By Karen Menzies, Chair DWPA
The Dunnottar Woodland Park Association, DWPA, has been quietly supporting Forest and Land Scotland, FLS, to care for Dunnottar Woods since the 1990s.
Back then FLS allowed us to build bridges and pathways and do a lot of physical work to keep the woods in a beautiful state for the community to enjoy.
However, our group is down to just five regular members. Additionally FLS have much reduced manpower and financial capacity to carry out works to the level the community have come to expect in Dunnottar Woods. For example, Lady Kennedy’s Bath is in need of restoration works, but FLS lack the capacity and will not be repairing the historic monument, instead, it will slowly degrade until it is gone, unless we find a way to step in.
The truth is, to maintain Dunnottar Woods in a state which we can all be proud of, FLS need the DWPA to be a lot more involved, not just with physical labour but also in obtaining funding and managing work projects and completing the necessary paperwork which goes with all such works.
So, this means our group has to evolve into something different, to gain the capacity to protect our beautiful wood.
We need more people, passionate about protecting Dunnottar Woodlands, willing to give an hour per month to help us rise to this new level of responsibility. We would be grateful of anyone bringing practical skills or IT knowledge, but you don’t even need to have gardening experience, you just need to care.
What lies ahead will be a challenge, but it could also be a really rewarding adventure, not to mention the good you will be doing for a much-beloved community resource, but also for the wildlife which call it home.
We are a friendly bunch, and enjoy the odd social get together too (although don’t ask us how we fare at the pub quiz!)
If you would like to consider joining us, please email DunnottarWoods@outlook.com or message our Facebook page Dunnottar Woodland Park Association.
