Interview With The Langholm Initiative
The Langholm Initiative is working in the Scottish Borderlands to support the local community. A few years ago, they bought a grouse moor and turned it into a community-owned nature project, called Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. We spoke to Jenny Barlow, the estate manager to find out more about this incredible project.
Tell us a bit about The Langholm Initiative, and how it came to buy the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve.
The Langholm Initiative is a community development Trust and was set up in 1994 in response to the decline of the traditional textiles industry which had been the backbone of the town for centuries. The aim of the Initiative was to support community regeneration and help make Langholm and Eskdale an even better place to live and work, people have always been at the heart of what we do.
Up until 2019, buying land and becoming a community landowner had not been on the cards or featuring in any of our plans. However, a shock announcement by Buccleuch, one of Scotland’s largest landowners, changed all that overnight and presented a once in a lifetime opportunity that we just couldn’t walk away from! Buccleuch own a large amount of land in the Langholm area, and they announced that along with some other large areas of land, that 10,500 acres of the Tarras Valley and Langholm Moor was to go up for sale.
This area is hugely important locally for so many reasons, but it also contained the Common Land or the ‘Common Moss’, that generations of the towns people have marked annually to keep their rights over it for the last 270 years. The annual marking of the boundaries, the Common Riding, is a huge celebration of land rights, culture and community which is part of the identity of so many local people.
Following extensive local consultations, the Langholm initiative agreed to take forward a fundraising campaign on behalf of the community, attempting to raise over £6m to purchase 10,500 acres of this very special landscape. Community ownership of land was a chance to help support wider regeneration of the town through new nature-based enterprises and make a meaningful contribution to the climate and ecological emergency.
The story of our community land purchase captured the interest of people from all around the world during the global Covid-19 pandemic. The news about a small community trying to achieve what had never been done before in South Scotland, attracted local and national interest, made global headlines, and gathered support from all over the world. At the start the ‘impossible dream’ felt just that but then the tidal wave of support that followed just carried us all the way through.
After 2 years of fundraising through 2 multi-million pound buy-out campaigns, in what was termed a moment of history and hope for people, nature and climate, the community of Langholm now legally owns 10,500 acres of the Tarras Valley and Langholm Moor. This truly epic journey for a small community would not have been possible without the unwavering support of so many wonderful donors and volunteers from all walks of life, who have helped us make history.
Was the community initially behind this?
As with every grassroots community initiative there was lots of support locally but also some inevitable scepticism, this was a monumental change in landownership moving from one single landowner to a collective community model, there were changes in how the land was to be used and how the land was to be managed so it was totally understandable. Change is always difficult to navigate and does take time but having a really strong vision for where we were going, lots of engagement, time to listen to everyone’s views and the fact that it was being led by local people was so important to help sustain it locally as a ‘forever project’. Some things do take time but that’s ok, we have that time because it’s owned by the community in perpetuity!
Why did you decide to join this project? What has your experience been working there?
I had been ready for a change and had seen the buy-out being covered in the news and thought it was so amazing to have had such an ambitious locally led initiative. When the job came up, I decided to apply and take the jump into the unknown and just go for it when I was offered it and I’m nearly 5 years in now! My experience of working here has been that it has been the best decision I ever made, it’s been a rollercoaster of highs and lows, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve been made to feel so welcome in the community and getting to be part of something so special and something that I believe in so much definitely makes the harder days’ worth it.
What impact has Tarras Valley Nature Reserve had on the local community?
It’s a hard one to answer because if you stop people in the street here you are likely to get a hundred different answers to that question! I suppose that is the nature of a community landholding that it means so many different things to so many different people.
Our biggest focus after the buy-out was refreshing our community mandate and we ran over 50 local events to go back to basics and ask what people wanted, what was important and what they wanted to see happen and that informs everything we do and that participation is an ongoing process. I suppose in terms of community impact we have been creating jobs, we employ local contractors, we use local businesses and put around £160k back into the local economy each year, we have been trying to attract more visitors to the town, we run outdoor classroom sessions for local children as part of the school day, we provide affordable homes for people on the land.
I hope those sorts of benefits are more tangible to people and that these more direct economic and social benefits increase over time as we grow and develop. It’s certainly not the silver bullet to every problem but community land ownership is a very powerful tool.
What works have you done on Tarras Valley Nature Reserve since its purchase, and what change in nature and the community have you noticed?
We have been busy with everything from peatland restoration, converting conifer plantations to native woodlands and wetlands, ancient woodland management, piloting regenerative grazing with highland cows and fell ponies, helping to regenerate native woodlands and we are just about to embark on a really ambitious river restoration project.
Some things will take time but in the short time we have owned the land, we have seen so many positive things as a result of our work so far. It’s been amazing to discover new endangered species like pine martens and harvest mice, seeing wildlife and plants colonising new wetland areas we have created, new volunteers coming to our sessions, local kids discovering their first adder on our schools sessions, people visiting us from all over the world and people you never would have expected coming along to events and popping into the office with ideas for projects. Some of the milestones are big but lots of them are really small and incremental but they all add up to something that feels really special and are the fuel that keeps us all going!
What is the vision for the future of Tarras Valley Nature Reserve and The Langholm Trust?
Our main vision for the land is ‘A community owned landscape rich in nature with people at its heart’ and you can read more about our vision and future plans in our 5 year action plan which you can access here: Our 5 Year Plan - Tarras Valley Nature Reserve
Our plan was recently used as a good practice example by the Scottish Government as part of the developing land reform legislation about how to bring community voice into management plans for large landholdings which we were really chuffed about!