Our Voices

2022 was a tough year for staffing, and this presented a lot of challenges for community engagement, with a lack of funds it was inevitable that the ranger position would be terminated entirely in the Spring. I mitigated this by a reduction of hours to a day a week, and concentrated with board support on … Read more

It was a pleasant afternoon, the recent ice and snow had receded and the temperature had risen to a balmy 10 degrees centigrade when we decided to take a stroll with the dog into Glenan. It was cloudy overhead and thankfully no rain forecast. The path as expected was the usual muddy affair and wellies … Read more

[The following presentation was made by Rhyddian Knight, Forest Ranger at Glenan Wood at the last FOGW AGM] Preamble I wish to extend my gratitude for such a warm welcome & orientation to the area this year from members of the community, members of the FOGW board; and particularly to my colleague Mick Eyre. It … Read more

[submitted for edition 3 of the Kilfinan Forest Community Newsletter in the Spring of 2021] Last week, there was a chap bemoaning someone bringing food into the area from out of town. What with the hungry gap soon to be over, the birch sap rising & food appearing to appear again on the wild margins; … Read more

Rhyddian Knight, Forest Ranger at Glenan Wood, reckons there’s never been a better time to renew your commitment to spending time inside the Book of Nature. Should auld acquaintance be forgot? ‘Feeling Lonely? Caffeine headache? Stuffy with central heating? Carpet static crawling at your feet? Too much screen time with pressures of external communications? Household … Read more

The Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest is a voluntary partnership of more than 20 organisations with a shared interest in ‘Saving Scotland’s Rainforest’. It has 2 projects ready to go. One of the projects is Argyll’s Rainforest, led by the Argyll and the Isles Coast and Countryside Trust (ACT). Argyll is home to more than half … Read more

Spring is one of the best time to see wild flowers in Glenan Wood. Many of them flower early in the season – before the leaf canopy shades out the sunlight. They can also be seen more easily before the bracken grows up. There are over 160 flowering plants listed in the National Biodiversity records … Read more

By Rhyddian Knight, Forest Ranger After Hogmanay, I took it upon myself to climb Cnoc na Cille to get an overview of the season ahead. It was one of the blue sky frosty days at the start of the year. I met three red deer on the ascent but was otherwise unaccompanied for the rest … Read more

Glenan Community Forest is pleased to have won funding for a community orchard, as announced to all during the community AGM last November. The mix of fruit trees and shrubs will be planted next autumn/winter 2021-2022, but work on clearing space and erecting fencing for the orchard has already begun to meet the grant deadline. … Read more

“You can’t imagine what an effectual remedy it is for every sort of foolishness,” So ponders Levin, the protagonist of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Levin is talking about scything. This year Glenan’s beautiful meadow saw this ancient art resurrected by a small team of volunteers. It was not possible to scythe all the meadow, but next … Read more