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Keeping Scotland Beautiful
“It is difficult to summarise in a few paragraphs the immense ecological footprint that Riverside Naturally has made in Stirling.
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Perhaps just one word sums up Riverside Naturally: Unique!”
John McLennan
For five years Riverside Naturally has been part of the It's Your Neighbourhood scheme and has loved welcoming assessors through the years to our sites to share and discuss all aspects of managing our green spaces and engaging with our community.
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In 2025 our assessor John McLennan nominated the charity for an additional award - Gardening for Wildlife which we subsequently came in runner up.
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​We are particularly pleased to have been recognised in this category because we endeavour to prioritise biodiversity and sustainability in all our choices and gardening considerations.
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With our events we attempt to promote the pleasure, peace and beauty of the long grass, alternative planting options and large variety of habitats that we share with a large variety of wildlife and plant life in Riverside.
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Thank you very much Keep Scotland Beautiful.
We feel very privilege to be included in the Keep Scotland Beautiful family and we would highly recommend taking a look what other community groups are out there and seeing the incredible work that is going on all around Scotland.​
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We also took part in the Keep Scotland Beautiful's Climate and Nature Friendly Communities Network Seminar in which we gave an overview of the works we undertake and the events we have host over the past year. You can find our presentation here.
Riverside Naturally - home is where the grass grows long
Take a walk through our woodlands...
In our woodland gardens we plant trees, shrubs and flowering plants to encourage a mix of native pieces and help sustain balance. We let the sleeping deadwood lie as it is so valuable to the ecosystem. But we make it safe and inviting for humans and other animals. Wood that was once the limbs of a tree now guides branching pathways through our Woodland Wonderland, to Alice the Otter who also used to be a tree.
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Donated woodchip is soft underfoot, stumps are gathered in a sheltered clearing that catches the sun, have a seat, take in the view. Take a wander through these paths and notice the hellebores at New Year. The lungwort in early spring, pollen and nectar when the landscape is sparse.
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The deadwood is home to bugs and in the Story Garden, the stumpery is a megacity, and together with the hidden hibernaculum, habitat for mall vertebrates. So we keep it tidy but we also keep it wild.
It's Your Neighbourhood
Riverside Naturally has been a part of the It's Your Neighbourhood initiative, run by Keep Scotland Beautiful for three years. It is a community environmental improvement initiative which is managed in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society.
Each year we have been visited by a representative of the organisation and shared our activities and achievements in relation to the Three Pillars of It's Your Neighbourhood:
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Community Participation
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Environmental Responsibility
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Gardening Achievement
