Sleat Community Trust

Garden Sharing and Community Growing

Looking ahead to a new growing season and hopefully a world that is closer to normality, the Environmental Advisory Group has been considering how our community might contribute to the fast emerging trend towards increasing local food production in response to developing a more sustainable and environmentally friendly world. In our midst’s we have a wealth of food growing experience on one hand and people who are enthusiastic and keen to learn on the other so with this in mind we are proposing two ideas:

Garden Sharing – this is where people who have suitable gardens would like to team up with others to grow fruit and veg for mutual benefit. This idea could also potentially help with social inclusion for those who live alone and may not be able to go out much.
Community Growing – this idea involves a group of volunteer enthusiasts coming together to grow food for the benefit of the wider community on land made freely available for this purpose.

At present we want to gauge the level of interest for these ideas within the community so if you:

Have a garden you would like to share to grow fruit and/or veg;
Would like to volunteer to help grow fruit and veg in other peoples’ gardens for shared benefit;
Would like to volunteer for the Community Growing initiative;
Make land available for the Community Growing initiative or know of land that might be used for this purpose;

then please send an email to environment@sleat.org.uk indicating which of the above is of interest to you.

Did you know…?

West Highland College often runs short courses for people interested in producing their own food. These courses are very popular so it is important to register for them as soon as they become available. The links below are for courses in February but the College is hoping to offer them in March and similar courses are likely to run in the Spring and Summer too so keep an eye out!

Growing your own Vegetables and Salad

Introduction to Poly-tunnel and Greenhouse growing in the Scottish Highlands and West Coast

Environment Advisory Group

The Environment Advisory Group is a volunteer group which meets bi-monthly in order to:

advise SCT on environmental impacts of the Trust's activities
promote environmental awareness in the local community
organise environmental events

The group also encompasses around 30 people in the local community who regularly attend the organised events. The chair of the Environment Advisory Group is a trustee of SCT and sits on the board.

AIMS OF THE GROUP:

1. WORKING TO RETAIN AND ENHANCE LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

Annual beach cleans, often in conjunction with other local organisations e.g. assisting Bun Sgoil Shlèite
Beaches cleaned: Camus Daraich, Point of Sleat, Knock Bay (with Skye Ranger Service), Armadale and Ardvasar bays, Tràigh Ostaig and more

2. PROVIDING ENVIRONMENTAL INPUT TO SCT PROJECTS

Regular liaison with Tormore Community Forest management over input of wildlife management advice.

Active involvement with management of Tormore; e.g. community tree planting day, removal of unwanted conifer seedlings
Field surveys to identify locations on the ground to increase management for biodiversity in future
Mitigation measures for new extraction tracks particularly where crossing burns
Expansion zones for burn-side native woodland remnants and habitat connectivity between burn-side corridors
Extent and condition of peatlands and moorland
Enhancing habitat diversity in old standing and fallen wood
Initial environmental survey for potential wind turbine site

3.TAKING AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO NEW INITIATIVES

Providing input to development of new village at Kilbeg

4. BEING POSITIVE AND PROACTIVE IN LOCAL COMMUNITY

Winter evening talks on local biodiversity eg birds, moths, plants, marine life, mammals and wildlife on crofting land in Sleat
Holding workshops e.g. making bat boxes, native tree growing, training in use of bat detectors and survey work
Organising workshops, surveys and field visits for an aspen propagation project for Tormore Forest in association with other Scottish charitable organisations promoting native aspen, such as Eadha & Coille Alba
Conducting surveys of general distribution of pipistrelle bats and abundance in old steadings
Assisting Highland Council Rangers with a bat and moth evening

5. INVOLVEMENT IN SKYE-WIDE BIODIVERSITY PROJECTS

Active participation by group members of the Skye & Lochalsh Environment Forum, including involvement with projects of SLEF Biodiversity Outreach Officer

Sleat Aspen Project Aspen used to be widespread but is now one of our rarest trees, restricted mainly to inaccessible cliffs and valley sides. Our community Aspen Project will conserve Sleat’s aspens by creating an aspen grove in Tormore community forest. John Parrot of Coille Alba trained project volunteers in aspen biology and taking root cuttings, using the aspen stand in Ron Johnstone’s garden for demonstration. The volunteers then trekked over Sleat's hills and moors to find17 aspen stands and take cuttings. These were sent to Eadha Enterprises for mass propagation and the resulting young trees will be planted in Tormore. The aspen volunteers are also growing up their own root cuttings in containers. The project is a lasting legacy of our late chairperson, Annabel Pendlebury, who led this community initiative.	Community seed-growing workshop	Aspen Training at Achacloich

Practice for Bat Surveys	Environment Group Barbecue	Bat box workshop Ardvasar

Beach clean at Camus Daraich	Beach clean bags, the first hour!	More rubbish collected

Bat box workshop participants	Opening the moth trap	Lobaria lichen at Tormore

Tormore forest natural regeneration	Bee Workshop Wildlife enthusiasts swarmed to a community workshop on wild bees organised by the Sleat Community Trust's Environment Group, and led by Katy Malone of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. A bee hunt in the Clan Donald gardens turned up four of the eight bumblebee species occurring in our part of Scotland. Participants spent a happy hour sawing, hammering and drilling to make their very own nest boxes for solitary bees. Bumblebees and solitary bees are as important as honey bees for pollinating crops; without them, we’d have to pollinate our crops by hand or machine, making our food vastly more expensive. We can help stem the national decline in bumblebees by maintaining flower-rich grasslands such as those resulting from traditional crofting, and planting simple cottage garden plants in our gardens. Help survey bumblebees near you http://bumblebeeconservation.org/get-involved/surveys/beewatch/ For more information http://bumblebeeconservation.org/ link to the BBCT's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bumblebee-Conservation-Trust/184323594931922	Sleat's reptiles and amphibians. Sleat's reptiles and amphibians are getting a boost through Forestry Commission Scotland's plans to improve the habitat for these species in the Kinloch and Kyleakin Hills as part of the restoration of this area to native woodland. During a reptile training day at Kinloch on 16th April, participants found slowworms (actually a legless lizard), common lizard and palmate newts. The training was led by Amphibian and Reptile Conservation's Scottish Project Officer, and organised in collaboration with Skye and Lochalsh Environment Forum. Sleat residents and visitors are encouraged to send any sightings of reptiles and amphibians in the Kinloch and Kyleakin hills to Roger Cottis at cottiskye@btinternet.com