Kilmacolm Community Woodland

This 20.45ha site is located on the edge of Kilmacolm in Inverclyde and is well used by locals for recreational activities such as dog walking. An attractive greenspace boasting woodland, open grassland and views overlooking the surrounding countryside, the land was gifted to the Green Action Trust by Buchanan Estates in August 2022. It is host to a variety of habitats such as woodland, most of which can be found in the south-west of the site. Clearly the site is already valuable for wildlife and people, and we would like to work with local residents to create a community woodland that offers improved access to nature for people, while developing its biodiversity value and nurturing its wildlife.

The Trust would like to engage with local site users and the wider community to hear their ideas on what they would like to do with the site.

To start this process, we held a Community Walk and Tree Planting Ceremony on  14^th March 2023.

Thanks go to all who took part and we look forward to hearing more ideas in the coming months.

We recently carried out a tree safety survey with works planned to take place in March 2023. In terms of future development of the site, we would like to invite suggestions from the community. The list below illustrates the types of woodland development we have undertaken on other sites, which may help to prompt some ideas for Kilmacolm Community Woodland:

• Plant more trees to extend existing woodland areas
• Bring areas of existing grassland into annual management to diversify plant species and encourage wildflower meadows to form
• Enhance existing wetland areas by for example, planting wetland species
• Create a community orchard
• Install more seating
• Install welcome signs and interpretation panels
• Investigate ways to manage the traffic and parking problems associated with the site

In the south-west of the site is an area consisting of mature and early-mature broadleaf woodland with species such as beech, sycamore, oak, and birch. This provides great habitat for fauna and flora such as bats, birds, insects, moss and lichen.

There are also a number of younger woodland areas which appear to have been more recently planted to infill and expand on existing wooded areas. Many of the woodland areas are on linear ridges formed by low rocky escarpments, possibly suggesting former quarry activity.

To the north are open areas of grassland which were previously grazed by livestock and where views can be enjoyed. Areas of scrub, mainly gorse, can be found scattered across the site which are important habitat for wildlife such as birds, small mammals and reptiles.

There are several hollows which appear to seasonally gather water forming wetland habitat, and a series of old stone dykes which mark former field boundaries and provide attractive features.