Harestanes hub
A Focus on Place
Where we live in relation to wildlife matters if we are to be more connected to nature - and happier and healthier! Communities need wildlife-rich natural spaces near where they live and work so they can easily access them and this decline is leading to diminishing benefits for communities and individuals alike. To involve communities in the shared stewardship of the local environment will help address this.
Harestanes Hub will become the focus for an inclusive approach to the enjoyment, monitoring and development of the natural environment in the immediate locality of the centre. The aim would be to get a know a site specific area and all its physical and nonphysical components really well and grow to understand the way we interact with that ecosystem, space in our work and recreation would allow us to value that area a little more.
To record many aspects of life in the Harestanes area - its archaeology. genealogy, history, sociology, topography and all branches of natural history. This primary information would be combined to build an invaluable picture of the local sense of place. Building awareness of biodiversity to explore and collect data on animals, plants, birds.
The practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge has been undertaken by committed groups in the Borders for over two hundred years. More familiarly known as Historical or Natural History Societies they were and still remain invaluable contributors to citizen science.
The internet has allowed us all to reach out and engage citizens in a huge array of research projects. Working alongside professional scientists and champions of conservation and wildlife the contribution of a group such as a Harestanes Hub could be great opportunity to contribute to and learn from each other. To create an even great sense of place.
The innovative use of apps and smartphones to record plants, animals, weather systems, architecture etc. The project design, ethical management, the inclusive and diversity of participants is core. Develop an approach which involves stakeholder citizens in learning about their local ecosystem, environment and science in general. This will;
Intangible cultural heritage would be another great element of the Hubs function. The non-physical intellectual wealth such as folklore, customs, beliefs, traditions, knowledge and language of the area. This would include – oral traditions, arts, rituals and festive events, traditional craftsmanship, foodlore and an understanding of historical perspective.
Information that is transmitted from generation to generation, knowledge that is constantly recreated and endorsed by communities in response to their environment and their interaction with nature and their history. It provides them with their sense of identity and continuity. Thus, promoting respect for other cultural diversity, human creativity and of sustainable development. Museums are often the keyholders of this heritage, but individuals and communities are the makers of it!
The dominance of “new nature writing” and “how to survive off-grid in a shepherds hut” books by Roger Deakin, Helen MacDonald, Robert Macfarlane and Kathleen Jamie to name but a few have a habit of telling us what we’re missing in the 21st century!
Nostalgia often drives us backwards to lost remote lives and landscapes. Works from Thoreau, Whitman, Muir etc are seeing a revival. The rediscovery by some of Nan Shepherd, Patrick Geddes etc recalling simpler pastoral times and describing the thinness of our existence on the edge of worlds and landscapes - the attraction of vintage and its detached rural, quaint and authentic speaking of the past!
Television has proliferated the same “docunature” - rural affairs wrapped up in an urban fantasy. George Monbiot argues that Countryfile portrays the countryside not as it is, but as we would like it to be - timeless, unsullied, innocent, removed from the corruption and complexities of urban life.
There’s a propensity for it to be all info-nuggets about making, history, geography, literature, traditions and local anecdote. We are often fed these nostalgic representations of the rural and those living there. Taken one step further and we’re in the slow movement domain and organic idyll. The realm of the beautiful people and hipster, the place of all the gear and nae idea!
The Harestanes Hub should be more than representative of the lifestyle country person. The current push for rewilding and the supposed understanding of the wildness of that wilderness - we are disconnected from our native land. What is all ultimately at risk is us overlooking the conservation, preservation and ecological issues.
Action Plan for Harestanes Hub
Engage with :
Lothian Estates, Scottish Borders Council Planning
Primary, secondary, further education
Local historical natural history societies
National environmental organisations
Other citizen science projects etc, etc, etc
Where we live in relation to wildlife matters if we are to be more connected to nature - and happier and healthier! Communities need wildlife-rich natural spaces near where they live and work so they can easily access them and this decline is leading to diminishing benefits for communities and individuals alike. To involve communities in the shared stewardship of the local environment will help address this.
Harestanes Hub will become the focus for an inclusive approach to the enjoyment, monitoring and development of the natural environment in the immediate locality of the centre. The aim would be to get a know a site specific area and all its physical and nonphysical components really well and grow to understand the way we interact with that ecosystem, space in our work and recreation would allow us to value that area a little more.
