Landscapes for Life Conference 2018 - Growing Orchard Communities

3. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected The Growing Orchard Communities project aimed to support local people to manage healthy orchards for the whole community to enjoy. It was run by Orchard Link, supported by the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and other private sector funders.

4. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Funding • Heritage Lottery Fund £40,500 • South Devon AONB contribution £5,000 • Orchard Link contribution £5,000 • Langage Landscape Fund £30,000 • S106 other grants £2,200 • Devon County Council Locality Funds £4,100 • Total £86,800 • Direct income to AONB staff unit £14,000 (delivery and management)

5. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Membership 23 community orchard groups from edge of Plymouth to Torbay and from the edge of Dartmoor down to the coast.

6. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Healthy Orchards • Site Development Workshops • Site appraisals with an expert • Preparation of an Action Plan for each site • Small site grants

7. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Healthy Groups • Group Development workshops • Quarterly Network Days • Community Orchard Network • Orchard Link support

8. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Core Groups • 5 Core Groups • Extra funding for community engagement • Case Studies produced

9. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected

10. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Sharing the Learning • Apple Press – bi-monthly e- newsletter • Social Media - dedicated Facebook, Flickr, YouTube sites • New website for Orchard Link www.orchardlink.org.uk • Digital workshops

11. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Evaluation

12. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected The Core Achievements

13. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Volunteer Contributions • 23 training workshops delivered, attended by 317 volunteers • 576 participant days recorded • Total volunteer time, equivalent to 1283 volunteer days • Volunteer time and non-cash contributions (as specified by HLF guidance) totals £137,150.

14. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Volunteer Contributions • 5 core groups worked on case study projects • Core group volunteers put on 56 community events. Their time contributions were worth £64,650 (HLF guidance)

15. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Community Involvement • 10 new community Apple Days • Core groups events were attended by just over 1600 people • Other community orchard group events were attended by 2501 people

16. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Legacy – DEFRA 25 year plan The project’s approach and outcomes have contributed to at least four of the six key areas of the 25 Year Environment Plan, including use of land, recovering nature, connecting people with the environment and increasing resource efficiency.

17. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Legacy – The People • From feedback we know that the project has had a real “capacity building” impact on the participants, in terms of new skills, confidence, ideas, vision, contacts and energy. • For some of the groups, the project has acted as a real catalyst for change. This is exactly what we wanted to happen.

18. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Legacy – The Places • The orchards are now being much more skilfully and effectively cared for • The produce has a use • The orchards are resilient and long lasting assets to their local area and the protected landscape

19. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Legacy – The Wildlife • Sites are better managed for nature conservation • Biodiversity value enhanced • Built into long term management of sites • Volunteers undertaking regular surveys and recording

20. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Legacy – The organisations • Orchard Link has developed a new sense of purpose and direction, and has acquired the skills and resources to embrace this and continue its work with community orchard groups in the future.

21. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected Legacy – The organisations • South Devon AONB unit has forged greater links with local orchard groups and their communities and have helped ensure that the orchards remain an important and distinctive feature of the protected landscape. • Management plan delivery

