Community Engagement Evening in Scotland, UK
Dr. Ilze Brila from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, represented BEPREP in a community evening at Dunblane Cathedral and a meeting with our collaborators from the Forth Rivers Trust, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Nature Scot and Heriot-Watt University.
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In the community engagement evening, the communities of Dunblane and Bridge of Allan were invited to learn about the different restoration and research projects on Allan Water. Senior Project Officer at Forth Rivers Trust Charlotte Neary introduced the various restoration activities that have taken place on Allan Water, including upcoming restoration efforts.
Dr. Justyna Olzewska from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology talked about the project MERLIN and the different methods that can be used to determine the effectiveness of freshwater and wetland restoration. BEPREP project and its activities in the Scottish case study are were introduced by Dr. Ilze Brila.
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The members of the community were very interested in the insights into the biodiversity-disease relationship that will be uncovered by BEPREP and would like to be informed once we have conducted our data analyses. We established a plan to collaborate with the aforementioned institutions to provide an in-depth insight into the effects of restoration in this area.