CROSSPLAN - Scotland

PARTICIPATORY LANDSCAPE PLANNING

April 2000 Issue 4

What Is Happening With Crossplan At The Moment?

Most of you will remember that a lot of activity took place in Upper Donside last summer and early autumn, culminating with the various workshops that were held and the visit by the people from Norway, Finland and Sweden who are involved in Crossplan in our partners areas. It probably seems like things have died, or at least hibernated since then. However, we have been working away in the background and plans should be mature enough to bring out in the spring.

Margaret Scott, who together with Steven Robertson, met quite a few of the Upper Donside residents and asked lots of questions, has analysed the wealth of information you provided and has produced a report of her work. This tells us a great deal about how the people of Strathdon feel towards their area, their landscape, their community and its future. We would like to tell you about the highlights of her research at the open meeting on May 11th at the Colquhonnie Hotel. Sadly, Margaret will be unable to be present herself. She has gone back to Liverpool to get married (congratulations Margaret) so our loss is her new husband's gain. However, her full report gives us plenty to think about, and it may hold a few surprises too.

Steven Robertson was looking at how people felt about participating in forestry, especially planning for it. He had to complete his project, which was for a Master's Degree at Aberdeen, at the end of the summer and it also contains some very interesting and thought-provoking stuff, which we plan to present in May.

We also gleaned a great deal of information in other ways. The art workshops held by Jackie Cumberbirch not only revealed what an artistic lot you are in Upper Donside, but helped to get a grasp of some of the more spiritual side of what people think and feel about the area. The school children too, expressed their views in a number of ways. Their poems and pictures give refreshingly honest views about the forests, nature and harvesting machinery Clearly the boys, in particular, were impressed by the latter.

Finally, we gained enormous amounts of information and different viewpoints from all the people who came along, some for a short time and some for the day, during the Friday and Saturday open workshops. Information about features of the area known only to older residents emerged, as well as local knowledge on wildlife, special areas and a number of potential actions that could enhance the area. All this takes a lot of digesting in order to see if a single picture is possible, a kind of vision for the landscape. We plan to present a number of draft ideas in May and we would like your views and feedback on them.

The International Visits

All the visitors who came in September had a really good time, thoroughly enjoyed the local hospitality and the landscape of Strathdon. A number of people were researchers, but several, especially the Finns, were not. Some represented the local authority at Siikajoki and one lady owned a bed and breakfast. She really found it interesting to see and stay at one of the local establishments: Elizabeth Ogg's, to compare it with home. They all also spent quite a bit of money here - not quite all on whisky, but nearly so!

The visitors found it extremely helpful to find out more about the way the land is owned and managed in Strathdon, because this is very different from Scandinavia. The felt that their forestry planning was both simpler and more difficult than ours! Simpler because the local people are also the owners, for example, the farmers become foresters and harvest their trees in the winter in Norway and Finland, but the ownership pattern is small-scale and complicated so that getting everyone to work together is necessary. More difficult when compared to the larger, more self-contained estates in Strathdon.

The partnering of Strathdon with Siikjoki took a positive turn in January with the visit of a teacher and several school children. This was also a successful visit and may start a trend, who knows.

To follow up the visit to Strathdon there is a visit to Norway this September. We would like to invite one member of the local community to come with the Crossplan coordinator, Simon Bell, and the local woodland officer Steve Brown to Norway (Judy Aylett came to Finland with us in March last year). The travel costs will be borne by the project. We have yet to choose that person - if anybody is interested, please get in touch with Steve at the FC office at Huntly.

Forestry Research

At the same time that we have been gathering information about how people feel about forestry in the area, and what they would like to see, researchers Chris Quine and Jonathan Humphrey from the Forestry Commission Research Agency have been working on the potential for forestry expression in the area. This uses a newly developed technique called Ecosystem Site Classification. Taking climate, soil and other information for the whole glen, this system is able to predict what the "natural forest" extent could be and what kind of forest could grow where. It can also suggest where forest management by selective felling could be possible. By adding information about important habitats, these can be incorporated too. The computer model can show a kind of speeded up forestry expansion, like a time lapse film.

We plan to demonstrate this and give all the landowners in the strath copies of the maps that are produced by the system so that they can use them for their own planning if they want to.

The next step is to merge the visions that people have with what is ecologically possible, to produce several possible future Strathdon landscapes.

As hinted above, we would like to present this material at Strathdon during May, once the work has been completed. We would like you to have a chance to comment on the findings and the proposed visions that emerged so that we can incorporate them into the final documents.

Who Can Be Involved?

Anyone and everyone interested in the community! Do you have a particular area of the countryside that you are interested in?

Contact Details

Local Contact: Judith Aylett Heughhead Strathdon AB36 8XY, Tel 019756 51329. e-mail judyaylett@aol.com.

Find out about Donside Internet site at www.upperdonside.org.uk

Forestry Commission: www.forestry.gov.uk

Cairngorms Partnership: www.cairngorms.co.uk

Crossplan Sponsors Include:

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June 1999 issue

September 1999 issue

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