{"id":726,"date":"2018-03-30T16:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org.cp-27.webhostbox.net\/?p=726"},"modified":"2020-07-11T06:18:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T06:18:10","slug":"every-project-needs-its-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/?p=726","title":{"rendered":"Every Project Needs Its Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Compact<\/a><\/p>\n

Although the management of trees on crofts has been possible for a long time, the idea of a full-blown \u2018woodland croft\u2019 where management of the woodland forms a major \u2013 or the major \u2013 component of managing the croft land is more recent. The passing of the Crofting Reform Act of 2007 was the event that gave real impetus to the idea, as it became possible from that point on to create a new croft from existing woodland.<\/p>\n

At that time Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) and Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) jointly funded a woodland crofts officer to support the concept as it developed. This role ended after 3 years or so and the mantle was subsequently taken on by the third sector partnership we have today \u2013 the Woodland Crofts Partnership.<\/p>\n

But every project needs its champion. And whilst the partners, contractors and wider stakeholders of the Partnership are all strongly committed to woodland crofts, they for the most part are not \u2018doing it for themselves\u2019. So for a long time the Partnership has talked about identifying some woodland crofts champions \u2013 people who are<\/i> doing it for themselves \u2013 who are similarly committed to the model but can bring their first-hand experience to the table.<\/p>\n

Such champions are especially important when developing a new concept, and though it is true that for crofting, woodland crofts are simply an extension of the crofting approach to include woodland management, for forestry it represents a radical change. Our existing forestry sector is dominated by a model of large-scale, often highly mechanised management of fairly uniform plantations, with timber usually exported for centralised processing. Woodland crofts involve a very different approach.<\/p>\n

What is the Partnership looking for in champions? The role will surely evolve, but our initial thoughts were to include 3 areas: to be the subjects of case studies that could be shared; to \u2018speak up for\u2019 woodland crofts as and when appropriate; and to feed into our stakeholder group, not least to flag up issues on the ground.<\/p>\n

In relation to the first of these, we were obviously keen to highlight different examples \u2013 both of woodland types, but also tenure arrangements. We\u2019re delighted to say that all those we approached have agreed to become champions, representing a diversity of situations, and in due course we hope to add to them to cover more.<\/p>\n

So who are the initial champions? The first needs no introduction to readers of this blog, having previously written guest posts for us here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Ros Nash and her husband Rab are owner-occupier crofters managing a conifer plantation in Caithness, aiming to restructure it and introduce native species.<\/p>\n

The second are examples of a landlord and tenant and are a father (the landlord) and his daughter \u2013 Bernard and Merlin Planterose. Bernard\u2019s reputation in alternative forestry circles precedes him, being (amongst many other things) a founder director of Reforesting Scotland<\/a> and author of the original Crofter Forestry Handbook (which he is currently re-writing, when he\u2019s not running his timber construction company<\/a>). Merlin is a jeweller & silversmith<\/a> who lives with her husband and two children on the newly-created croft in Leckmelm Wood, near Ullapool.<\/p>\n

Finally, our first batch of champions had to include examples from the community sector and we\u2019re very pleased that both Andy Robinson and Rhuri Munro, croft tenants of North West Mull Community Woodland Company<\/a>, agreed to take on the role. Andy is \u2018Woodland Crofter<\/a>\u2019 on Facebook where you can follow his progress; he\u2019ll be the more prominent of the two of them for the foreseeable future as Rhuri is currently heavily involved in the Ulva buyout<\/a> (which has its own potential woodland crofts interest\u2026..)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a necessarily brief introduction to the new champions but we hope in coming months and years you will hear much more about them \u2013 and indeed future champions, some of whom have already expressed willingness to get involved (that\u2019s you, Mick!).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the management of trees on crofts has been possible for a long time, the idea of a full-blown \u2018woodland croft\u2019 where management of the woodland forms a major \u2013 or the major \u2013 component of managing the croft land is more recent. The passing of the Crofting Reform Act of 2007 was the event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions\/817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}