CONSERVATION MANAGER’S NOTES.

We are now in the final year of the Heritage Lottery Funded Reserves Project and the next few months will see the remainder of the planned reserve work carried out. This will include up to date interpretation panels for some reserves, work on the path and spillway at Cullaloe and extra fencing at Kilminning to allow us to graze the northern compartment by next year. This year we will be taking a hay crop from the southern section at Kilminning, closest to the car park, to help the sheep graze the site more effectively in autumn and to provide us with a bit of extra winter feed if needed. At the reserve committee meeting we found a good show of northern marsh orchids in the southern section, which was great to see.

I’m afraid the weekend work days have now been stopped as attendance numbers were too low. Thank you to everyone who has been out and I hope to arrange some practical workdays again in the future, so keep an eye on the list of events in future editions of FAWN. If you are interested in helping out on your local reserve, then please get in touch with either myself or the Members Centre and we can put you in touch with your local reserve Convener.

I took a turn on the Royal Highland Show stand this year where we were highlighting the negative impacts of some invasive non-native species on our native wildlife. Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam and Giant Hogweed are well known and highly visible invasive plants but we also included mink, which have contributed to the widespread decline of the water vole, the grey squirrel and water plants such as water hyacinth and New Zealand pygmy weed which can choke out native species. I found out that as well as the usual suspects, there’s a list of over 70 non-native species that are established in the wild and the Scottish Executive is taking steps to reduce the impact on the countryside by banning the sale of some species. The stand did well and the weather was kind so we hopefully helped raise awareness about careful composting or disposal of garden waste and the wider benefit to wildlife of buying and growing more native species, which are more widely available than ever. SWT sells native wildflowers from the Jupiter Nursery in Grangemouth - call Nancy MacIntyre, the Nursery Manager on 07739 428203.

Steve Blow