Illustrated Talk by Cat Robinson, Scottish Mink Initiative & Andy Holtby, Highland Council, non-native plants and current action in the Spey.

Wednesday 29th June 2011 at the Active Cafaidh, Grampian Road, Aviemore. PH22 1PT, 6.30pm for 7.00pm

Wholesome food and refreshments will be available.

BSCG’s next meeting will be an illustrated talk about invasive species in the Cairngorms with Cat Robinson who is working on mink in the Cairngorms area and Andy Holtby of  Highland Council  who will talk about non-native plants and current action in the Spey.

We are particularly grateful to the Active Cafaidh who have made their premises available free of charge. We are starting the meeting early to take advantage of the refreshments the café has to offer.

The Scottish Mink Initiative which is a community based initiative covering the whole of north east Scotland and the western Highlands.  Cat Robinson covers the Cairngorms and Moray area.

The Scottish Mink Initiative is working to eradicate breeding mink from north east Scotland to protect nationally important populations of declining wildlife including the water vole and ground nesting birds such as lapwing and curlew.  They are recruiting local volunteers to monitor mink rafts which involves taking ownership of a raft and visiting it once a fortnight to check for mink footprints.  It is a great opportunity to see what wildlife there is on local lochs, burns and rivers as footprints often found include otters, and where they are still found, water voles.  They are also going to be running water vole surveys and non-native plant surveys in the Badenoch and Strathspey area so that their distribution can be monitored, and are looking for volunteers to help with this.

Please download and display poster.