The Nature of Scotland

NEWS
Wards Estate
in good hands
It’s not every day that one of the country’s most
important nature sites comes on the market, but
that’s what happened in Autumn 2011 when
Wards Estate at Loch Lomond was officially put
up for sale.
The rare opportunity saw the beginning of
an exciting new partnership between RSPB
Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Loch
Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority.
The trio, with financial support from the
Heritage Lottery Fund and generous donations
from RSPB supporters, successfully purchased
the site in April 2012.
It is the first time a non-government
wildlife charity, a national park and a statutory
conservation body have joined forces in this way
to acquire and look after a key site for biodiversity
and people in Scotland.
And what a site it is: situated close to
Gartocharn at the south-east shore of Loch
Lomond, the estate is home to a rich variety of
wildlife that inhabits the woodlands, mires, fens,
grasslands and floodplain of the River Endrick.
Species including Greenland white-fronted
geese, osprey and whooper swans, otters,
Atlantic salmon and river lamprey are all present.
In fact, the Loch Lomond NNR, of which the site
is a large part, supports 400 species of vascular
plant, which is about a quarter of all the species
that have been found in Britain. RSPB Scotland
wants to protect what is there, find what hasn’t
already been discovered and allow existing and
new visitors more opportunities to experience the
landscape and wildlife.
In order to do this, RSPB Scotland and
the partners will work closely with the local
community, gathering information about the
site and monitoring the wildlife, with the view of
introducing official visitor facilities in the coming
years. In the meantime, if you want to visit the
reserve there is a path from the Millennium Hall in
Gartocharn, which will give a flavour of the site’s
potential.
‘Talking About Our Place’
A new web guide, ‘Talking About Our Place’, has
been launched by Scottish Natural Heritage.
‘Talking About Our Place’ provides an online
resource for communities, and the organisations
working with them, interested in their local
landscape. Whether you want to celebrate what
is special, tackle an eyesore, promote the area to
visitors and residents, or just think about how your
surroundings could change, this guide will help.
Ultimately the guide will enable communities
to be more confident about their landscape,
and progress from ‘Talking About Our Place’ to
influencing change.
The key aims of the toolkit are to assist
communities to:
– think about their place and identify the
benefits they derive from their local
landscape (what are called ‘ecosystem
services’);
– understand the effect of landscape
change on these benefits;
– better input to decisions affecting
landscape change, particularly by local
authorities and other agencies considering
land use and planning decisions; and
– organise their priorities in enhancing
the place they live in, including advice
on accessing support for future actions.
The online guide will assist organisers in
setting up their project and identify who can help,
and suggests a range of activities that will help a
community discuss what is important about their
locality and the benefits their landscape provides.
It can also help communities and their partners
identify actions that they can take to improve their
place.
This approach supports the European
Landscape Convention’s approach of
encouraging wider community involvement in
decisions affecting tomorrow’s landscapes.
If you have any questions about the toolkit
or may be interested in using it, please contact
elli.carlisle@snh.gov.uk or visit www.snh.gov.
uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/looking-afterlandscapes/communities/talking-about-ourplace
20 The Nature of Scotland