At the beginning of October I was delighted to attend the annual Community Woodland Association conference in Inverness representing the Hinterland with Jonathan. The CWA (if, like me, you didn’t already know) promotes, supports and celebrates community woodlands across the whole of Scotland – and beyond. Their ethos is that ‘every community deserves a woodland’ – which is definitely something our community can appreciate, for sure! There are over 200 groups who are members and this year 31 community groups attended, with around 70 delegates and presenters in total. The attendees came from across the whole of Scotland – from Dunnet on the north coast to Carsphairn and Tarras Valley down in southern Scotland. From here in Findhorn and Forres across to the west coast including Mull, Skye and Applecross. And remarkably, some visiting community woodlanders from Wales, near Machynlleth, all wanting to share their experiences and ideas. The wonderful thing is that nearly all these people are volunteers – giving their time and energy to these valuable community projects with enthusiasm and love. How inspiring! It was also interesting for me to note that there was a wide age range from late twenties upwards – good news for the sustainability of our community woodlands!

The conference started Friday lunchtime with a gathering of attendees chatting, exchanging ideas, offering support and opportunities, and creating new friendships. This is probably one of the key aspects of this annual get-together – the opportunity for great networking and extended community building. The afternoon offered us some interesting and informative presentations and workshops ranging from encouraging youth volunteers and growing future foresters to financial management & tools, and fundraising. 

The workshop I attended was by Dunnent Community forest on the north coast. Titled ‘Just Add Biscuits’ we learned about their youth volunteers – young people aged 13-17 who volunteer every weekend and during holidays, clearing ditches, moving and stripping logs, and much more. These young people come in their own time and are clearly thriving in the outdoor environment. Our presenter made it very clear that all the work they did was ‘biscuit led’ with at least half the funding spent on biscuits to incentivise them! However, the benefits to everyone involved were substantial. They have been holding these programmes for several years with great success and it was thought provoking to imagine what could be possible here, in our Hinterland and woodland…

Friday night there was a group dinner followed by a ceilidh – of course! Saturday and Sunday were more outdoors focused (a relief for all of us outdoorsy people!) with opportunities to visit some local community woodlands and see first hand what they’re doing. There was a visit to Dunain community woods where there was plenty of learning, networking, and snacks shared with the community woodland groups and experts from all over Scotland. A highlight was a site visit to Culduthel Community Woodlands with lessons learned over a roaring fire and tea.

It was a weekend of learning from each other and sharing our common issues such as volunteers, sustainability,and resources of time and money. Sharing struggles and achievements and making new friends, and extended community building – the community of ecological caring people working within local communities in woodlands across Scotland.

If you’re interested, you can take a look at the CWA facebook page and maybe you too will be inspired to support our own wonderful community woodland even more.

Ash Balderstone
FHT Land Management Subgroup
FF Trust Asset Manager
October 2024