Joy, Hughie and Fiona from the Friends of Nevis volunteered their time this morning to help clear up paths in the Lower Glen after the busy August Bank Holiday weekend. Joining them were NLP Seasonal Rangers Lauren and Bianca and also Volunteer Coordinator Rory.
The team split into three pairs to concentrate on the riverside path past Roaring Mill to the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre and also both sides of the road from the curling ponds to the visitor centre. Today's hot-spots for rubbish were from the Claggan Spar shop to Roaring Mill and along the roadside on the west side of the river, which hasn't had a major clean up this season.
Overall 7 bin bags were filled with rubbish and a bucketful of glass bottles collected. Highlife Highland allowed us to use their landfill bins which was much appreciated. 
A big thanks to volunteers Joy, Fiona and Hughie , pictured below with Seasonal Rangers Lauren and Bianca.

If you want to help out on any of the coming Mondays in September just sign up on the Events page or drop an email to rory ([email protected])

For the next few Mondays Friends of Nevis will be running some Monday Morning Litter Picks, starting from Monday 31st August. These will concentrate on the lower level paths in the Glen, eg Curling Ponds, Roaring Mill, Riverside & All Ability Path, Lower Falls to Paddy's Bridge. Check out the Events page if you want to take part. 

Today saw the first Friends of Nevis volunteer work party since lock-down began in March. Friends of Nevis volunteer regulars Ali and Paul (pictured below) turned out to help 'bracken bash' in the Future Forests planting exclosures in Glen Nevis. As you can see it was an overcast and  midgey start but after a short while the sun burned its way through and chased them away. Two more exclosures were cleared of bracken, giving the mix of Oak, Hazel, Rowan, Aspen and Scots Pine planted in them a helping hand.
A big thanks to Ali and Paul for their efforts today!
Why not check out the events page and sign up for the next volunteer work party on Saturday 5th September?

With Scotland currently in 'Phase 3' of its Covid-19 response it is now possible for limited volunteer activities to resume, albeit with some special measures to safeguard and support staff, volunteers and the general public.
I have recently collaborated with Nathan Berrie (pictured above), from the John Muir Trust Ben Nevis team, to run a series of trial volunteer work parties with small groups of local volunteers. These have proved very successful and have provided an opportunity to get some 'local heroes' back out into the Glen and up the Ben, to help with vital work.
After consulting with Joy Biggin, Chair of Friends of Nevis Trustees, we are posting Friends of Nevis Volunteer Work Party dates onto the calendar for the 12th  August,  5th September, 3rd October. These will be tackling core tasks such as bracken bashing, path maintenance and clearing litter.  
There are some important features of the work parties to be aware of:

• Currently limited to 4 volunteers (to keep in line with Scottish Government Guidance on meeting others from a maximum of 4 other households at one time. If two people wish to come from the same household we may be able to increase the size of the work party accordingly)
• Volunteers must sign up online and respond by email to some pre-event screening questions
• Volunteers make their own way to a convenient meeting point (eg Glen Nevis Visitor Centre) and meet the event leader there
• Activities are purposefully chosen that allow volunteers to maintain social distancing
• There are still refreshment breaks and opportunities for chat and 'craic' but be warned FoN wont be supplying its  usual copious quantities of communal biscuits and hot drinks ...bring your own!!

More details of the updated procedures are posted on the NLP events page. These will change accordingly as the Scottish Government's advice updates.

The Friends of Nevis AGM is scheduled for Friday October 30th. We have a guest speaker and venue provisionally booked.
It is very likely that the format of this year's event will be different than previous years so watch this space for more details.

The 2020 Glen Nevis Autumn Litter Pick is scheduled for Sunday 22nd November.  Details of arrangements will be available nearer the date.