WARNING - By their nature, text files cannot include scanned images and tables. The process of converting documents to text only, can cause formatting changes and misinterpretation of the contents can sometimes result. Wherever possible you should refer to the pdf version of this document. FRONT PAGE Parklife Image: Loch Kinord © Anke Addy Issue number 11Summer 2008 the newsletter of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Image: Cairngorms National Park brand logo Visit the new 'virtual' Park-wide web portal - find out more inside! Page two Image: Shepherd gathering sheep on hillside SRDP - find out what the new funding structure could mean for you. Page four Image: Golden Eagle chick Meet alma the 'online' Golden Eagle'. Page seven Climate Change in the Park parklife Community groups, businesses and public bodies - everyone in the Cairngorms National Park is committed to helping tackle climate change. The effects of climate change pose a threat to us all, particularly in an area as important as the Park, not only because of its special qualities but also for the impact it will have on those who live, work and visit here. Work is ongoing to help adapt to, and mitigate against, climate change. Much of it comes from the Park Plan, a document which sets out how to manage the Park’s short and long-term future. The work involves everyone in the Park and it is important we all work together to achieve the vision of a ‘sustainable Park’ that is conserved, enhanced and can be enjoyed by all for years to come. Image: River Spey in flood © Cairngorms Landscapes As well as projects, climate change training courses have been running throughout the year which aim to help people live more sustainably. Due to demand, more courses are planned for the remainder of 2008, including micro-hydro schemes, wood fuel and how to retro-fit your home. For more details please contact Kate Christie or Sam Masson: on 01479 870535/537. You can keep up to date with these projects through Parklife. Every edition will feature a ‘Green Page’ which will highlight some of the sustainability projects going on in the Park and how you can get involved. You can turn to page three for this edition’s green news. Image: Cairngorms National Park Authority logo w w w . c a i r n g o r m s . c o . u k PAGE TWO Parklife Cairngorms Connections FREE online course Do you run a tourism business? Taking on seasonal staff from outwith the area? Cairngorms Connections is a free online training course that introduces the wildlife, heritage, activities and attractions of the Cairngorms National Park. Image: Visitors hiring bicycles in Ballater © CNPA/Stewart Grant If you would like to find out more or to sign up for the course, please contact Tourist Board Training: 01294 313006 or email: tbt@tbt.visitscotland.com Discovering the Cairngorms National Park - virtually The Cairngorms National Park has a new string to its ‘virtual bow’ in the form of a Park- wide web portal www.visitcairngorms.com The CNPA has been working with organisations such as the Cairngorms Chamber of Commerce, the Destination Management Organisations and VisitScotland to solve the problem of having lots of information about the Park in different places. This site will offer a seamless journey through the Park and will link into partner sites, many of which offer booking facilities, events information and business listings. Visitors to the site can share their experiences and photos of their time in the Park through a feedback form where they can tell their own special story. All of this will help to build confidence in the area, enhance the visitor experience and encourage people to visit. The Park-wide web portal will not replace the official web base of the Cairngorms National Park Authority - www.cairngorms.co.uk - it will continue to keep you up to date with what the CNPA is up to. Image: Cairngorms National Park brand logo Paths for the Park Thanks to everyone who got involved in the Core Paths Planning process. We are now finalising the proposed Core Paths Network and hopefully the plan will be adopted soon. For more information see our website: www.cairngorms.co.uk/access/corepaths National Parks Week 2008 Image: National Parks Week 28 July - 3 August 2008 Celebrating local produce is the theme of the fifth annual National Parks Week, which takes place Monday 28 July to Sunday 3 August 2008. National Parks Week aims to raise awareness of national parks and celebrate their beauty, diversity and the opportunities they offer everyone to enjoy their special qualities. As always a number of exciting events are planned to highlight the best of local produce from food and drink to crafts. Keep an eye out in the local press for more information on what’s happening. PAGE THREE Waste is everyone’s business. The Cairngorms National Park Plan aims to minimise waste and promote it as a resource which communities and businesses can reuse or recycle. Plastics and food waste can be particularly hard to dispose of in an environmentally friendly way. Along with the Community Recycling Network for Scotland, the CNPA hosts a quarterly recycling forum to try and resolve these issues. To get involved please contact John Thorne: 01479 870520 or