Fallago Environment Fund will be joining the Border Union Agricultural Society in welcoming around 1200 primary five children from across the region to the Society’s Schools Countryside Day at the Borders Events Centre on Tuesday 17 May. The Fund provides valuable financial backing for the event, which provides a unique opportunity for the children to learn about farming, food production and rural life.
This year, the children will have the chance to enjoy over 50 activities and demonstrations ranging from spinning, weaving, milking, beekeeping and auctioneering to sheep-shearing and stick-making. Sustainability is a core theme of this year’s event and the pupils will discover the importance of soil and woodland management, songbirds and protecting and enhancing the environment. They will also learn about healthy eating, livestock management, seasonal foods and the significance of food miles.
Representing the Fallago Environment Fund, His Grace The Duke of Roxburghe visited the Borders Events Centre this week to hear about preparations for the event. He’s pictured here (left) with two children from Broomlands Primary in Kelso who will be attending on the day, and Border Union Chairman, Peter Douglas (right).
The Abbotsford Trust, which looks after the Scottish Borders home of Sir Walter Scott, has received a £25,000 grant towards the restoration of a 19th century Pavilion from Fallago Environment Fund. Designed by Scott and built in 1824-25, the Category A-listed Pavilion is located in the attraction’s Regency gardens and is one of Abbotsford’s most important and historically significant buildings. Located against a heated wall, it was used to grow fruit and vegetables and to raise tender or exotic plants. It was also intended as an outdoor retreat from which to enjoy views of the garden in a sheltered environment.
The Pavilion is currently in poor condition and concerned about further deterioration, The Abbotsford Trust has launched a campaign to restore it and to create a dedicated space for wellbeing within it. This will be used for a range of life-enhancing activities such as sketching, poetry readings and other events. Historically appropriate plants such as oleanders and lily of the valley, and fruits such as peaches, figs and vines will be grown inside. The restoration of the Pavilion and of its Furnace Room and heated Kitchen Garden Wall will cost around £350,000, with £250,000 provided through an exceptional gift from a private donor. Efforts to secure the remaining funds are almost complete and work is expected to begin in early Summer.
Fallago Environment Fund Chair, Gareth Baird (right) is pictured presenting the cheque to Giles Ingram (left), Chief Executive of The Abbotsford Trust
Karen Briggs from Ancrum Community Council and local resident Rosie Hunt
Eight community groups in the Scottish Borders have been able to carry out important improvements to local walking routes thanks to our special £30,000 Covid-19 Footpath Repair Fund. The special fund was created to help restore community paths and enable the public to exercise safely outdoors during the pandemic and beyond.
Groups receiving funding include Ancrum Community Council (representatives pictured), which received £2,200 to improve Witch Burn Path including building a bridge over the unsafe burn crossing. Stuart Turnbull, Chair of Ancrum Community Council said; “During Covid, this path was seeing a lot of extra use. Thanks to the Fallago Environment Fund, the replacement bridge has saved bank erosion where people were fording the Witch burn and has given the community a safe way to cross it. People who weren’t brave enough to ford the burn are also enjoying the re-opening of a valued route round Ancrum.”
Other organisations in the Scottish Borders to benefit from the £18,592 in funding awarded are Reston Community Company Ltd, Eyemouth and Crailing, Eckford & Nisbet Community Councils, Earlston Paths Group, Chirnside Common Good Association and The Tweedsmuir Community Company.
The Covid-19 Footpath Repair Fund is the second Covid-specific grant scheme to be developed by Fallago Environment Fund, following a 2020 Covid-19 Recovery Programme that saw 38 Borders organisations share £100,000 in grants. This means that the two schemes have awarded a total of £118,592 to local projects to help improve wellbeing and reduce the negative impact of social isolation caused by the pandemic. It is hoped that a further five Footpath Repair Fund grants will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Great Borders River Clean is a Fallago Environment Fund-supported project which organises regular, large-scale river clean-ups throughout the Scottish Borders. The initiative also increases awareness about the effects and causes of plastic pollution and has been a great success in mobilising “people power” to clean up our rivers. In recognition of this, the project was debated in the Scottish Parliament this week (click link to see the proceedings) and it’s fantastic to see the project receiving such an accolade. Congratulations to the project team and the hundreds of volunteers who have taken part and helped their local environment thrive.
