The Colvend and Southwick Community Council, with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI), have been funded to undertake an aquatic and marginal plant survey of the lochs in the Colvend Community Council area. The lochs are a significant ecological feature within the East Stewartry Coast National Scenic Area near Colvend Village. The group is interested in recording the range of vegetation types and searching for several scarce species listed in historical records in the area.

Aquatic plants are good indicators of water and habitat quality but require expert determination; therefore, the community will contract an aquatic plant survey specialist during this project. The resulting data will be compared with historical information to provide a new baseline against which to measure future change. The survey may also point to water quality issues, which will need to be addressed. The project will include training of local voluntary botanists and engagement with landowners and local residents.

Project Manager Simon Pain said, “The Colvend and Southwick Community Council and our partner, the BSBI, would like to express our very sincere thanks for your very kind offer of a grant of £5000 towards the Colvend Lochs Aquatic Plant Survey that we now will be able to conduct later this year. This is a very exciting project, and the small-scale test case we carried out recently in one of the small lochs in our area resulted in some rare finds, so we have great expectations now that we will be able to do a much wider survey.”