email: johnthorne@cairngorms.co.uk Image: Waste collection in the Park Community schemes are a great way to tackle waste locally. A new Scottish Government funding programme ‘INCREASE’ offers 100% funding for equipment and start up costs for community waste action. There is scope for local organisations, communities and businesses to get involved in recycling all sorts of materials. More information on www.crns.org.uk/increase Lack of love life means trouble for the Twinflower An innovative project is underway to help the survival of twinflower (Linnaea borealis) in the Park. It is one of our most charismatic flowers but is declining nationally. Image: Twinflower © David Gowans The Cairngorms National Park is one of the most important areas in the UK for twinflower, but due to distance between patches, many are unable to reproduce and rely on making clones of themselves to survive. When the distance between patches is too great, pollinating insects can’t effectively move between the patches, resulting in plants with very little genetic diversity. This reduces the potential for spread and adaptation to changing environmental conditions, such as those brought on by climate change, making them more vulnerable to extinction. Recent research - undertaken by Aberdeen University in collaboration with Plantlife - indicates immediate action is needed and that restoration of seed set can be increased by artificial cross pollination. The project is now looking to develop management options with site managers to help improve genetic variation and secure the long- term survival of the twinflower. For more information contact Justin Prigmore: 01479 870528 or email: justinprigmore@cairngorms.co.uk You can help! The Dragonfly Atlas Project Volunteers are needed for an atlas with a difference - one which will chart the distribution of dragonflies and damselflies. The Cairngorms National Park is a stronghold for several of these rare species, including the northern damselfly but climate change is contributing to increasingly earlier spring emergence and a change in their distribution. Image: White-faced Darter ©David Gowans The National Dragonfly Atlas Project, which is being carried out by the British Dragonfly Society, will record information on the distribution of the species over the next five years. It will also help to assess the impact of climate change and other environmental impacts on dragonflies. To succeed in this project good national coverage is needed - especially in the Cairngorms where many species are under-recorded. To get involved in the Park survey, contact Stephen Corcoran: 01479 870528 or email: stephencorcoran@cairngorms.co.uk Further information on local or national events and for general information about dragonflies is available on the website: www.dragonflysoc.org.uk the green page PAGE FOUR Parklife SRDP in the Cairngorms National Park... ...a significant shift in the delivery of funding support Image: Hill shepherd ©Neil McIntyre The £1.6 billion Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) for 2007-2013 provides the framework to deliver European and Scottish Government funding promoting social, economic and environmental benefits across rural Scotland. This presents a significant shift in the delivery of funding support, particularly for land managers, with the emphasis now being placed on a wider range of potential applicants and on buying a range of benefits for the people of Scotland. Funding will be delivered through a range of schemes and two of these, Rural Development Contracts - Rural Priorities and the LEADER initiative, provide new opportunities for land managers as well as other rural businesses and communities. Applications for these will be assessed on how well they meet national and regional priorities. For more information about all the funding schemes within SRDP and how to apply, go to the Scottish Government’s website: www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Rural/SRDP CNPA what’s our role? SRDP will be crucial in helping to deliver many of the actions contained within the Cairngorms National Park Plan - a key document setting out both the short term and long term vision for the Park. The Park Authority aims to help land managers, rural businesses and communities in the Park make the most of SRDP right from the start. Image: Timber works in the Angus Glens © David Gowans In partnership with others, the CNPA’s role is to promote understanding of what’s on offer and encourage and help identify and develop high quality applications for projects that help to meet the aims of the Park and contribute towards the National Park Plan. Two land management support officers have joined the CNPA to offer support to help land managers get the best from the programme and deliver benefits for the people and the environment in the National Park. PAGE FIVE Image: Harvest time in the Park © Karen Archer Rural Development Contracts The new SRDP is different to previous programmes and land managers, rural businesses and communities will be asked to deliver benefits - for example habitat networks or improved outdoor access - to qualify for funding support. SRDP encourages land managers and others to come together to deliver