Vision PK visit to Taymount Wood, 2 August 2026
What has WSWG been doing these past few months?
We had two excellent afternoons on the Climate Connect Perth & Kinross stalls at the Perth Show on 1 August and at the Birnam Games on 29 August. www.climateconnect.scot
Our joint Wildflower Walk in Taymount Wood with the Perthshire Society of Natural Science on 2 August was absolutely wonderful, with expert botanists identifying more than 150 plant species mainly on the forest track verges, the finalised list of which will be with us soon. As Liz Lavery of PSNS said, “pretty brilliant for mixed conifer woodland”. This backs up beautifully why WSWG’s wildflower protection and rescue mission has been so important over recent years and more particularly in going forward. We also saw a wonderful range of lovely insect pollinators, with the most stunning photos forwarded to us thereafter for WSWG records (credits FNG). However, the prize for the most magic moment surely must go to the clouds of hundreds of pristine, newly emerged peacock and other butterflies billowing up around us as we walked along probably the best 200m stretch of mid-summer wildflowers in Taymount Wood. An experience none of us who witnessed it had ever seen in our lives before. And that says a lot when you are with a group of ardent, life-long nature enthusiasts. www.psns.org.uk
Credit for all 11 pollinator images taken in Taymount Wood on 2 August 2026: FNG
On 27 August we enjoyed another lovely Woodland Walk and Picnic in Taymount Wood with our friends from Vision PK. Our Pop-up Climate Café-West Stormont conversation this time was led by Nikki Murphy who gave a fascinating introduction to the work of the PKC Visitor Ranger Service (part of the Community Support and Enforcement Team) in keeping our countryside clean and safe for visitors and residents alike. Vision PK always merit top marks for the quality and enthusiasm of their climate discussions, and this may well have been the strongest yet. Many thanks to our lovely WSWG volunteers without whom we cannot run our events, and also to the Community Support and Enforcement Team for their additional help in carting everything up to our picnic site at the top of the woods in one of their vans. This was also our last woodland picnic with Alison’s Kitchen as Alison is now swopping her adventurous catering service for a well-earned retirement. Huge thanks to her for years of wonderful support for WSWG events, both indoors and outdoors. We will miss her.
We also found a superb site for the barn owl box bought from The Barn Owl Trust in memory of founding member, Mike Abbott, who sadly passed away in 2025, using the donation his wife Betty kindly gave WSWG from his memorial fund. Thanks to Murray and Neil for installing it so expertly in this lovely old ash tree and to the landowner for permission to do so. Thanks also to Stanley Men’s Shed for making the plaque which has been fixed to the side of the owl box.
WSWG was delighted to provide a Funding Report to the Highland Community Energy Society outlining how we had used their kind donation during 2025-26. HCES is a key donor to the WSWG Project, whose versatile funding enables WSWG to run so many events, buy vital equipment and materials, maintain our website and communications, and support our SCIO administration costs. A huge thank you to HCES who have been supporting WSWG continuously since 2021.
At the Climate Ready Tayside Conference on 10 September organised as part of Nature-based Solutions Week 2026, WSWG was one of several groups invited to lead a series of short roundtable discussions, in our case on WSWG’s journey to date to secure the future of Taymount and Five Mile Wood for People and Planet. How to cram WSWG’s experiences into 15 minutes was a challenge, but the four drop-in sessions were well attended and stimulated much interest.
In September, we attended two very interesting and useful webinars organised by the Community Woodlands Association on 1) Community Wealth Building and 2) “Seeing the Wood for the Trees” with Evaluation Support Scotland giving guidance on evaluating the impact of community woodland projects. Consequently, the WSWG board recognises the clear policy opportunity and value of framing the future of WSWG and West Stormont Connect round this newly legislated subject. www.gov.scot/policies/cities-regions/community-wealth-building/
On 19 September, two WSWG trustees attended the excellent Scotland the Big Picture Rewilding Conference in Perth, which brings together a diverse community of people united by a shared commitment to nature recovery across Scotland.
On 3 October, WSWG was one of the community organisations invited to attend the “Start a Heart” training session put on in Stanley Village Hall by Stanley & District Community Council and Stanley Development Trust. There are now two defibrillators in Stanley, one outside the Spar and one outside the Village Hall. The aim is to get as many people in Stanley and District to know how to use these in an emergency.
WSWG attended a very useful on-line information session on Disclosure Scotland’s PVG scheme organised by Third Sector Interface-Perth & Kinross (PK TSI) www.thirdsectorpk.org.uk
Unfortunately WSWG did not manage to attend the Community Woodland Association Conference in Fort William in October but we heard feedback from Tayside Woodlands Partnership who did manage to attend and found it excellent on multiple levels. Hopefully we will attend next year as it is always very worthwhile.
Word of the Month
Community Wealth Building: Community Wealth Building (CWB) is an approach to economic development that seeks to transform our local and regional economic systems to enable local communities and people to own, have a greater stake in, access and benefit from the wealth our economy generates. In harnessing the economic leverage of local ‘anchor’ organisations (such as local councils, health boards and colleges), Community Wealth Building has the potential to: create jobs; invigorate local supply chains; strengthen local and regional economies.
For more information go to: www.gov.scot/policies/cities-regions/community-wealth-building/
What’s coming up next?
Over the next few months much of our focus will be on moving forward with the Management Agreement and Long Term Plans for Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood with FLS, keeping you updated and engaged as we go.
Part of this will be a rolling 3 Year Programme for the wider WSWG Project as well.
Our website has become huge and in great need of updating as we move forward in this new era for WSWG. Over the coming weeks, we will be working on that with Perthshire Websites.
We hope to participate in the Stanley Primary School “Christmas Tree Festival” which will be open to the public for viewing and voting on Saturday 28 November between 10.00am and 1.00pm. This is a fundraising event for the school, so there will be an entrance fee. Please come along to support what has become a wonderful seasonal feature in the local community calendar.
