Ownership bid for Inverawe woodland taking shape
A tiny community is asking for help to bolster a bid to own a piece of ancient woodland.
Inverawe Community Association is appealing for people to sign up as members so it can get Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) status and buy 15 acres, off the A85, from Forestry and Land Scotland.
There are around 30 people living full-time in Inverawe and so far 22 have joined in support but more bodies are needed to add weight to the plan, says the association’s chairman John Bergant.
Mr Bergant, who has compiled a 55-page business plan spanning three years to satisfy SCIO regulators and potential funders, hopes his appeal for more members will reach others who are willing and able to back the venture.
The group, with an official constitution, has a committee in post with membership opened up to anyone living in the Taynuilt Community Council area, stretching out as far as Dalavich and Kilchrenan.
‘We need more members to help get SCIO status but it is proving difficult because we’re such a small community.
‘So far we have 22 but we’re hoping people from the wider area will want to get involved.
‘We’re particularly looking for people who will also be able to help us maintain the land if it eventually becomes ours,’ said Mr Bergant.
Inverawe Smokehouse has already pledged support but help from other businesses would also be welcome.
Mature beeches and oaks are just some of the species that cover the tree-filled land that has been in the Scottish Government agency’s ownership for about half a century.
There are also Scottish pines, rowans and holly trees on the site that is home to red squirrels. If the community gains ownership, work will include clearing scrub, getting rid of invasive rhododendrons and freeing up some paths that have been blocked by fallen trees, putting up signs to stop littering by visitors and possibly draining a boggy area where the land dips into the bottom of a valley so people can cross more easily.
A small stretch of land right along the riverbank, where people have fishing rights, would not be included in the sale.
Thankful
Mr Bergant said the association was thankful for the support it had already had from Rebecca Carr at Forestry and Land Scotland and also from Kirsten Logue, a development manager with Highland and Islands Enterprise, guiding them through the application to get SCIO recognition and to apply for funding from the Scottish Land Fund.
To qualify for funding, the association needs to have five per cent of the woodland’s valuation.
‘We’ve got the five per cent from members’ contributions already, although we’d need to do more fundraising for the upkeep of the land and any costs that would come with owning it, including public liability insurance because access would be open to everyone,’ added Mr Bergant.
‘We’re still going through the application process to be a SCIO.
‘We’re hoping to get it away in the next week or so and then we’ll just have to wait to hear back from them,’ he said.
If the land went on the open market it would be significantly more expensive, but Mr Bergant said SLF was keen for it to be in community hands.
‘The idea of community ownership is that we can keep it as it is; no one wants to see it developed.
‘If it was sold on the open market, we’d have no control over what happened to it and we don’t want that,’ he added.
‘There are little paths through the trees that the community has used for generations.
‘If it becomes ours, it would all be be in safe-keeping for generations to come.’
Anyone interested in joining should contact Mr Bergant on 01866 822476 or email him at john.b.bergant@ btinternet.com