benefits on a landscape scale, particularly through Rural Development Contracts -Rural Priorities, and the CNPA land management support team, along with the two community development officers based in Badenoch and Strathspey, will help land managers and communities develop their initiatives. For more information contact Fiona Chalmers: fionachalmers@cairngorms.co.uk Image: Tree planting © CNPA Image: Woodland and farmland in Strathspey © Karen Archer LEADER and Cairngorms Local Action Group Community groups, small business co-operatives, voluntary organisations, land based businesses and other constituted groups can apply to the SRDP’s LEADER fund. In the Cairngorms National Park this equates to at least £920,000 for 2008-2013 across the Park.Aimed at promoting economic and community development in rural areas under the themes of ‘Revitalising Communities’ and ‘Progressive Rural Economies’, funding is being targeted at community driven enterprises that are innovative in nature, will enhance the local area and aid economic development. All LEADER funding decisions are made locally by the Cairngorms Local Action Group. Applications are now invited and full information can be found at www.cairngorms-leader.org SRDP Key Outcomes - • business viability and competitiveness • environmental improvements including water, climate change, biodiversity and landscape • thriving rural communities PAGE SIX parklife Protecting wild places Image: Water of Tanar © Anke Addy The mountains of the Cairngorms National Park are unquestionably wild. They can be hostile at any time of the year and challenge even the world’s finest climbers. But is wild land only limited to the mountains? Even the most remote and rugged places in the Park have not escaped some form of human influence and conversely for some people, wild land might simply be an area of woodland on their doorstep. So where is this wild land? The CNPA and Scottish Natural Heritage have jointly commissioned two important pieces of work to inform the future protection of the wild places in the Cairngorms National Park. Firstly, we have surveyed people’s views from across Scotland and found an overwhelming support for the protection of wild land. Secondly, we are drawing up maps to depict four key things that contribute to a sense of wildness: • remoteness • ruggedness • naturalness • absence of modern structures Image: Hill path to Coire an Lochain © Will Boyd Wallis The maps will be extremely useful for highlighting the degree to which any location in the Park is particularly sensitive to development and for identifying opportunities for enhancing the wild land qualities. Voluntary and community input into the protection of wild places is extremely important. Volunteers from the North East Mountain Trust have played a key role in contributing to the mapping process and the John Muir Award continues to engage people of all ages in discovering, exploring and protecting the wild places of the Park in a spirit of fun and adventure. An eagle eye view of the Cairngorms National Park - online! A project aimed at learning more about how young golden eagles use the Cairngorms National Park is underway. Last summer an eagle chick was fitted with a transmitter while in its nest in Glenfeshie and since then its behaviour has been monitored by experts. However, anyone can track Alma the Eagle’s adventures online! This project involves the Highland Foundation for Wildlife, the CNPA, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Glenfeshie Estate and it’s the first time in Scotland that a golden eagle has been tracked using satellite technology. The sophisticated system provides data on the bird’s location, flight direction, speed and altitude. Since last summer Alma has roamed far and wide, covering virtually every corner of the Cairngorms National Park and beyond. On one day, it took Alma an hour to fly from Glen Tilt in Perthshire to Glen Derry in Deeside. An hour later she had flown all the way back to Perthshire! PAGE SEVEN Communities taking the lead Communities around the Park are to benefit from a project that aims to build on the best of their areas. The ‘Our Community…A Way Forward’ project was trialled in Grantown-on-Spey, Dulnain Bridge, Cromdale and Advie. Consultants, Housing Plus, along with community councils, other community-based groups and public and voluntary sector partners questioned local residents about what they liked best in their area and what could be improved. Priorities were drawn up for each area with a commitment from the partners to support the communities in achieving them. Projects include installing new windows in Advie Village Hall, upgrading Dulaig Park in Grantown, dealing with the problems of speeding in Dulnain Bridge and Cromdale. There will also be long-term projects, such as addressing local housing needs, and a new community hall and youth facility in Grantown. Image: Litter clean up in Anagach Woods, Grantown-on-Spey © CNPA/Stewart Grant Claire Ross, the CNPA’s Education and Inclusion Manager said: “Another strand of this project involved the development of a community ‘tool kit’ that can be used by any community in the Park to help them carry out their own action planning. It is