Five new Fallago Environment Fund projects have been approved in the latest funding round, with full details available over on our Latest Grant Awards page. The Fund will be supporting a programme of events to engage the local community with the historic Gifford Community Woodland, upgrades to Roxburgh Village Hall, community archaeological investigations into the Hidden History of Dark Age Tweeddale, the creation of a Village Hub at Oxton War Memorial Hall and an Artist’s Residency at Merlindale Meadows as part of Connecting Threads (a strand of the Destination Tweed initiative).
Fallago Environment Fund has launched a special £30,000 Covid-19 recovery fund to help restore community paths in the Scottish Borders that have fallen into disrepair due to increased use during the pandemic.
Rural community groups can apply for grants of up to £2,500 to help finance work that will allow the public to exercise safely on local routes throughout the summer and beyond. Unable to access gyms or other indoor spaces during lockdown, communities have increasingly turned to outdoor exercise in the Borders countryside. While this has been hugely beneficial for health, the increased traffic has caused many paths to deteriorate. Fallago Environment Fund hopes that this new £30,000 grant allocation, with payments made up-front, will enable infrastructure to be repaired as quickly as possible so that safe and easy community access is maintained.
The new footpath repair grant scheme will be administered by The Bridge – a Scottish Borders community development charity. Details on the application process can be found at www.the-bridge.uk.net or by emailing fallago@the-bridge.uk.net To qualify for a grant, applicants should aim to complete path repair work by September 2021. Match funding of 10% in cash or in kind, including volunteer effort, is also required.
Fallago Environment Fund is funding research by the Tweed Foundation that aims to help improve Atlantic salmon stocks on the River Tweed. A £40,000 2-year grant will see 220 migrating Atlantic salmon smolts tagged, and their progress tracked as they make their way downstream towards the sea at Berwick upon Tweed with the aim of identifying ways to maximise survival rates.
Fallago Environment Fund Chairman, Gareth Baird is pictured presenting a cheque to Tweed Foundation biologist James Hunt. Gareth said “The Atlantic Salmon is an iconic species that is hugely important to the ecosystem of the River Tweed and to the communities and businesses of the Scottish Borders and North Northumberland that rely on the fishing sector and the continued vitality of the river to make a living. The Fallago Environment Fund is delighted that resources generated from a renewable energy source in the region can help to protect and enhance one of the Borders’ most important natural assets.”
Fallago Environment Fund Chairman, Gareth Baird (right) presents a cheque for £40,000 to Tweed Foundation biologist, James Hunt
Fallago Environment Fund is boosting efforts to save the Black Grouse, one of Scotland’s most iconic birds, through a £9,500 grant to the Southern Uplands Partnership to survey lekking sites in the Scottish Borders. Lekking is the annual courting ritual of the species with male birds strutting and displaying their feathers in what is viewed as one of nature’s great spectacles. Black Grouse numbers are in sharp decline in the South of Scotland but it’s hoped that identification of these key lekking areas can aid survival by directing future commercial forestry planting away from the sites and ensuring that the best balance of open moorland and woodland is maintained.
Fallago Environment Fund has made it through to the finals of the 2020 Helping it Happen Awards in the Community Champion of the Year category. The Fund was nominated for its special, limited-lifetime “Covid-19 Recovery Grant Programme”, launched specifically to help Borders residents recover from the impact of the coronavirus crisis and lockdown.
Aimed at projects that supported wellbeing and resilience, active lifestyles, disabled access and the implementation of social distancing measures, Fallago Environment Fund granted £100,000 to 38 projects throughout the Scottish Borders. Priority was given to small organisations with local impact which were delivering recovery projects that would not happen or would have been significantly delayed without this support, providing a vital lifeline to local communities.
17 community groups across the Scottish Borders are benefitting to the tune of £37,499 in the second and final round of funding from the Fallago Environment Fund’s Covid-19 Recovery Grant Programme.
Overall, the programme has helped 38 projects, giving a total of £100,000 to initiatives that support wellbeing and resilience, active lifestyles, disabled access and the implementation of social distancing measures.
While Borders communities have shown huge resilience, the social isolation caused by coronavirus and the restrictions it has put on everyone’s lives is still keenly felt by many. The Fallago Environment Fund is grateful to have been able to play a part in assisting projects that will enhance wellbeing and help the region to heal.
