2007

The project

The project began in April 2007 when a small group of Foyers residents discussed the prospect of using the field adjacent to Easter Boleskine for a Wetlands Project. An approach was made to the Forestry Commission for Scotland (FCS) and a meeting was arranged. FCS were enthusiastic about the proposal but first had to arrange visits by land management specialists, an ecologist and a civil engineer. All were favourable to the proposal and discussions then centered on whether the project should proceed as a Community land purchase or as a Partnership with FCS. This latter course was agreed upon in view of FCS’s in-house experience and expertise. Before proceeding too far, it was felt judicious to approach the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) who has the power to veto any plan that involves impoundment of water. SEPA sent a representative to view the site who expressed the view that the site clearly had been a pond in the distant past and that the proposals represented a re-instatement. As such they expected to give their formal proposal subject to surveys and maps being submitted.

Aerial shot of site before work commenced

We then proceeded by excavating four trial trenches on the site to establish water table levels. All four successfully filled with water within a few hours and remained full until they were subsequently infilled for safety purposes. In three of the trenches the water level rose to within 250 mm of the ground surface level. The results were therefore very encouraging. A FCS civil engineer visited the site to survey and measure the contours in order to prepare a topographical map. From this, the first suggested landscape drawings were prepared showing the planned pond, watercourses and planting.

Site from the North on exiting the forest

The Engineer required extensive depth probes all over the site to establish the hard/mineral base and this task was carried out by committee members. Toward the end of 2007 an application was made to the BBC Breathing Places scheme for grant funding from the Lottery Fund. Breathing Places is a major BBC Learning campaign to inspire and motivate communities to create and care for nature-friendly green spaces in their local area. Grants were available to small schemes with a total budget of below £25,000 and the maximum grant claimable was £10,000. Success with this would ensure that there was almost enough money for the excavations to proceed.

Site from the South

2008

During January the traditional heavy rains brought the usual flooding to the site. A large number of photographs were taken to establish the flood directional flow and drainage to assist in determining the areas likely to be most suitable for placing the actual pond area.

In February volunteers undertook the task of multiple deep probes across the site to confirm the hard mineral base in order to confirm that the areas selected for excavation would be best suited for the pond.

During Spring and early Summer we continued to take photographs of the existing wildflowers and insect life and many of these photographs are in the gallery of this website.

In June we received the good news that the project had been awarded £10,000 lottery funding from the BBC Breathing Places scheme.The award was one of only 10 grants in the Highlands and one of only 56 in the whole of Scotland. Furthermore, it was for the maximum amount that could be claimed which would provide most of the funding for the excavation which would ensure that the project could go ahead.

As one of the conditions of the Breathing Places grant was that the project had to be completed within 12 months, we then had to concentrate on furtherfund raising to pull the plan together. To help with the publicity, a press release was circulated and received wide coverage in the Inverness Courier. We were very fortunate in obtaining further sponsorship from 5 local organizations and further details can be seen on our sponsors page.

There then followed two months of detailed planning before the excavations commenced in September. The contractor was on site for three weeks during which time the shape of the main pond had to be altered to accommodate the actual conditions found. In particular it was found that the water table was much lower this year than in 2007 with the result that the main pond had to be dug deeper therefore wider than initially planned in order to ensure that there is sufficient water in the summer to sustain the hoped for aquatic biodiversity. However, there is still a marsh area to the south of the pond and enough land to add a smaller pond in the future.

Flooding during January

Monitoring of insects

Excavations in progress