Threat to Forest as EU Demands Cash Back
Copyright 2001 The Scotsman
September 10, 2001
By Tracey Lawson
IT WAS named the Forest for a Thousand Years and hailed as the woodland which would transform the shores of Loch Lomond into Caledonia's native landscape where Rob Roy once roamed.
With almost a million saplings planted in just five years, Cashel Forest has become a living lesson in environmental responsibility for the hundreds of schoolchildren who have helped to grow its trees.
But now public enjoyment of the woodland is under threat, amid a dispute over the way European Union funding to develop the site has been used.
The Royal Scottish Forestry Society (RSFS), which developed the 3,000-acre woodland, now faces handing back to the EU thousands of pounds which have already been spent. The cash crisis has forced the RSFS Forest Trust, which runs the site, to terminate the contracts of Cashel Forest's only two on-site staff. John Sinclair, warden at Cashel Forest since its inception five years ago, described the job losses as a tragedy for all nature lovers.
Cashel falls within the boundaries of Loch Lomond National Park, which will be the first in Scotland when it opens next April.
In the last five years 2,000 members of the public have paid around GBP 60 a time to donate native trees, including birch, oak and Scots pine, to the woodland.
Mr Sinclair has also forged close links with local schools, developing an apple orchard with dwarf trees small enough for children to plant and tend themselves on regular visits.
Mr Sinclair, whose contract with the Cashel project ends on Saturday, said: "Who will welcome these children now, and help them appreciate the wonder of woodlands?
"We talk about making our children more environmentally aware, and it is a tragedy that Cashel will not be able to play a part in this now.
"I am devastated to think that the vision of Cashel, which was to have a woodland for people, has fallen by the wayside because of questions over EU funding."
The RSFS began the development of Cashel Forest in 1996, as its contribution to the Millennium Forest for Scotland project - a nationwide scheme initiated by tree-lovers across Scotland to create a forest which would run the length and breadth of the country. Today Cashel is one of almost 70 different projects involving almost 400 individual woodlands across Scotland under the umbrella of the Millennium Forest project.
The RSFS Trust bought Cashel Farm, formerly a 3,059-acre sheep farm, in 1996 with a GBP 800,000 Millennium Commission grant.
The charity managed to secure a further GBP 1.2 million from a variety of sources, including a GBP 150,000 grant from the European Union, specifically for capital expenditure purposes - the term which is generally used to plant trees in such projects.
The grant was allocated to the Trust on behalf of the EU via the then Scottish Office.
Yesterday Felix Karthaus, a forestry consultant employed by the Trust to manage Cashel, said the cash wrangle followed concerns from auditors working on behalf of the EU that some of the GBP 150,000 had been spent on aspects of the project which cannot officially fall in the category of "capital expenditure".
Mr Karthaus refused to disclose the exact amount which the Trust now understands it will have to hand back to the EU, but The Scotsman understands the figure runs into tens of thousands of pounds.
Mr Karthaus said
"When the GBP 150,000 was allocated, I understand that the Scottish executive agreed it could be used for purposes not strictly regarded as capital expenditure.
"Now the auditors have come along and said some of the things we have claimed for under capital expenditure can not be classed as that - but we have to accept we must pay back a very significant sum of our EU grant."
Mr Karthaus, who is based in Northumberland, described the enforced departure of Mr Sinclair and his assistant as a disaster for Cashel.
He said
"There is no doubt this will be a disaster. Cashel was meant to be a woodland for people, and John has done a sterling job in bringing the community into the wood and helping people appreciate it.
"But we have to tighten our belts for the winter."
Mr Karthaus added that the Trust plans to launch a fund-raising initiative to re-employ a warden next year, and hope they can eventually develop the site even further.
There is no suggestion that there is any wrong-doing on the part of anyone linked to the RSFS Trust or the operation at Cashel Forest.
No-one from the Scottish executive was available for comment last night.