The Kilsture Forest Community Group were keen to develop their role as co-custodians of the forest through a Citizen Science project, film screenings, surveys (including mycorrhizal networks), storytelling and an artists residency.

In 2018 the forest was being sold by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) so the community rallied to reverse the planned disposal. KFCG opted for a partnership with FLS to manage the woodland and have since signed a formal memorandum of understanding with FLS in 2024. The group was keen to take on more responsibility for habitat restoration and enhancement and whilst they appreciated the need to thin woodland to increase biodiversity in the long term, they were concerned about the potential negative impacts on the health of the forest, when thinning is undertaken commercially at scale. Their project activities helped them to:

1. better understand the forest ecosystem – collate and digest existing information
2. gather new information to underpin the particular concerns / interests that the community has
3. better understand FLS’s and other approaches to woodland management and how KFCG can interact with these.

Download the report here …

Explore the Forest Ecosystem Map here …  

“By observing the natural processes that drive the forest ecosystem: plant and soil interaction, regeneration and decay, the rate of water flowing through the forest, our community is becoming attuned to the indicators for of forest health and how these inform management for biodiversity”.

Bat walk at Kilsture. Night photography by Ted Leeming

Events included:

• Guided iNaturalist sessions and family days with Galloway and South Ayrshire Biosphere
• Bat walk with South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre
• Fungi ID workshop
• 3 x indoor community facing events: a lecture on the History and Landscapes of Kilsture, a chromatography workshop introducing the basics of making soil chromatograms and a Mycorrhizae Symposium in May 2024, attended by 46 people with speakers from Forest Research and Rhizocore