Nurturing nature: volunteering with Friends of Meadowfield Park

By Zoe Macnaughton on 27 June 2025

Tucked away in the heart of Edinburgh, Meadowfield Park is more than just a green space – it’s a thriving community hub, thanks to the dedication of Friends of Meadowfield Park.

This volunteer-led group is committed to preserving and enhancing the park and its woodlands, ensuring that future generations can enjoy its natural beauty.

One of the ways they’ve been making an impact is through a partnership with Parsons Green Primary School, teaching children about the woodland and involving them in tree-planting projects.

It was through these sessions that Ben, founder and Creative Director of Firefly, first got to know the group. Shortly after, the Firefly team rolled up their sleeves to support the group’s volunteering efforts.

During this time we spoke with Diana Dodd, the founder of Friends of Meadowfield Park, to learn more about the group’s journey, the challenges they’ve faced, and their vision for the park’s future:

What inspired you to set up the Friends of Meadowfield Park, and what are the group’s main aims?

Diana: During the pandemic, like most others, I spent a lot of time outdoors in my local green spaces. I especially appreciated my nearest which is Meadowfield Park. I love its spaciousness, peace, views and woodlands. At that time there were far fewer people there than over the wall in Holyrood Park, which I also love. But Meadowfield felt a bit neglected. I tried to imagine how it could be different. 

I was really inspired to act by having been involved in planting trees with others on a remote Scottish island shortly after the pandemic. It seems an utterly good thing to do, for one’s health, friendships and most of all for the future of the planet. Why not closer to home? I knew I couldn’t do it alone and didn’t want to. I had other ideas, but I kept them back as it had to be a whole community project and not just about trees.  

Still, a close friend encouraged my interest in trees through books like The Overstory and Suzanne Simard’s Finding The Mother Tree. I learned to view trees as a community in cooperation rather than individuals in competition.  

So I reached out initially to Duddingston Field (our neighbours), our local Mothers Climate Action Network group (Mothers CAN), to the Northfield and Willowbrae Community Council and to relatives and people using the park. All were enthusiastic and helpful. 

Three or four of us got together and devised an e-survey for the neighbourhood and also a version for children. The Headteacher of Parsons Green Primary allowed the survey to be conducted in just about every class in the school. Altogether we had almost 500 responses. 

This gave us our main aims, which are to:

• Improve the play area
• Plant wildflowers
• Plant more trees

and there were other strong requests which we haven’t forgotten. Many of the children wanted to learn more about wildlife and also have different kinds of fruit to pick.

What have been some of the key achievements or projects over the past year?

Diana: The survey also asked people if they wanted to be involved. We held a few meetings with some of those interested to look at the survey results and see what we could do. So our key achievements in our first year are: 

• We created a formal Friends of Meadowfield Park community organisation with a constitution and a bank account (March 2024). Over the course of the year, our Steering Group has evolved and includes some very committed, experienced and  knowledgeable individuals. We are still getting to know one another.
• With the direction of the Head Teacher, we engaged with the teachers of three  classes, children and some parents of Parsons Green Primary School to experience the woodlands in different seasons with a view to them each planting a tree in the winter. 
• We successfully applied to the Council’s community fund to install 2 picnic benches and pay for guards and stakes for the trees as well as printing costs for leaflets and posters. One year later, we are still waiting for the benches to be installed, while the children planted their trees six months ago. 
• We obtained 150 free trees from the Woodland Trust and The Conservation Volunteers. 
• We engaged parents and others in the local community (through leafleting door to-door) who got involved. 
• We have a stall at the annual Environment Fair held in our local community centre each autumn. 

We have worked closely with the Parks Manager of the City Council. I’m pleased that the tree-planting work we have done this year appears to have been so successful that other organisations, i.e. The Conservation Volunteers and the Edinburgh and Lothians Green Spaces Trust are now going to plant a lot more trees.

How do you involve the local community and encourage people to volunteer?

Diana: We have involved people through leafleting, through social media and also through the parent networks at the school. While preparing the ground over several weekends for planting the trees last autumn, many people stopped to ask questions and I really had my first sense of an emerging community.

But we also reached beyond the local community in one instance and involved student volunteers from Edinburgh University in actually digging the holes for about 150 trees. They have an organisation called Dirty Weekenders which is over 30 years old. Some had never even held a spade before and were brilliant.

What challenges have you faced in maintaining and improving the park?

Diana: One of the biggest challenges is the fact that the hillside is waterlogged for some months each year. We cannot yet be sure that planting more trees will make that much of a difference. This has so far prevented any improvements to the play area, although everyone was delighted when the Flying Fox was finally fixed last summer after many years (we can’t take credit for that as it was going to happen anyway).

A broader challenge is in meeting the diverse and often competing needs of nature, children, young people as well as dogs and their human companions and professional walkers. I would like us to understand the woodlands better.

What are your future plans or priorities for the park?

Diana: We have started planning a few family-focussed events for the coming year, so watch this space. We also want to maintain our relationship with primary school children in some ways still to be decided. 

It might be good to create a masterplan for the park and the woods. Perhaps we need another year of working together and with our community and partners to be able to envisage what this might look like.