The workshop will look at how iNaturalist can support your project or land management goals, alongside how community participation and citizen science can help deepen the connection that communities have to their land.

About Ian Dow

Ian is the Rainforest Manager at ACT (Argyll Countryside Trust). With nearly 30 years experience in Forestry & Arb, he now oversees rainforest regeneration across Argyll, where they are using iNaturalist to help inform their nature regeneration projects.

Our woodlands are becoming increasingly affected by the consequences of climate change. Developing existing woodlands towards resilient mixed woods is becoming the main focus for woodland managers and owners. How can you transform existing woodlands into species-rich, structurally diverse and resilient mixed woods? Where do you start? What are the challenges? How can you involve the local community? During the workshop, we will explore the significance, urgency, challenges and unique, exciting opportunities to develop ecologically and economically sustainable mixed woods for the benefit of future generations.

About Dirk Sporleder

Dirk graduated as a Forest Engineer (FH) from the University of Applied Forest Sciences in Rottenburg am Neckar (Germany) in 2005. Since moving to Scotland, Dirk has led the Perthshire Coppice Project (Scottish Crannog Centre) and works as a woodland manager and silvicultural advisor for Dronley Community Woodland and other private woodlands. Developing existing woodlands into site-adapted, diverse and resilient mixed woods by applying ecological woodland transformation methods will become the dominating silvicultural challenge for decades. Dirk is particularly interested in traditional, often almost forgotten, ecological woodland transformation methods and the management of permanent irregular woodlands.

This workshop will explore the basics of what woodland crofts are, how and where they have developed over the past 20 years, and consider some of the opportunities ahead but also the challenges facing them. We'll also consider how they deliver multiple Scottish Government agendas, and can offer an answer to future uncertainties. There will be plenty of time also for discussion and Q&A after the (brief) presentation.

About James - James is a freelance forester and community development worker based in Ardnamurchan, though most of my time is spent supporting the Woodland Crofts Partnership (of which the CWA is one of 4 partners). James has had a long interest in smaller-scale, rural development forestry and in particular ‘family forestry’ models such as woodland crofts & woodlots. He was for a time woodland crofts officer for HIE/FCS when the model gained ‘official’ support following the 2007 Crofting Reform Act, but has been self-employed for the last 15 years. In his spare time James is involved in various community projects including a hydro scheme, a community-owned school building and……a community woodland.