Hi everyone! My name is Paul Gunn and I am one of the new ‘Natural Communities’ trainees, based with Buglife in the Stirling office. I’ll tell you a little bit about what I am going to be doing over the course of my trainee year.
There are two main projects that I will be involved in this year, ‘All Our Stories’ (Fallin Bing, Stirling) and ‘Glasgow Buzzing’ (several parks around Glasgow) hence my rather ridiculous title for this blog.
The first is an oral history project which will take place at Fallin Bing, Stirling. The aim of this project is to bring together the older and younger members of the Fallin community to tell the story of the Bing over the years, and hopefully, (through onsite practical conservation work and walk/talks) we can establish a stronger link between the older and younger generations in Fallin whilst enhancing this local brownfield site for the better. In addition to this we are hoping to film this experience with a view to creating a short video that will chronical the stories and work that will come out of the project.
The second is a project which is centred round converting areas of Glasgow’s parks from manicured grass plains to vibrant wildflower meadows in order to help aid those all important pollinating invertebrates. This project is now into its 3rd year and some meadows have already been established within some of the cities best known parks. Those that will benefit, ‘and are already benefiting’, from this fantastic project are:-
• Glasgow Green
• Kelvingrove Park
• Hogganfield Park
• Linn Park
• Cranhill Park
• Trinley Brae
• Bellahouston Park
• Pollok Country Park
• Victoria Park
• Tollcross Park
There has been a noticeable difference in the number of pollinator species within the year one parks already. Glasgow Green was observed as having a pitiful ‘1’ Species of pollinating insect through the first years survey. But in year two after the meadow had been established there were a total of ‘13’ species. Cranhill Park and Linn Park also showed pollinator increases from years one to two. This just goes to show you the difference ‘a little bit of wild’ can make in an urban environment.
My main duty in this role, is to engage as much of the wider community as possible through guided walks, events, project work etc. in order to improve the ecological health and awareness within the Glasgow and Stirling areas. It all seems very promising so I will keep the updates coming and you can witness the year of a Natural Communities Trainee unfold ‘before your very eyes’!
(funded by Heritage Lottery Fund)