so important that communities are given the resources they need to take the lead themselves on the projects that matter to them.” Image: Alma the eagle © Roy Dennis Researchers are learning about juvenile eagle behaviour and habitat use and more information will be gleaned when a transmitter is fitted to another young eagle this summer. It is hoped that the project will grow to become an education tool for local school children and residents. on the Highland Foundation for Wildlife’s website: www.roydennis.org/golden%20eagle.htm Image: David Green © CNPA/Stewart Grant The Green outlook David Green, Convener of the Cairngorms National Park Authority You’ll all be aware by now of the Scottish Government’s intention to extend the southern boundary of the Cairngorms National Park to include Highland Perthshire. The Environment Minister made the announcement back in March as part of a wider debate in Parliament on Scottish national parks. The Scottish Government has said that it accepts that the case for changing the boundary - in this particular area anyway - has already been made as a result of the previous debate generated by a private member’s bill introduced by John Swinney, MSP for North Tayside. Scottish Natural Heritage is now preparing a report which will go before Ministers later in the year and the statutory process should be completed by early 2009. Since its establishment in 2003, the Cairngorms National Park has been the largest national park in the UK. This new-look, bigger Cairngorms National Park will cover an area totalling 4,300 sq km - an increase from 3,800 sq km. This of course presents an increased responsibility for the CNPA. Compared to other park authorities (let alone European countries) we have a relatively modest budget and staff complement. However, I have every faith that our staff and board are very much up to the challenge of looking after the UK’s biggest Park covering approximately 6% of Scotland. PAGE EIGHT Parklife Board Members There have been some changes to the board of the CNPA in recent months with some members departing and new faces coming on board! You can find more information about them on the Park Authority website: www.cairngorms.co.uk Nominated Members David Green (Board Convener and Planning Committee Deputy Convener) Eric Baird (Board Deputy Convener) Duncan Bryden (Planning Committee Convener) Nonie Coulthard Lucy Grant Bob Kinnaird Anne MacLean Alistair MacLennan Sue Walker Ross Watson Local Authority Members Cllr Ian Mackintosh (Angus) Cllr Fiona Murdoch (Moray) Cllr Stuart Black (Highland) Cllr Jaci Douglas (Highland) Cllr David Fallows (Highland) Cllr Drew Hendry (Highland) Cllr Sandy Park (Highland) Cllr Marcus Humphrey (Aberdeenshire) Cllr Bruce Luffman (Aberdeenshire) Cllr Richard Stroud (Aberdeenshire) Directly Elected Members Geva Blackett Eleanor Mackintosh Mary McCafferty Willie McKenna Andrew Rafferty Image: Black Water Vole © CNPA Did you know? • The water vole is the largest British vole and is Britain’s fastest declining mammal species. • Water voles in the Highlands are usually black, unlike those in the lowlands that are normally brown, and have a blunt nose and furred tail. • There is plenty of suitable habitat in the Cairngorms National Park for water voles - the biggest threat is predation by non native American mink. • A Cairngorms Water Vole Conservation Project is under way working with land managers and volunteers to safeguard the important Cairngorms population. For more information about water voles visit the project web site: www.watervolescotland.org What’s on? Cairngorms National Park Authority Meetings 2008 June 13 Planning committee, Glenmore Lodge June 27 Planning committee, Nethy Bridge July 10 Open evening with CNPA board and staff, Braemar July 11 Planning committee and board meeting, Braemar July 25 Planning committee, Ballater August 8 Finance committee and planning committee, Ballater August 21 Audit committee, Ballater August 22 Planning committee, Boat of Garten September 4 Open evening with CNPA board and staff, TBC September 5 Planning committee and board meeting, TBC September 19 Planning committee, Ballater September 27 Outdoor Access event, Braemar (10am - 4pm) October 3 Planning committee, Lecht Ski Centre October 17 Planning committee, Nethy Bridge October 30 Open evening with CNPA board and staff, TBC October 31 Finance committee and planning committee, TBC Please check local press or the CNPA website for further details of dates, times and venues. www.cairngorms.co.uk/park authority Don’t forget that Parklife is available in a variety of formats You can read the newsletter on our website, www.cairngorms.co.uk, or we can provide copies of all the articles in large print. It’s also available on audio cassette. We’re always pleased to receive feedback, comments and suggestions. Please contact us at: Communications Team, Cairngorms National Park Authority, 14 The Square, Grantown-on-Spey, Moray PH26 3HG. Tel: 01479 873535. Email: enquiries@cairngorms.co.uk Image: Cairngorms National Park Authority logo Published by Cairngorms National Park Authority and produced by in2designandpublishing.com Printed on Antalis Novatech PEFC certified managed forest wood content only.