramme have flown by. The young people involved are fant­ast­ic to work with and it has 100 90 8991 80 70 60 50 been a priv­ilege to get to 40 help them devel­op. They 30 20 20 20 23 313735 38 47 46 50 53575760 687174767878788083 are a cred­it to 20 10 0 them­selves and bril­liant 0 advoc­ates for the Cairngorms. Total monthly Juni­or Rangers Jun-23 Aug-23 Oct-23 Dec-23 Rangers Pete (Park Author­ity) and Geor­gia (Bal­mor­al Estate) along with Juni­or Rangers (Finn, Leah and Innes) were ecstat­ic to receive the 2023 Scot­tish Land and Estates Help­ing it Hap­pen Edu­ca­tion Award on behalf of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Juni­or Ranger pro­ject down in Edin­burgh in Septem­ber this year. Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review 17

SCRA Juni­or Ranger Award This year we decided to encour­age the monthly par­ti­cipants to work towards the Scot­tish Coun­tryside Rangers Asso­ci­ation (SCRA) Juni­or Ranger Award. SCRA is the pro­fes­sion­al mem­ber­ship body for rangers and allied pro­fes­sion­als and exists to pro­mote and sup­port the work of rangers.

The SCRA Juni­or Ranger Award recog­nises com­mit­ment to ran­ger­ing and to achiev­ing com­pet­en­cies in a range of areas includ­ing get­ting to know and care for your area, caring for vis­it­ors, events and inter­pret­a­tion and team­work. Those who achieve the award can go on to devel­op their lead­er­ship skills by tak­ing own­er­ship of their group and activ­it­ies and ment­or­ing new­er mem­bers. At the Juni­or Ranger camp this Septem­ber we explained the Award and handed out journ­als to the Juni­or Rangers who wanted to work towards it. Since then, many of them have been dili­gently log­ging their Juni­or Ranger activ­ity after every ses­sion and track­ing their pro­gress toward com­plet­ing the Award. TOE ANN N NEV­ER EXPLOR­ING S m JUNI­OR RANGER AWARD JOURNA SCRA Juni­or Ranger Award journ­al SCRA Juni­or Ranger video com­pet­i­tion Two of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Juni­or Rangers had win­ning entries in SCRA’s video­graphy con­test in 2023. The brief was to film a video of no more than 3 minutes in length and should pro­mote the work of Juni­or Ranger groups. Win­ning entries from the Cairngorms were sub­mit­ted by Tilly and Kata, bag­ging some great prizes! For more inform­a­tion Go to cairngorms​.co​.uk/​j​u​n​i​o​r​-​r​a​ngers or email rangers@​cairngorms.​co.​uk Juni­or Ranger 2023 pro­ject review 18

Cairngorms | Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Nation­al Park | Mhon­aidh Ruaidh