Nominee Summary
Since the establishment of Friends of Blairs Loch (FofBL), the volunteers have set out to improve access and facilities at Blairs Loch as a recreational destination for the local community with one of the main objectives being:- Creating a beautiful, nurturing, peaceful, safe environment where the local community can enjoy nature which in turn will support peoples health and wellbeing. Since 2017 the volunteers have worked in partnership with local businesses and reinstated a community fishery, refurbished derelict buildings and created a new buildings which is being used by recreational users, dog walkers, local schools and community groups.
Overcoming Challenges
One of our main challenges to meet our objectives is finance and generating income from e.g. applying for grants, renting our facilities, gaining local donations and beneficiaries. Since the establishment of FofBL we have received over 200K in grants to help create our vision. However if it wasn't for the range of diverse skills the FofBL volunteers have, such as engineers, mechanics, environmentalists, business education and craftsmen we would have to apply for enormous amounts of money to pay for professional builders, landscapers etc. All our volunteers are enthusiastic, passionate and proud of Blairs Loch but it takes a lot of time and effort from them to achieve what we have. Our volunteers meet Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the year for work parties and some Saturdays for family events, but the voluntary work continues throughout the week at their own homes - making signs, applying for funding, general admin, bookings, accounts, social media and repairing tools. Volunteers also help to reduce costs overheads by pulling in favours from friends & family members, using their own personal equipment for projects, updated first aid certificate and paying for chainsaw certificates. The support from our regular daily recreational users is invaluable, they are our eyes on the ground and report wind blown trees, litter and unsavoury behaviour.
Supporting the community
The initial aim of FofBL was to create a destination which would be frequently used and cared for by the users, but maintains its quiet, natural, beauty. The loch is close enough to the town of Forres for it to be easily accessible, but is remote enough to make it feel like a special place to visit, even for locals. The derelict buildings next to the loch, that were previously a boat house, bothy and stable, have been refurbished and developed into a venue that provides a field study centre for local primary schools and community groups. FofBL volunteers have improved access to try and make the site as fully inclusive as possible and installed wheel chair friendly paths around the main hub of the buildings. We listen and take on board ideas from our community on how to improve and enhance our site e.g. one of our volunteers recently gave a talk to a church group in Forres about our site. One of the audience suggested installing more benches around the loch as resting stops for people with mobility issues. FofBL have taken this suggestion on board and included it on their work plan for this year.
Ethical/environmental standards
Our building structures around the site use materials such as sustainable timber from local sawmills and extract young Douglas fir from around the loch for supporting posts & benches. All other building materials are bought locally from building merchants. The access to the site has safe accessible links from the Dava Way and Forres for cyclists. Sustrans have offered their support with future community events, this is an organisation we would like to work with in the future to promote cycling around Blairs Loch & outlying routes. We have 2 invasive non-native species on our site American Skunk Cabbage and Rhododendron ponticum. We manage the rhododendron continually throughout the year by manual labour and use of a stump grinder. We have worked in partnership with the Findhorn Nairn & Lossie Rivers Trust who were directly involved with the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative to help spray the skunk cabbage. We continue to monitor this annually. We have introduced native broadleaf trees around our main buildings such as hazel, rowan and oak and we have installed squirrel feeders and bird boxes which we monitor through our cctv. The refurbishment of the boat bothy, built in 1896 which had fallen into a sorry state of affairs, was one of the first major projects FoBL completed in June 2020. This building now provides the community with a great space for meetings etc.