To record many aspects of life in the Harestanes area - its archaeology. genealogy, history, sociology, topography and all branches of natural history. This primary information would be combined to build an invaluable picture of the local sense of place. Building awareness of biodiversity to explore and collect data on animals, plants, birds.
The practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge has been undertaken by committed groups in the Borders for over two hundred years. More familiarly known as Historical or Natural History Societies they were and still remain invaluable contributors to citizen science.
The internet has allowed us all to reach out and engage citizens in a huge array of research projects. Working alongside professional scientists and champions of conservation and wildlife the contribution of a group such as a Harestanes Hub could be great opportunity to contribute to and learn from each other. To create an even great sense of place.
The innovative use of apps and smartphones to record plants, animals, weather systems, architecture etc. The project design, ethical management, the inclusive and diversity of participants is core. Develop an approach which involves stakeholder citizens in learning about their local ecosystem, environment and science in general. This will;
- provides the participants in a meaningful role in the process of scientific research
- be inclusive of gender, age and physical ability
- acknowledge the worth and use of volunteers in the collection of data
- provide training opportunities and career path development for participants
- empower communities to make a difference in their immediate environment and thus raise their own social well being
- allow an informed public to play a valuable role in influencing decisions at local and national government levels
- improves science literacy in general.
- develop solutions which are largely site and investigation specific but could be transferred wider
- provided a baseline for understanding the broader implications for the study of habitat and behavioural ecology
- directly and indirectly relate to protection and restoration of that place.
Intangible cultural heritage would be another great element of the Hubs function. The non-physical intellectual wealth such as folklore, customs, beliefs, traditions, knowledge and language of the area. This would include – oral traditions, arts, rituals and festive events, traditional craftsmanship, foodlore and an understanding of historical perspective.
Information that is transmitted from generation to generation, knowledge that is constantly recreated and endorsed by communities in response to their environment and their interaction with nature and their history. It provides them with their sense of identity and continuity. Thus, promoting respect for other cultural diversity, human creativity and of sustainable development. Museums are often the keyholders of this heritage, but individuals and communities are the makers of it!
The dominance of “new nature writing” and “how to survive off-grid in a shepherds hut” books by Roger Deakin, Helen MacDonald, Robert Macfarlane and Kathleen Jamie to name but a few have a habit of telling us what we’re missing in the 21st century!
Nostalgia often drives us backwards to lost remote lives and landscapes. Works from Thoreau, Whitman, Muir etc are seeing a revival. The rediscovery by some of Nan Shepherd, Patrick Geddes etc recalling simpler pastoral times and describing the thinness of our existence on the edge of worlds and landscapes - the attraction of vintage and its detached rural, quaint and authentic speaking of the past!
Television has proliferated the same “docunature” - rural affairs wrapped up in an urban fantasy. George Monbiot argues that Countryfile portrays the countryside not as it is, but as we would like it to be - timeless, unsullied, innocent, removed from the corruption and complexities of urban life.
There’s a propensity for it to be all info-nuggets about making, history, geography, literature, traditions and local anecdote. We are often fed these nostalgic representations of the rural and those living there. Taken one step further and we’re in the slow movement domain and organic idyll. The realm of the beautiful people and hipster, the place of all the gear and nae idea!
The Harestanes Hub should be more than representative of the lifestyle country person. The current push for rewilding and the supposed understanding of the wildness of that wilderness - we are disconnected from our native land. What is all ultimately at risk is us overlooking the conservation, preservation and ecological issues.
Action Plan for Harestanes Hub
- Plan the organisational structure of the Harestanes Hub
- Gather in the trusted communicators to deliver the concept
- Identify the main stakeholders, (Lothian Estates, SBC, etc)
- Hub Premises identified, access to estate land and demonstration land secured
- Develop a fundraising strategy for the organisation
- Construct a project design with ethical management that has the inclusive and diverse nature of participants at heart
- Develop best practice and acknowledgement of use of volunteers and professional associates
Engage with :
Lothian Estates, Scottish Borders Council Planning
Primary, secondary, further education
Local historical natural history societies
National environmental organisations
Other citizen science projects etc, etc, etc