Paper 2 Developing a Visitor and Access Plan for RSPB Abernethy

Paper to the Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access For­um for 10 Novem­ber 2021 Title: Devel­op­ing a vis­it­or & access plan 2022 – 2027 for RSPB Aber­nethy Pre­pared by: Uwe Stone­man, RSPB Seni­or Site Man­ager Presen­ted by: Uwe Stone­man and Sandy McCook on behalf of the Vis­it­or & Access Group Purpose:

1. To seek advice and guid­ance on a. The attached DRAFT Vis­it­or & Access Plan developed jointly by the RSPB and mem­bers of the loc­al com­munity b. What oth­er rel­ev­ant com­munit­ies of interest we could con­sult to make this a stronger document
2. To ask for com­ments and feed­back on the com­munity engage­ment approach behind the devel­op­ment of this plan, and sug­ges­tions how this approach could be fur­ther developed in line with Scot­tish Land Com­mis­sion guidelines. Back­ground and con­text for the draft plan: The RSPB has wel­comed vis­it­ors at Loch Garten and Aber­nethy since 1959 when it took a bold and at the time ground-break­ing decision: to pro­tect one of the very first nest­ing pairs of ospreys after a long peri­od of absence from the UK and invite the pub­lic to come and view them. Since then, well over one mil­lion people have vis­ited Loch Garten and its world-fam­ous ospreys. The last three dec­ades have seen a gradu­al decline in vis­it­ors to the centre at Loch Garten, while at the same time there has been an increase in vis­it­ors to oth­er parts of the RSPB reserve and a shift towards new types of vis­it­ors who want to explore the area inde­pend­ently. By 2018, there were around 100,000 vis­its to Aber­nethy Forest. 25,000 of these were to the Centre at Loch Garten, anoth­er 25,000 were to the trails around Loch Garten and Loch Mal­lach­ie, and the remain­ing 50,000 were vis­its to oth­er parts of the forest and up to Ryvoan and Byn­ack. We don’t cur­rently have people on the high­er ground, i.e. in the area around Loch Avon, Ben Mac­dui and Cairngorm but anec­dot­al evid­ence sug­gests that this area is also get­ting busier. The RSPB runs Aber­nethy as a nature reserve, safe­guards the Primacy of Nature, act­ively man­ages the area for con­ser­va­tion and has a leg­al respons­ib­il­ity for des­ig­nated fea­tures, pro­tec­ted hab­it­ats and spe­cies. The RSPB wel­comes vis­it­ors and is fully com­mit­ted to SOAC, Core Paths and Rights of Way. At Aber­nethy, the RSPB main­tains around 50 kilo­metres of tracks, four bridges and three car parks: at Loch Garten, Loch Mal­lach­ie and Garten Woods. Most of the Spey­side Way sec­tion between Nethy Bridge and Boat of Garten runs through the RSPB reserve and so do some routes of the ​‘Explore Aber­nethy’ path net­work. There are two MBA both­ies on the reserve: Fords of Avon and Ryvoan. The RSPB provides free fire­wood at the lat­ter. There are wel­come signs and inform­a­tion boards at entry points to the reserve, inform­a­tion about fire safety and fire beat­er sta­tions. The RSPB offers events and guided walks, and each year wel­comes bird­watch­ing tours, organ­ised vis­its, edu­ca­tion and school vis­its, Duke of Edin­burgh Award groups and organ­ised events such as the ​‘Cairngorms 100’ eques­tri­an event (bian­nu­al) and the ​‘Aber­nethy High­land Games Forest Road Race’.

The RSPB works with the CNPA on fire safety, reg­u­larly updat­ing fire-danger signs, and on con­ser­va­tion meas­ures to pro­tect ground-nest­ing birds, main­tain­ing signs to ask people to keep dogs on leads in key areas from April to August. This year (2021) RSPB, FLS and Rothiemurchus Estate have been involved in a pro­ject fun­ded by the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, aimed at bet­ter under­stand­ing vis­it­or and their needs and how we can provide a high-qual­ity vis­it­or exper­i­ence and pro­tect caper­cail­lie. In 2021, the RSPB and Nethy Bridge & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil star­ted the ​‘60-Year Vis­ion’ ini­ti­at­ive to devel­op stronger com­munity engage­ment, using the Scot­tish Land Commission’s guid­ance as a frame­work. As part of this ini­ti­at­ive the RSPB and the Com­munity Coun­cil invited volun­teers to join a group to devel­op a Vis­it­or & Access Plan for Aber­nethy. A call for volun­teers was pos­ted on loc­al social media sites and (because of Cov­id restric­tions) the first 12 people who respon­ded were selec­ted to form the group. The group does now have 15 act­ive com­munity mem­bers and has met face-to-face four times. This DRAFT Vis­it­or & Access Plan was developed jointly by the group, and at this point we would like to ask the Cairngorms LOAF for guid­ance and advice. We are also invit­ing com­ments from the wider com­munit­ies of Nethy Bridge and Boat of Garten at con­sulta­tion events in Novem­ber and prob­ably early Decem­ber. We would also like to hear the Cairngorms LOAF’s view on the com­munity engage­ment approach we have taken so far and which com­munit­ies of interest we could con­sult to make this a stronger doc­u­ment. We intend to put this 5‑year plan into action start­ing 1 April 2022, along­side the new 5‑year man­age­ment plan for the RSPB’s Aber­nethy nature reserve (cur­rently being writ­ten). Draft plan — attached Uwe Stone­man, 29 Octo­ber 2021