Out and About with Scottish Wildlife Trust

The Scottish Wildlife Trust manages four Wildlife Reserve in the Clyde Valley and the Clyde and Avon Valley Landscape Partnership is helping to improve them all for the wildlife that lives there and the people that visit.

So far, we have replaced the 300m long boardwalk at the Falls of Clyde which takes visitors on a lovely walk through the native woodland right next to the Clyde. The timber decking now sits on recycled plastic legs which will last at least 50 years and allows us to replace the timber on top easily once it starts to rot (hopefully not for another 15 years!).

The two Nethan Gorge Reserves that can be found between Crossford and Auchenheath have also have some path improvements to deal with old steps and muddy sections of path. The route takes you from the Clyde Bridge in Crossford, up a steep climb through the beautiful woodland and on to Craignethan Castle. This was undertaken by Clydesdale Community Initiatives and incorporated training of local folk into the work.

We have also managed the species rich grasslands by cutting the grass in Autumn and raking up the cuttings. This is pretty heavy going but many hands make light work and volunteers from Marks and Spencer came out to help us rake up the cuttings at Upper Nethan Gorge. The ideal arrangement is to get grazing animals back onto the land and let them do the hard work for you, so fencing work at Garrion Gill should make that possible on our little meadow area there.

The next couple of years will see woodland management work carried out at the Falls of Clyde and the Nethan reserves and some additional path upgrades at the Falls of Clyde which we will let you know about as they get a bit closer.

Steve Blow – Reserve manager