A local community-led group has recently become one of Dumfries & Galloway’s newest charities, and is holding a launch event to celebrate.
Nith Life is a grassroots charity that that aims to protect and improve the health of the Nith catchment’s landscape and wildlife, to celebrate the river through art and culture as a vital resource for local communities, and to highlight and develop the benefits of a healthy, thriving river catchment for the green economy, for wellbeing, and for a sustainable future for people living in the area.
The group was registered as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) in July this year, and is now planning a free, drop-in launch event, open to all, at The Smithy in Dumfries town centre on Saturday 26 October from 11am – 3pm, thanks to a grant from D&G Climate Hub via Midsteeple Quarter.
The charity began life in 2022 as a community group hosted by the Dumfries-based Stove Network’s Open Hoose project. It was the brainchild of local smallholder and storyteller John Wheeler, now the charity’s chair. He was keen to bring together a community of people from the whole Nith catchment who were passionate about protecting and celebrating the river’s unique landscapes, wildlife, and heritage.
John explained how it began: ‘I was listening to hill-farmer James Reebank’s life story on the radio. It told how he and his neighbours are adapting to this climate-bio emergency. Yes! (I was punching the air) we don’t want to be shrugged off this Planet Earth, either! Let’s form a group, here in the Nith Valley, dedicated to nature-friendly life and work. So we have. Please join us.’
Martin O’Neill, Artistic Director of The Stove Network, also commented: “We’re thrilled to have supported Nith Life through our Open Hoose programme over the past few years. Watching the group’s growth—in both membership and ambition—has been truly inspiring. Their new charitable status comes at a crucial time, as grassroots conservation, community engagement, science, and creativity converge to strengthen our connection with one of our most valuable natural assets, the River Nith.”
Since then the group has gone from strength to strength. It started off by holding monthly meetings hosting a wide range of organisations and speakers on subjects from fish to forests, from bats to bogs, and from spiders to ships. As support grew so did its ambition, and the group began finding partnerships with other organisations to allow it to deliver more of its aims. A three-way agreement with The Stove Network and the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere Partnership enabled it to run consultation events with communities all along the river, to find out how people view living in the catchment, what they love about it, and what they want to improve. This support has been key to helping Nith Life progress to becoming a charity.
Ed Forrest, Director of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere, said: “As an organisation we strive to support grassroots action that connects people and place and which generates sustainable benefits for the rural communities of our UNESCO Biosphere. We have been a proud partner of Nith Life since its earliest days and congratulate the organisers and other volunteers on the engagement and participation they have achieved so far, through which Nith Life continues to go from strength to strength. The SCIO is a fantastic demonstration of how local projects with burgeoning ideas can be developed in support of long-term positive change, here in the Biosphere and right across Scotland.”
Nith Life has also led citizen science projects, worked with local schools, organised litter picks and tree planting events, and supported events such as the annual Nith Raid and Goose Festivals.
But while it has achieved a huge amount as a community group, its charity status will allow it to think much bigger in future, accessing a range of funding opportunities, and working in partnership with other organisations who share its vision. As a membership organisation it will be able to evidence the support for protecting and celebrating the river and its people, with membership free to anyone who would like to help the charity progress its aims.
More information about Nith Life, and how to join as a member, is available on its website www.nithlife.co.uk.
