Dundreggan News - August 2007

A substantial Heritage Lottery Fund grant has been approved, biodiversity surveys are underway, and a Project Planning Officer has been appointed... but we still have not completed the purchase of the estate.

 

Heritage Lottery Fund grant approved!

I'm delighted to report that in May we received approval from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a Project Planning Grant, totalling £50,000, for Dundreggan. This grant is designed to enable us to develop a comprehensive management plan for the first 5 years of work on the Estate, and an outline management plan for 25 years. These will concentrate on forest and other native habitat restoration, and conservation and restoration of key species on the estate, such as black grouse and wood ants. Included in the planning process will be a deer management plan, and plans for visitor access and volunteer involvement.

An important element of the planning process is also to prepare a further application to HLF for a larger-scale management grant that will help to fund the initial 5 years of work on the estate, to put the management plan into practice. In practical terms the Project Planning Grant is helping to fund two major elements this year - the employment of a Project Planning Officer, who will draw up the management plan, and a series of specialist biological surveys that will provide baseline data about Dundreggan and the range of species currently found there.

Biodiversity surveys underway

Jonathan Hughes, seen here with a nest of Formica lugubris on Dundreggan, is carrying out a survey of wood ants for us there this year.

Following the approval of the grant in May, these surveys are now underway and are focussing on fungi, lichens, bryophytes (ie mosses and liverworts), beetles, aquatic invertebrates and wood ants, and are being complemented by a detailed vegetation survey of the entire estate. We’re utilising the services of some of the top specialists in their respective fields in Scotland, and initial visits have been made by some of the surveyors.

For some groups of organisms, especially insects, it’s important to carry out visits throughout the late spring/summer/early autumn period, as different species are observable at different times during the season, and repeat visits are therefore required to record their presence. The month of August will see the greatest activity in terms of these specialist surveys, while the fungal survey will concentrate on the time of maximum fruiting for fungi, from August through into October.

We’re delighted to be benefiting from the expertise and commitment of local Glen Moriston resident and near neighbour of Dundreggan, Jane Bowman, as a volunteer helping with these surveys. Jane knows the land at Dundreggan very well, from many walks there over the years, and has proved herself an invaluable help on numerous occasions both last year, with the Lepidoptera survey, and again this year. She has made some important discoveries on the estate, including the first observations of some rare moths there, and has photographed many species, especially of invertebrates.

It will be later in the year before we know the outcome of all the biodiversity surveys, but the photographs on this page illustrate some of the beautiful and fascinating fauna and flora occurring there.

Project Planning Officer appointed

In early July we appointed Colin Blyth as the Project Planning Officer for Dundreggan – he will be working with us on a contractual basis for the next year, drafting the management plan for the estate and helping to prepare a further application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (and other funding bodies) for grants to fund the actual work of forest restoration etc. Colin brings a wealth of experience to the post, having worked for the Millennium Forest for Scotland Trust for many years, and has been responsible for producing a number of conservation management plans for land in the Highlands – we’re delighted to welcome him as part of our team.

Update on the purchase

Alder trees (Alnus glutinosa) in spring, beside the Red Burn on Dundreggan.

I’m disappointed to report that we have still not completed the purchase of the estate. The situation is essentially unchanged since our last newsletter, and the finalisation of our acquisition is still being held up by delays in getting some of the necessary paperwork signed in Italy, where the late owner lived. I met one of the Italian family members at Dundreggan at the end of April, when she was over to collect the last of the family possessions, and she was similarly frustrated at the lack of progress. Our solicitor is continuing to press as much as possible, and I hope that by the time of our next newsletter, we will have taken title to the estate at last. Watch this space for further news!

Alan Watson Featherstone

Pages about Dundreggan on this site

• Dundreggan home page
• Become a Friend of Dundreggan
• The Dundreggan Estate - the perfect site for forest restoration. Management plan in brief.
• £1.65 million Dundreggan deal a milestone for Scotland's Caledonian Forest
• Our purchase of Dundreggan is complete, at last - August 2008
• Dundreggan News: articles from 2006 to the present
• First impressions of Dundreggan's potential for forest restoration
• Biodiversity on Dundreggan - First impressions, August 2006
• Biodiversity on Dundreggan
• The History of the Dundreggan Estate