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The Next Steps Event

Posted by admin on March 23, 2010 · 1 Comment 

NextSteps1Over 90 members of the community turned out to the Next Steps event at Rothesay Joint Campus on Sunday. The event was organised by BCLC to keep the community informed as we journey towards the purchase of the forest and beyond. With 2 guest speakers, various display boards with information about the forest and representatives from Towards Zero Carbon Bute , we hope that we were able to provide enough information to satisfy the curiosity of the attendees.
Paul Cookson from the Community Woodlands Association was very excited about the possibilities that Rhubodach Forest provides for Bute. The CWA exists to assist the owners of community woodlands who wish to create sustainable projects, educational activities and employment opportunities through modern, active forest management.  Needless to say BCLC have already become members of the CWA and we’ll be calling on them throughout the process.
Our second speaker Suzann Barr introduced us to Abriachan Forest Trust and the journey they have undertaken since purchasing it in 1998. Abriachan have achieved an immense amount with their forest – we can too. Visit their website to see more of Abriachan

NextSteps8
The final 2 speakers were BCLC Director Andy Walters who explained about the importance of the feedback from the Community Consultation day in January and how it was fed back into the feasibility study, and BCLC chairman John McGhee, who outlined the brief  history of  BCLC and it’s legal framework. He went on to explain how BCLC will take this project forward, including the announcement that we are opening a shop in Rothesay to use as our point of contact with the community.
After the presentations the public were invited for refreshments  (lovely home made cakes!) and to browse the displays which  BCLC had compiled with information about the forest and ideas for projects within the forest.
 

The Electric Van
electric vanOne of our ideas for the forest project is that we keep the car parking space at the visitor centre/forest hub to a minimum to encourage visitors to leave their cars at home or at their B & B. This will reduce the developmental impact on the woodland as well. Our solution to reduced car parking is to introduce an Eco Bus link between Rothesay and the forest, so we invited a transport consultant, Richard Armitage (http://www.ratransport.co.uk/) to our event and he brought along an amazingly quiet ‘Ford Transit’ sized Peugeot fully electic van.

Now I always associate electric vehicles with tiny odd looking vehicles or expensive sporty coupes. This is a full size work van (minibuses are available too) with a 100 mile range, top speed of about 65mph and a battery charging time of about 6-8hrs. It was amazingly quiet and shows just how far battery technology has come in the last few years. Take a look at the website of the vans suppliers

 

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Bute Forest – The Next Steps

Posted by admin on March 7, 2010 · Leave a Comment 

Sunday 21st March
Rothesay Joint Campus
An Open Day
2.30pm
We had a couple of very interesting guest
speakers from :
The Community Woodlands AssociationEstablished in 2003 as the direct representative body of Scotland’s community woodland groups. We help community woodland groups across the country achieve their aspirations and potential, providing advice, assistance and information, facilitating networking and training, and representing and promoting community woodlands to the wider world.
Read more about community woodlands and the background to CWA

And:
Abriachan Forest Trust

Abriachan is a scattered rural community of about 140 people set high above the shores of Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. There are still some active crofts but the majority of inhabitants are employed in Inverness and beyond. The local school closed in 1952 so Abriachan’s children now attend Dochgarroch Primary and Charleston Academy.

In 1998 the community purchased 534 hectares of forest and open hill ground from Forest Enterprise. Since then, as a social enterprise, the Abriachan Forest Trust has managed this land to create local employment, improve the environment and encourage it’s enjoyment by the public through a network of spectacular paths, family suited mountain bike trails and innovative education opportunities.
Visit the Abriachan Website

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