Multiple benefits

The Tweed Forum have published a new guide to riverside tree planting. The guide called "Riparian woodland creation – a guide for practitioners" is available via the link at the bottom of this page. The Practitioners’ Guide to Riparian Woodland Creation is aimed at farmers, landowners, land managers, conservation bodies and other organisations to assist and encourage tree planting at the scale required to make a significant difference. The guide was commissioned and funded by the Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering with Nature initiative has released a new season of podcasts (season 7). Podcasts cover topics such as regenerative land management, policy issues and knowledge exchange. You can also access the previous 6 seasons of podcasts via the link below. 

A report has been published on the Hydronation Chair website on "Water Metrics and Standards: Review of current approaches, challenges and issues". The report presents the findings of an initial scoping survey carried out by the Hydronation Chair in late 2022/early 2023 on behalf of the Water Metrics and Standards Working Group, convened by SEPA and NatureScot. The report makes a series of recommendations for next steps for developing water metrics (including those associated with NFM measures).

The Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) is a joint initiative between Scottish Government, NatureScot, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund Supporting the development of environmental projects in Scotland. FIRNS aims to value and monetise ecosystem services derived from the restoration of natural capital assets, in a model that will attract and repay investment or support an investment model that can be scaled up and duplicated elsewhere.

The Eddleston Water project won two awards at the Chartered Institute of Ecology & Environmental Management's 2023 Awards ceremony in Birmingham on 28th June. Competing against a wealth of other excellent projects, Tweed Forum and its partners' study of the effectiveness of natural flood management won the CIEEM Best Practice Award for Large-Scale Practical Nature Conservation.

The terms restoration and nature-based solutions are both commonly used these days, and sometimes used interchangeably.  But are they identical?

The Environment Agency have commissioned Qa Research to research NFM training needs amongst people with a role in NFM in England. The Environment Agency wants to ensure that everyone involved in NFM has the skills, knowledge and expertise they need. Therefore this survey has been constructed to understand where there is a need for training for those who have a role in NFM to inform the development and availability of suitable training.

Peatland ACTION has recently launched a suite of films to help encourage more landowners to get involved in peatland restoration, and promote the value of the work that peatland contractors do to make that happen. The films can be accessed via a dedicated YouTube channel (via link below). There are a series of films which cover topics such as the land managers' view, about peatland contractors and also case study examples.

The River Restoration Centre (RRC) have a long history of running river related training events (inc. on the topic of NFM). The RRC have just released a number of training events that will take place over the next 6-months. These included courses on river erosion management and restoring river floodplain systems. There is a mix of in-person and virtual training events. More information on the training courses can be found by clicking the link below. 

The Scottish FRM2023 Conference took place in Perth in February this year. The topic of the conference was "Water Resilient Places". It was a 2-day conference which over 200 people attended (both in person and online). There were 59 speakrs and a number of workshops. A theme of one session was on Nature-Based Solutions (inc. NFM). All the slides and videos of the presentations are now available on Sniffer's website (see link below). They have a dedicated Vimeo channel hosting the session recordings.