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New film explores Little France Park

Local residents Sarah Ford-Hutchinson and Barrie Williams have created a film exploring Little France Park in Edinburgh. This is the city’s newest park and, covering 45 hectares, it is the largest in a generation. Little France Park has reclaimed unmanaged grassland for the local community and carves out a green corridor from the city centre to

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Living Cities: creating flower rich urban meadows

In this guest blog, Leonie Alexander from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh explains how to transform amenity grass into to vibrant flower rich meadows, and how this can benefit wildlife and was first published as part of the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Living Cities series  Imagine the scene – the sound of birdsong, grasshoppers leaping out from under your feet,

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Little France Wildlife Week (17 – 21 June)

A week of activities is taking place in Little France Park from 17 – 21 June to celebrate its value for wildlife and collect new biological records.There are a number of events that local residents, workers and organisations can get involved in, as well as activities with local schools and specialist groups. Information gathered during the

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Reconnecting Edinburgh citizens with their coastline

Two new volunteer groups: Seafield Shoreline and Joppa Shoreline are being set up by local people, supported by the Edinburgh Shoreline project who were granted additional funding to continue until September 2019, saving the project from ending in April. After applying for more funding, they were successful in securing £15000 from Scottish National Heritage’s Green

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Corstorphine Primary school is buzzing

Towards the end of 2018, I received an enquiry from Corstorphine Primary school which included a lovely hand written letter from one of the pupils. In it, the pupil described how she had come across the Edinburgh Living Landscape page, while researching about bees. She had signed the pollinator pledge and had told her friends

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Why ivy is a secret weapon for Edinburgh’s wildlife in winter

To some people ivy has a bad reputation but it could be one of the most important habitats for wildlife in the city. As one of Edinburgh’s few native evergreen plants ivy is an incredibly important plant. Here are a few reasons why and I love it, and why you should too. Food for thought 

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Greener, healthier cities are within our reach

The Scottish Wildlife Trust’s new publication Living Cities: towards ecological urbanism outlines the principles of ecological urbanism. It proposes 20 practical recommendations for embedding nature in the urban environment, which will be explored in detail over the next year. In this introductory blog, the Trust’s Chief Executive Jonny Hughes explains the challenge, and demonstrates why

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Biggest new park in a generation opens today

Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust (ELGT) have enlisted the help of local school children to help officially open the new active travel route through Little France Park. The local children came from the nearby Castleview primary school who have been involved with a bikability scheme and a junior ranger programme to help develop the park. The

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Square Meters for Butterflies on the One Show

The fantastic Square Metres for Butterflies project was featured on The One Show last night – see how the Edinburgh Living Landscape is helping to bring the northern brown argus back into the city. Fast forward to 25 minutes when the story starts. Watch Now!   

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Instagram photo competition now open!

A new Instagram competition is challenging people to capture the capital’s natural environment, whether it’s a hidden city centre park or the rolling hills of the Pentlands. Budding and experienced photographers are being encouraged to snap their interactions with Edinburgh’s ‘Living Landscapes’ for their chance to win. The term covers the city’s ‘network for nature’ and encompasses