22. The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Naturally Beautiful, Nationally Protected

Editor's Notes

Orchards are a distinctive feature of the South Devon landscape. Almost every farm had an orchard to provide cider, juice, cooking and eating apples for the family, workers and the wider community. 60% of England’s orchards have disappeared since the 1950s. In Devon, the figure is higher still at 90%.
Partnership – HLF wanted to fund community action / training / networking etc but no new orchards / landscape improvements. LLF / locality funds – landscape works OL was set up in 1998 to promote the restoration and planting of orchards. Primarily made up of private owners who had an interest in cider making. More comm orchards being managed and members joining OL, not being effectively supported. We initiated a partnership with them in response to their need to better support these COGs and to meet our Man plan objectives of enhancing and conserving orchards as a key feature of the AONB landscape This project has tackled this issue by working with volunteer community orchard groups to improve their skills and expertise in order for them to safeguard the ongoing good management of existing orchards in their parishes. We also worked with them to help them to better engage their communities to engender a sense of ownership of these important shared spaces in their villages.
Because money not coming to us, we can contract out to OL and be paid for my time Lots of consultation in bid building- questionnaires, phone calls, meetings. The Programme put together through extensive consultation carried out before the project – vital for HLF success but also gave us time to build a good relationship with the group
Did work outside of aonb area to fit in with OL area but also to allow us to look at a wider landscape scale project
Site dev workshops including grafting, winter and summer pruning, grassland management, enhancing biodiversity – hedging, attracting pollinators, bats, invertebrates, agroforestry techniques Site appraisals Written report presented to group – used in AP Action plan – workshop, back to appraiser to check, using notes. Very basic plan of management – legacy Small site grants – as identified - landscape improvements, planting, biodiversity, feeding, benches, path works, hedging bird boxes etc.
GDP - aimed at improving capacity and confidence of group and volunteers - on subjects such as running community events, fundraising, encouraging volunteers, promoting yourself and gathering support. Network days - large events open to all members of the scheme and wider membership of Orchard Link. - Taster sessions, talks, sharing experience and ideas. – mixing of vols Network - share issues, ideas and support each other. very strong and came across as very important part of scheme to members – sharing ideas, expertise, problems and solutions Orchard link – traditionally private orchards but more comm orchards came in –. They will be more robust in supporting the community orchard groups in their membership and have added a community champion as an role on the Orchard Link committee.
DM – events off site to encourage more people to join the friends group and visit / use the orchard. Community space HC – informal use, events, space for people to use and share – community ownership NN – worked with group of young people, future sustainability, wildlife diversity SP – raise awareness, linking them, new vols, more comm use TIE – more vols to look after orchards across the town, more children and families to use and hlpe out on the sites. Local ownership
What we did – some of… PRESS PLAY
Apple press – 117 subscribers by end of project Social media use important – project page but also encouraged groups to set up their own – online community Website very popular, good for OL, online payments, more efficient – all vols. Project pages, site info, case studies, online toolkit – 46 info sheets produced Digi workshops – facebook, flickr, digi images, and video, blogging,
Evaluation film – part of it – made at finale day, submitted as part of out evaluation, comments and song made up, played at end of day
How we got on
Vol time – people we actually engaged with as part of the project, all enabling them to go out and work with their communities and on their sites Particpant days – inc network events
Core groups received extra £2500 to pay for artists or other experts to come and help them deliver events to engage communities on their sites. Carpenters to help the communities make benches , signs, map makers, story tellers, wildlife experts, musicians, cooks, foragers plus some money for infrastructure and of course, cake!
Core group events inc practical orchard tasks, landscape enhancements – benches, paths, sign making, stories, mapping, music, school activities, wildlife walks, Events were also organised and run by other groups including wassails, picnics, tree care and even wheelbarrow jousting!
The orchard group volunteers Feedback during project and final evaluation
Orchards - with on-going management plans and greater levels of community involvement. Produce - and is enjoyed by the local community or sold to raise funds for the group Orchards - remain a key distinctive feature of the SD landscape
Each site managed in different ways, comm sites more likely to be managed better for wildlife as not commercial driver. We worked with the groups to enable greater nature conservation potential for these sites and built it into their appraisals and action plans. With access to experts, training and shared equipment the biodiversity of the sites is being enhanced and is built into future management Grassland man – scything, mowing, grazing; hedge planting, improving ground flora, orchards for pollinators, bats, invertebrates, small mammals.
OL realisation the not all about apples, for Comm groups it is primarily about the space
The project met key policy objectives from the AONB management plan helped us to maintain and enhance the special qualities of the area.
Thank you

Landscapes for Life Conference 2018 - Growing Orchard Communities

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Landscapes for Life Conference 2018 - Growing Orchard Communities

Editor's Notes