NEW BUS timetables are to come into effect across Shetland from Monday 17 August.

Additional evening and weekend services are being introduced, providing greater flexibility for people travelling for work, leisure, social activities and appointments.

"Coupled with the £2 bus fare cap, bus travel has never been a better option for getting about Shetland."

As an anti-racist festival born out of community solidarity, the packed programme is once again brimming with grassroots arts, heritage trails, live music, film screenings, and radical discussions.

The support statement from the CIC says the roundhouse will be a Community Build, offered for free, with a chance for people to learn new, transferable skills.

This was supposed to be the biggest gathering of the far-right in Scotland for years. It had been carefully orchestrated. Speakers from neo-nazi groups Patriotic Alternative and Homeland Party addressed the crowd, as did Reform UK councillor Audrey Dempsey. Sharing a platform with Nazis is never a good look. But with questions about policing in Glasgow ongoing the anti-fascist forces far outnumbered the far-right.

The day did not turn out the way the far Right hoped. A group of around 500 people, mostly men, came to their rally, but there was no mass turn out from the targeted Glasgow housing schemes.

The counter-protest quickly grew to around 4000 people. The mood of that side was in stark contrast to the anger within the far-Right space. In a long line stretching from the top corner to a gate near the bottom of the park, anti-racist men and women, young and elderly, chanted: ‘There are many, many more us than you’ and sang and laughed at the absurd appearance of several of the angry men on the grass.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50040837

Some good news for us today. Seeing beavers in the wild is pretty special

Working with the support of Orkney Islands Council which maintains the verges, the NatureScot/RSPB multi-organisational Species on the Edge project, funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, will create, where there was once only short cut grass, a transformation into a biodiverse environment with a range of wildflower plant species.

“Species on the Edge is a collaboration of eight conservation organisations, working with communities across Scotland’s coasts and islands to save our rarest and most vulnerable species from extinction.”

The agreement with BETA means that Loganair becomes Europe’s first commercial airline operating an electric aircraft fleet.

The scheme, which was officially launched at the Border Union Show in Kelso on Friday, July 24, supports the planting of landscape trees outside traditional woodland settings, helping to deliver a range of environmental benefits.

Balloch Castle Country Park is celebrating its 110th anniversary in public ownership with a major financial announcement.

The aim is to help these town and village gardens come together annually for some friendly competition – much in the style of a more traditional flower and produce show, but for these community groups rather than individuals.

after a year and a half of negotiation and legal work, the woodland now belongs to the community under the custodianship of Rhu and Shandon Community Trust.

Common Sandpipers are now nesting in what is being hailed as a landmark for a nature reserve near the Clyde.

“This is what can happen when a community works together to protect nature and places a real value on their natural environment.

Anyone who can help should meet at the bus shelter near Kilcreggan pier

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49178512

Hard to argue with this report, who doesn't want these outcomes. Owners, that's who! They won't volunteer to do this

A diverse group have joined forces to improve food security by strengthening the link between nature and sustainable farming in Scotland.

NatureScot Chair Colin Galbraith unveiled the agreement at the Royal Highland Show today (19 June), which has been signed by NatureScot, Scottish Environment LINK, Scottish Land and Estates, NFU Scotland, the Nature Friendly Farming Network, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, and the Scottish Food Commission, championing a shared vision for nature and food.

With the increasing effects of climate change on Scotland’s food supply, including extreme weather and soil quality, the agreement focuses on the urgent need for natural ecosystems to be strong and healthy to support food production and food security. Several research studies, including the UK Government’s National Security Assessment published in February, have found a strong link between healthy nature and healthy food production. The assessment also found the UK would be unlikely to be able to maintain food security if ecosystem collapse were to drive geopolitical competition for food.

The Edinburgh Climate Festival has delivered another successful year, welcoming approximately 7,000 visitors and supported by 55 volunteers.

This year’s edition continued its core mission of inspiring collective climate action across Edinburgh through a dynamic programme of live music, performances, talks, workshops, and interactive art installations, featuring more than 48 organisations working across the climate and sustainability sector.

A neglected and overgrown garden on Forres High Street is being transformed into a welcoming educational and wellbeing space by local gardening fanatics.

Steve explained that the garden was filled with brambles from top to bottom, and they’ve slowly turned it into a space for flowers, bushes, edible plants, herbs, and even poisonous plants that they will use to educate people on foraging.

Ashers Secret Garden will open fully to the public soon, but for now it’s open to visitors and volunteers from Monday to Saturday 8am to around 2pm, just to the left of Ashers Bakery. Everyone is welcome to sit, chat and enjoy.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/51283955

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is sowing the seeds for successful montane scrub restoration in the Angus Glens.

Three new conservation seed orchards have been created to ensure new trees planted in the high parts of the glens will be from stock that has originated from the area.

The local seed provenance – a reference to the original geographic location where the parent plants grow and the seeds were collected – will mean the next generation of trees will have genetics adapted to the local environmental conditions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48646466

Naebidy wants them here!

The theme for 2026 is “Think Local”, with a specific focus on food and celebration. This is because the festival’s parent organisation, the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub, will celebrate its 5th Birthday in the same month! The Highlands and Islands Climate Hub was one of two pilot projects to support community-led climate action, and is now part of a network of 24 Hubs all over Scotland, funded by Scottish Government.

Priest meanwhile said there needs to be a scheme that is “seen as fair by the communities directly impacted by the developments, otherwise the confidence in the process is eroded away”.

While Statkraft’s two wind farms could in theory pay out around £1 million a year across the three North Isles areas, a community-owned wind farm in Yell with just five turbines regularly provides more.

North Yell Development Council’s Garth wind farm near Cullivoe, which has a capacity of 4.5MW, sees profits – usually a seven figure sum – reinvested into the community and the local development company.

The Good Life has never been more attractive to the green-fingered in West Lothian and demand for allotment space is growing.

While the TV show is more than 50 years old the “grow your own” idea which first took root in the 1970s has bloomed.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/51533991

The project fills a significant gap left by commercial or state-sponsored forestry organisations: these locations are too remote or costly for commercial seed collectors to visit, adding to the significance of the specimens Birch’s teams are saving.

Its backers believe the project is the largest citizen-based reforestation programme of its kind.

It is striking that whilst the renewable developments of Sutherland accelerate, not one significant wind farm in the area is community-owned and economic business as usual sees the profits extracted by corporations and private equity firms. 


In fact, recent research by the Centre for Local Economies (CLES) has shown that capacity over the five financial years from 2019-20 to 2023-2024, 49 per cent of Scotland’s installed onshore wind developments made a total of £2.83 billion in post-tax profits, nearly 90 per cent of that profit - £2.49 billion – was paid as dividends to corporate shareholders. This is not a just transition, nor is it maximising the radical, decentralising potential of renewable energy or spreading the wealth that this economic opportunity presents. More corporate-led development is not what we need.

We cannot allow regressive politics to undermine opportunities for a fairer economic system and transformational rural development, nor damage our drive to decarbonise and protect the planet.