An update from Findhorn Hinterland Trust’s new Chair, Colin Shreenan.
Autumn and winter are times for change and transition and it has been the same for FHT, with Jonathan Caddy stepping out of the chair position after serving faithfully for 10 years between 2015 and 2025, which we were able to mark and celebrate at our recent AGM.
The Chair has now been filled by me, Colin Shreenan, with the able assistance and support of the Trustees and Jonathan. We have finally made the communication switches which are:
Colin Shreenan – [email protected]
Jonathan Caddy – [email protected] as he moves sideways as team lead for the new Education and Community Team
Kajedo Wander – [email protected] who remains as sole employee working on the land but as part of the FHT Land Management Team
Please use the above emails in future correspondence – thank you!
It has been a busy quarter adjusting to the changes as well as being involved in the asset transfer talks and various activities of the trust. As part of the transition Jonathan has worked hard on succession planning and changes to the whole team structure, which will ensure the sustainability of the trust going forward for many years to come. This report is a joint effort this time between the two of us as I start to get my feet under me in my new role.
Early during this quarter the Conservation Hub was a hive of activity as the present bee team, made up of Martin Harker, John Willoner, Mathijis Mulder-Barge and Jonathan Caddy, aided by a number of previous participants from the three bee workshops carried out over the summer, came together to carry out the annual honey extraction event. A sticky time was had by all with a bumper harvest of over 45kgs to 50kgs of honey being produced. That will bring in £1400+ for the charity. Thank you bees, the warm summer and all involved.
Storm Amy was another exceptional storm that happened on the 4th October during this period, with more trees down in Wilkies Wood and a tree came down on a bungalow, which FHT helped clear up. There was also other paid tree work needed at Cullerne Gardens and Cullerne House, carried out by professional tree surgeon and FHT member Cameron Henry, with the help of the trust. Cameron and former Chair Jonathan Caddy also initiated a risk assessment of trees at the Park and will no doubt be helping with further tree work that needs doing, which will bring some additional money into the trust.
As mentioned in the previous newsletter, FHT is one of the Findhorn Foundation Trust (FFT) legacy charities, and so has been involved in a series of asset transfer talks with the four other legacy organisations at the Park Ecovillage Findhorn. The transfer of FFT land outside the settlement boundary still has not happened, due to a hold up with the solicitors, but it looks like there is agreement that St Barbe’s Wood, a treed area within the settlement boundary that includes the Earth Lodge and where sweat lodge events take place, will be gifted to the FHT. This seems appropriate as the land connects with Wilkies Wood and the Woodland Garden and has been dedicated to conservation use already. It is hoped that this land transfer will be completed by the end of March, but we will see!
Contributions by FHT to help build the new sanctuary at the Park were mainly completed in the spring but there have been a few additions that happened in September. The sanctuary centre piece, which is a slice of redwood from a tree felled near the Universal Hall, was finally oiled and made beautiful, and a FHT team took on painting the original caravan next to the building as part of our ‘building local community’ charitable purpose. We are proud to be able to contribute in this way to this major local community project.
Another part of the redwood was imaginatively used to create the Peace Bench now in the grounds of the sanctuary, which was the work of the enthusiastic participants of the Chunky Bench Making Workshop held on the 13th of September (see the story here). This was the last of our official workshops for the year, which was part of the offerings advertised through our partnership with the Findhorn Bay Holiday Park. However, there were also some small groups that took advantage of our taster sessions, such as mornings with the bees that happened later. It will be interesting to see how our programmes can be developed through this partnership next season – but that may depend on which legacy organisation takes on holiday park.
Another partnership that is developing well is with Laura Pasetti and her charity, the Theatre of Seven Directions. Using the green burial site as her stage, Laura did a magnificent job in scripting and performing the play Bringing Death to Life – the story of a body becoming earth. We travelled with her as she emerged from a grave to demonstrate: I am not gone, I am changing, I am becoming something else. This was well attended, and a powerful use of eco theatre to get across a bold message.
Jonathan Caddy has been busy representing FHT at various events. One was the hugely successful and well attended Enterprise Fair held on the 6th September by Ekopia in the Universal Hall and other locations at the Park. It was heartwarming to hear Ariane
Burgess deliver an inspiring keynote speech at the beginning of this gathering. Arianne is an MSP for Scottish Greens, previous Park resident and project manager of the Woodland Garden build, plus a present FHT member.
Another event was a Sunday Slot presentation where Jonathan talked about how FHT as an organisation has made changes to make itself more sustainable and resilient, so that others can learn from our journey. Others were leading work parties, with a couple of these being connected to gorse removal in the Fire Pit area between East and West Whins – an area that is in the process of being acquired by FHT. He has put in a major application to PPG (Park Planning Group) with respect to reducing the fire risk of gorse in the area by converting some of it to bare sand habitat, which would use machinery paid for by the Moray Climate Action Network fund acquired earlier in the year. On site walks and talks have been carried out in connection to this. We await the outcome of this application. In the meantime these events have helped attract donations of over £5000 by individuals inspired by our work – well done Jonathan!
