Blairgowrie & Rattray Hub Magazine Winter 2023

We have an absolutely phenomenal group
of volunteers who help us work towards
increasing the biodiversity of different areas in
the town, enhancing the local environment and
being more nature friendly in a way that fits in
with local preferences.
The aim of Biodiversity Blair is to increase
the growing of healthy food locally, increase
pollinators and to look after our local natural
landscape for all species – including humans!
Part of that means ensuring there is a variety of
planting of the kind that, as well as increasing
pollinators, people like to look at and that will
help the town become more self-sustaining and
reduce food miles and food costs. To help us
achieve that, we also work closely with the BaRI
Food Project.
The areas that the Biodiversity Blair project
currently looks after are parts of Davie Park,
the riverside, the Gamesie and Lochy Park, and
we’re always keen to hear from anyone in the
town who would be interested in volunteering
for a few hours a month, enabling us to do
more - including looking after more areas in
Blairgowrie and Rattray and ensuring that
they are managed for the local community in
a way that both supports biodiversity and is
acceptable to residents.
We often run a ‘mini bioblitz’ where we ask local
residents to record sightings of ten different
species of plants, animals and insects in the
local area. The mini bioblitz aims to improve our
understanding of which plants and wildlife grow
in the Blairgowrie and Rattray area and will help
us with a larger bioblitz project in development
for next year.
Working in partnership with Buglife, and as
part of our Strathmore B-lines project, we spent
two days planting native wildflowers in the
grassland at the
Gamesie playing
fields to provide
valuable food for
pollinating insects.
Our volunteers
took great care
in scything and
raking the ground
in preparation
for planting. The
wildflower path
is going to look
fantastic and huge thanks are due to everyone
involved for all their hard work bringing this to
fruition.
We’re also running a competition to see if we can,
all together, help increase the range of species
we can encourage in Blairgowrie and Rattray.
If you have a space that could be improved in
a biodiverse way – whether that is a garden, a
balcony, a front doorstep - please take a picture
of it and send to us at info@biodiversityblair.scot
or pop in to the BaRI Food and Refill Store with it
by December 11.
We can offer ideas on ways to improve the space
and then later on we will ask you to take another
picture to show the improvement and hopefully
win a prize!
If you’re interested in finding out more about
Blairgowrie and Rattray’s Biodiversity Town
strategy, and what you can do, visit
www.discoverblairgowrie.co.uk/cap-actions/
biodiversity
As part of the town’s Open Spaces forum,
alongside a number of different groups in the
town including Blair in Bloom, the Blairgowrie,
Rattray and District Climate Café, BRAN and
Perth and Kinross Council’s Greenspace team
we are helping to create an e-newsletter to
keep those interested up-to-date with what’s
happening.
To be added to the mailing lists for upcoming
volunteering opportunities and/or the
e-newsletter, please email
lesley@discoverblairgowrie.co.uk
Alternatively, follow ‘BiodiversityBlair’ on
Facebook and Instagram for up-to-date
information on events and work parties.
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