A collaboration which brought £176,000 to the local landscape and enhanced connected environments.
The CEI was successful with its plans to fund a New Cumnock Habitat Network by assisting landowners to apply for Scottish Rural Development Programme Funding.  The project willl deliever £176,000 of investment in environmental management, which will help create an interlacing network of good wildlife habitat surrounding, and connecting with, this East Ayrshire town.

The landscape scale of this project matches the most up to date thinking on successful habitat conservation in Scotland.  Species such as lapwing, curlew, watervole, black grouse and skylark are amoungst the long list of wildlife that will be better able to adapt and move freely across the landscape in response to climate change or other pressures.

Wildlife corridors will be of particular value also to mammals, especially bats, and invertebrates that forage or disperse between habitats such as hedgerows and wetlands.

Despite the impacts of industry, New Cumnock's greatest asset is its wonderful rural landscape.  On its doorstep are some of East Ayrshire's most scenic areas, including Glen Afton, the surrounding hills and the River Nith.  Ecologically, the New Cumnock area has a high concentration of important wildlife areas, its wide habitats support numerous species within the Scottish Biodiversity Action Plan.

Working with landowners during 2009 let to submission of six applications for SRDP funding, all of which were successful in January 2010.  Through the project we have also developed links with a range of landowners who are supportive of the network and have managed to survey a large area of local habitat.