As Digging for Diversity, a project aimed at engaging young people with nature in Edinbugh, comes to an end Laura Goble, Community Green Space Officer – Edinburgh for RSPB Scotland, takes a look at what it has achieved and what comes next.
Digging for Diversity
The coming of Easter marked the end of Digging for Diversity, a two year joint project focused on engaging young people in the exploration of Edinburgh’s natural heritage through practical conservation work and training sessions. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Young Roots scheme, the project is a partnership between RSPB Scotland, The Dirty Weekenders from the University of Edinburgh, Friends of Figgate Park, Bridgend Inspiring Growth, The Health Agency and The Duddingston Field Group.
The Dirty Weekenders are a student-run conservation volunteer group that is affiliated with the Edinburgh University Students’ Association. They help young people gain experience in conservation, forge links with environmental organisations and learn about habitat management.
The four community groups we have worked with over the project are spread across Edinburgh and each has its own attractive features. Figgate Park is a hidden gem in east Edinburgh that has many natural features including a pond, burn, hedges, meadows and woodland. The Friends of Figgate Park help maintain the area by organising events including clean ups, gardening days and children’s activities.
Bridgend Farmhouse is a historic working farmhouse in south-east Edinburgh has been transformed by the community-led charity, Bridgend Inspiring Growth, into a community centre for growing food, learning environmental skills and getting physically active.
Calders Community Garden is a therapeutic garden on the banks of the Union Canal is run by Wester Hailes Health Agency. It improves the local communities’ health through food growing, practical conservation and craft activities.
Duddingston Field is a wildlife haven on the southern slopes of Arthur’s Seat above Duddingston Village, has many habitats including semi-natural woodland, herb-rich meadow and heritage orchard.
The two-year project began back in 2016 and has seen volunteers from the university and community groups take part in a variety of tasks. Overall, 2538 volunteer hours were logged with 2004 hours being completed by university students.
The focus has been conducting habitat management tasks at the four project sites across Edinburgh including, removing invasive species such as Himalayan Balsam, sowing native wildflower seed and pollarding willow trees. On their feedback form about the project one of the students said: “I enjoyed the projects at Duddingston where we worked on the vegetable garden and maintained that area. I also enjoyed Figgate Park where I learned about the flora there and the invasive species.” The students have also taken part in 12 environmental training sessions including fungi identification, riverfly surveying and orchard tree grafting. On another feedback form a student said: “These sessions have been so enjoyable! I have learned a lot about native species and habitat management.”
The project has also incorporated a range of environmental education initiatives. Stockbridge Primary took on the role of the ambassador school for the bumblebee, which involved learning about the current threats to this species, thinking about potential green infrastructure that could enhance its habitat and conducting practical conservation work in its school grounds. Community education days have also run throughout the project, for example the Duddingston bioblitz in 2017 saw visitors collect many biodiversity records.
As part of the project, the students have helped co-design and produce site interpretation and accompanying leaflets, as well as a short documentary film about their experiences. 17 people also successfully achieved their Discovery John Muir Award during the project, which involved documenting their time and activity in green spaces in and around Edinburgh. The students’ hard work was recognised at the EUSA Activities Awards 2018, as the Dirty Weekenders won Best Volunteering Society and Digging for Diversity won Best Volunteering Project.
Looking ahead, this summer, we’re working with The Power of Food Festival to bring together community food gardens and producers in Edinburgh, facilitate discussions and support groups in advocating for policy change on both local and national scales. This is especially relevant as the Scottish Government are planning to consult on a new law for the food system, The Good Food Nation Bill. As part of the Digging for Diversity project, mini bioblitz events will be held at various sites to help connect people with their local green space as well as collect biodiversity records for the city. For more information on the festival, please visit here.
The Scottish Food Coalition have launched their ‘Kitchen Table Talks’ campaign to gather people’s opinions on how this legislation should address current issues. At the recent celebration event to mark the end of the Digging for Diversity project, the Dirty Weekenders held their own Kitchen Table Talk to discuss the issues with the current food system, as well as creative solutions to these problems.