Sean Reed, local ecologist and FHT consultant, has also been very active over the past few months. He has been drawing up a new 10-year Local Biodiversity Action Plan and has finally finished his 85-page draft. This contains well-researched and thought-out information that will give a clear lead to our future conservation aspirations on the land. It is presently being reviewed by the FHT Land Management Team and will no doubt be shared with all members as soon as it is finalised – watch this space. A huge thank you to Sean for this work, which was paid for by the Neighbourhood Ecosystem Fund, but also for the incredible amount of work he put in pursuing a NatureScot Nature Restoration Fund application for £25,000 to carry out much of this work. In the end we decided not to submit this as it would have required us to do work on the land sooner on a bigger scale than we would have been comfortable with. His work is not lost as much of it helped with the thinking behind the LBAP and will help with obtaining further smaller pots of funding in the future.
There have been at least two other groups of visitors to the land who have very much appreciated the work of the FHT. The first was a group from Reforesting Scotland on the 5th of October during their annual meeting held in the area (see the story here), who were shown around by Kajedo and Jonathan and went away totally inspired. The other was a group of 19 Steiner School pupils from Padua, Italy who came with their class and English teachers to experience and learn from the Park Ecovillage. This included three sessions with FHT – a fire pit work party on Monday; a morning with the bee team in the Hub/out at the hives; and afternoon session on sharing nature games with Roy Simpson and helpers on the Friday (see the story here).
Thank you to all of our trustees, teams, volunteers, members and donors for your continued work and support going forward into a new year.
Colin Shreenan, FHT Chair
3rd December 2025
Chair’s Report – Autumn/Winter 2025
An update from Findhorn Hinterland Trust’s new Chair, Colin Shreenan.
Autumn and winter are times for change and transition and it has been the same for FHT, with Jonathan Caddy stepping out of the chair position after serving faithfully for 10 years between 2015 and 2025, which we were able to mark and celebrate at our recent AGM.
Colin Shreenan – [email protected]
Jonathan Caddy – [email protected] as he moves sideways as team lead for the new Education and Community Team
Kajedo Wander – [email protected] who remains as sole employee working on the land but as part of the FHT Land Management Team
Please use the above emails in future correspondence – thank you!
It has been a busy quarter adjusting to the changes as well as being involved in the asset transfer talks and various activities of the trust. As part of the transition Jonathan has worked hard on succession planning and changes to the whole team structure, which will ensure the sustainability of the trust going forward for many years to come. This report is a joint effort this time between the two of us as I start to get my feet under me in my new role.
As mentioned in the previous newsletter, FHT is one of the Findhorn Foundation Trust (FFT) legacy charities, and so has been involved in a series of asset transfer talks with the four other legacy organisations at the Park Ecovillage Findhorn. The transfer of FFT land outside the settlement boundary still has not happened, due to a hold up with the solicitors, but it looks like there is agreement that St Barbe’s Wood, a treed area within the settlement boundary that includes the Earth Lodge and where sweat lodge events take place, will be gifted to the FHT. This seems appropriate as the land connects with Wilkies Wood and the Woodland Garden and has been dedicated to conservation use already. It is hoped that this land transfer will be completed by the end of March, but we will see!
Sean Reed, local ecologist and FHT consultant, has also been very active over the past few months. He has been drawing up a new 10-year Local Biodiversity Action Plan and has finally finished his 85-page draft. This contains well-researched and thought-out information that will give a clear lead to our future conservation aspirations on the land. It is presently being reviewed by the FHT Land Management Team and will no doubt be shared with all members as soon as it is finalised – watch this space. A huge thank you to Sean for this work, which was paid for by the Neighbourhood Ecosystem Fund, but also for the incredible amount of work he put in pursuing a NatureScot Nature Restoration Fund application for £25,000 to carry out much of this work. In the end we decided not to submit this as it would have required us to do work on the land sooner on a bigger scale than we would have been comfortable with. His work is not lost as much of it helped with the thinking behind the LBAP and will help with obtaining further smaller pots of funding in the future.
There have been at least two other groups of visitors to the land who have very much appreciated the work of the FHT. The first was a group from Reforesting Scotland on the 5th of October during their annual meeting held in the area (see the story here), who were shown around by Kajedo and Jonathan and went away totally inspired. The other was a group of 19 Steiner School pupils from Padua, Italy who came with their class and English teachers to experience and learn from the Park Ecovillage. This included three sessions with FHT – a fire pit work party on Monday; a morning with the bee team in the Hub/out at the hives; and afternoon session on sharing nature games with Roy Simpson and helpers on the Friday (see the story here).
Thank you to all of our trustees, teams, volunteers, members and donors for your continued work and support going forward into a new year.
Colin Shreenan, FHT Chair
3rd December 2025