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2.1 Actions undertaken
2.1.1 Management of Project
At the beginning of the Project a Steering Group was set
up under the auspices of the Caledonian Partnership with members
from the Project partners (Scottish Natural Heritage, Forest
Authority, Forest Enterprise, Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds, and Highland Birchwoods) with a representative from
the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department.
The group met 20 times and was chaired by a SNH member of
staff. A full time Project Officer and part-time Administrative
Officer were employed in the SNH Dingwall office. The Project
Officer left in June 2001 and as at that time there was no
indication that the project would continue beyond the end
of October it was decided that there was not sufficient time
to recruit and train a new person. The duties of the Project
Officer were taken on by SNH staff members.
This was supported at the site level by the establishment
of Local Operational Planning Teams (LOPT) which met as required.
Three interim reports were submitted to Europe on 12 November
1999, 20 November 2000 and 18 December 2001. An interim financial
claim was submitted in November 2000 with the second Interim
report. This claim was submitted using Agency rates to calculate
staff costs rather than actual costs and subsequent consideration
and correspondence with the EC have resulted in the claim
being recalculated and resubmitted with the final claim. The
interim claim figure has therefore dropped from £300,641.42
to £251,925.74. This is discussed more fully in Section
4.
2.1.2 Project Outputs.
Habitat Restoration
One of the main outputs of the Project has been the habitat
and hydrological restoration work carried out on two bog woodland
candidate Special Areas of Conservation (cSACs) and one alluvial
woodland cSAC as follows:
Bog woodland restoration
| Site |
Habitat Restoration (ha)
|
Hydrological Restoration(ha) |
|
Monadh Mor
|
142.6
|
103.3
|
|
Cairngorm (Inshriach)
|
52
|
52
|
|
Cairngorm (Mondhuie)
|
102.3
|
133
|
|
Cairngorm (North Abernethy)
|
10.2
|
35.1
|
|
Cairngorm (Dell Wood)
|
4.3
|
14
|
|
Cairngorm (Garten Wood)
|
0
|
25.4
|
| Total |
311.4 |
362.8 |
This can be compared against the Project bid targets. Unfortunately
there appears to be a discrepancy in the bid as reference
to page 98-16/1 claims that an area of 400 hectares will be
restored which includes 296 ha in the Cairngorm sites. However
reference to Map 2 of the same document (repeated here in
its original form as Map 2.1.2.a) shows the Cairngorm component,
minus Inshriach, as 224 hectares which, when added to Inshriach
(40 hectares) gives 264 hectares Similarly comparison for
the figures for habitat restoration show that page 98-16/2
gives a Cairngorm total of 116 hectares whereas Map 2 gives
a total of 116.7 hectares It has been assumed that the maps
best represent what the actual targets are and that the text
reflects an earlier version of the application.
It can therefore be seen that the total for hydrological
restoration was slightly lower than the bid and that for habitat
restoration the total achieved was over 50% higher than proposed.
It is not as easy to calculate similar figures for the alluvial
woodland restoration component as the target was amended following
the acceptance of a bid to carry out additional work on the
River Conon and an additional site (Lower Spey Bay). However
as permission to undertake this work took longer than anticipated
some of the work on the Spey had been undertaken before permission
was granted and was not therefore eligible for project costs.
Less work than anticipated was carried out on the Conon 'extension'
area due to a combination of very poor weather conditions
and a reassessment of the immediate management needs. This
is described more fully in section 3.2.8.
Research
Research undertaken can be divided into three main groups.
The first were helpful in the project planning and understanding
of what has happened. A hydrological and historical survey
was undertaken for all of the bog woodland sites. These informed
the management undertaken at all of the bog woodland sites
except for Pitmaduthy Moss. For this site the report suggested
that no onsite work was required and that an investigation
into nutrient inputs was required. This was subsequently carried
out and it formed the basis for a successful application for
sympathetic management under the Rural Stewardship Scheme.
A second group helped to provide a better understanding of
bog woodland classification. The final group looked at the
River Conon and its management history in detail to inform
the development of the River Strategy.
All of the above studies with three exceptions are available
on the Wet Woods website. The three exceptions have been left
off as they contain information which could be considered
to reflect the position of individuals.
Dissemination
A variety of ways have been used to promote the Project and
the support of the LIFE Nature funding. There are a number
of general visitors to the areas as they come to walk along
the Speyside Way or visit the Forestry Visitor Centre at Glenmore
or the RSPB at Abernethy. All of the sites with the exception
of Pitmaduthy have free access and are well provided for by
footpaths. Visitor interpretation of these areas has been
catered for by 7 display panels at strategic points. The visitor
centre at Glenmore is very popular with tourists and a display
based on a "Spey Wifie" of Scottish folklore has
proved to be very popular. More targeted guided walks and
specialist groups have focussed on the RSPB reserve at Abernethy
and the Forest Enterprise land at Monadh Mor and Inshriach.
A major output was the Conference held in October 2001 in
conjunction with the Atlantic oakwoods LIFE Project under
the banner of the Caledonian Partnership. This was attended
by over 100 people with representatives from all over the
UK, Finland, Sweden and DGXI. The conference proceedings will
be produced and will be made available on the wet woods website.
Although not part of the original bid it was felt that it
would be a good use of technology to disseminate the work
of the Project via a website (http:/www.wetwoods.org). This
includes the background to the Project and details of what
was achieved, and how, and also the research reports, conference
proceedings and final report. Copies will also be available
on CD for those who do not have web access.
Monitoring
Monitoring is obviously an essential part of any site management
work. Scottish Natural Heritage has a programme that involves
the monitoring of all designated sites as part of a six year
rolling programme. This is based on common standards that
apply throughout the UK. However no specific guidance existed
for wet woods and a methodology was devised as part of the
Project. In addition to the standard site condition monitoring
more targeted monitoring will be undertaken as necessary e.g.
the RSPB work at Mondhuie (cf. Section 3.5).
2.2 Overall assessment
The Project has achieved all that it set out to do with the
exception of the hydrological restoration, which achieved
98% of the target, and it should be noted that this has been
achieved with considerable savings against the predicted spend.
It is inevitable that there will need to be some flexibility
as Projects develop, particularly when some of the planned
work is dependent on the result of work undertaken by the
Project. It is of course essential that any changes are managed
as efficiently as possible to ensure best value for money.
The projected cost for the work was £661,560 but actual
spend was £551,959.36 which is an underspend of £109,600.65.
The main reason for this is the use of actual costs as opposed
to agency rates for staff cost calculations. The main outputs,
and Project chronology, are summarised on Table 1 which follows
this section.
2.3 Future
Over 95% of the areas that have been worked on lie within
the ownership of Forest Enterprise, Scottish Natural Heritage
or the RSPB. All of these bodies are committed to the continued
positive management of their sites. FE and RSPB will monitor
and manage their sites as part of their ongoing management.
All sites will be monitored as part of SNH's monitoring programme
and the necessary provisions are in place to ensure that these
sites continue to develop natural vegetation types suitable
to the conditions.
As a result of the management activities three of the areas
(Monadh Mor [Map 3.2.1.f], Inshriach [Map 3.2.2.e] and Mondhuie
[Map 3.2.3.g]) were submitted to the EC as additions to their
relevant candidate SACs on 29 January 2001.
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