Wildlife enthusiasts looking for a summer adventure to remember are being invited to take part in a festival across Scotland’s scenic Outer Hebrides.
The Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival is looking for participants to host a range of activities.
They could include guided walks, nature writing workshops and bumblebee safaris as well as marine mammal survey training, boat trips, and water sports such as paddle boarding, snorkelling and surfing.
Those who wish to host an event will have to do so on a voluntary basis, but support will be offered.
Festival coordinator Mairi Robertson Carrey, from Bumblebee Conservation Trust, is urging all those who wish to share their favourite way of celebrating nature to get involved.
She said: “Last year’s festival was a wonderful success.
“The diversity of the events was outstanding and really reflected the different ways we enjoy and are inspired by nature.
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“It was exciting to support so many of our grassroot community-led projects, local businesses, artists and venues.
“We hope this year to inspire more people to connect with nature and with each other and to learn more about our unique natural environment and ways to help safeguard it.
“If you want to talk through your event idea with us, please get in touch.”
The Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival is set to take place between 22 and 29 June. A fringe festival will then run throughout July.
Registration is now open and those interested in running an event or offering a venue are urged to apply via the festival’s website.
Volunteers are also needed to help with the running of the festival, as well as artists to contribute to the event’s art exhibition.
Information on how to get involved as a volunteer or artist will be shared on the festival’s website “soon”.
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The festival is coordinated by Species on the Edge, a multi-million-pound conservation programme working to recover Scotland’s rarest and most threatened coastal and island species.
The partnership – funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – consists of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, the Bat Conservation Trust, Buglife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation, NatureScot, Plantlife, and RSPB Scotland.
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Alasdair Allan, MSP for the Western Isles and nature champion for the endangered great yellow bumblebee, was both an event host and attendee at last year’s festival.
He said: “We are so fortunate here in the Western Isles to have an incredible wealth of nature and wildlife right on our doorstep, and I would encourage as many people as possible to get involved in this year’s festival, whether through organising or attending events and getting out to explore the natural world around us.”
