What has WSWG been doing this month?
WSWG had a great day at the wonderful Climate Café Gathering at Birnam Arts on 19 April learning about how this amazing network, which began in Dunkeld and Birnam in 2015, is growing around the world. As well as a wide range of speakers involved in local Climate Action in many different ways, the day included a live link for a conversation between children from the Royal School of Dunkeld and Tashi from the world’s newest, highest Climate Café in the Himalayas for the launch of a Schools Pilot – Scotland Nepal. Climate Café® – Welcome to the Climate Café® Hub
On 27 April, a group of us had a great chat to scope options for an event in Taymount Wood for the Nursery and P1/2 class from the Royal School of Dunkeld. More on this soon.
There is just so much going on at the moment for local climate and biodiversity action, and on 9 May, with both our WSWG and West Stormont Connect hats on, we attended the inspiring and informative Perthshire Nature Connections Partnership Gathering at the George Hotel in Perth. Some fantastic nature recovery and rewilding projects are happening across the region, individually and, moreover, seeking to connect up at landscape scale which is the only real way forward for a regenerating and thriving natural environment. Every bit of action counts but the more we do together the better.
WSWG has recently signed the Rewilding Nation Charter supporting the goal of Scotland being declared as a Rewilding Nation – https://www.rewild.scot/charter
On 11 May, we had a wonderful 2nd annual joint picnic with Tayside Woodland Partnerships in Taymount Wood. Perfect weather, great company and an awesome climate update from Mike Robinson, truly made a special day. (Mike is Chief Executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and founder of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland.) Thank you to Mike in particular for giving his time on a Saturday and in depth knowledge as well as to everyone else who came along on the day.
Words of the Month
“Capture the moment”: Whether it’s taking a photograph or standing still and observing what’s happening in that moment of time, focus your senses and appreciate what we have. Just like Dougie did to capture in his winning photograph that wonderful moment at Loch Rannoch.
And here’s another precious moment captured in Taymount Wood by the Tattersall family, who say “How lucky we are to have this on our doorsteps! We love accessing the woodlands as a family and support the exciting plans going forward.”
What’s coming up next?
We’re currently working up 3 lovely WizzyWARP24 Events for June (Recovery May, visual impairment and Additional Support groups) plus an event with the Nursery and P1/2 from the Royal School of Dunkeld. These will be closed, weekday events for the invited groups only but we will be calling for WSWG volunteers soon who would like to help. Some have already very kindly come forward, but if you would be interested, please drop us an email to contact@weststormontwoodlandgroup.scot and we will be back in touch with more details. After that, we will be running a WizzyWARP24 event each month until November, so lots more groups to benefit and volunteers needed to help in those too.
The Tayside Biodiversity Festival runs from 1-30 June to celebrate 25 years of the Tayside Biodiversity Partnership (TBP) www.taysidebiodiversity.co.uk/tayside_biodiversity_festival/
As part of this we will have a WSWG stall at the Biodiversity Market in the Civic Hall, 2 High Street, Perth, from 10am to 1pm on Saturday 8 June. This is a free event open to all so do come along if you can. Biodiversity Market and Cycle (pkclimateaction.co.uk)
You can also join in the Festival yourself by taking on the very enjoyable 21 Days of Nature challenge. This runs from 10-30 June
WSWG will also have a stall at the Climate Action Gathering at Letham Hub which was postponed from 20 April to a date possibly in June but yet to be confirmed. This event is being organised by the P&K Climate Action Hub for all involved in community climate action across P&K to connect. We’ll update you on that when we know more.
And finally, after June (too busy!) we will continue with our monthly open Walks+ in Taymount Wood so keep an eye out for dates and come along if you can.
