Rewilding’s benefits for communities and landscapes in spotlight as nature minister visits Dundreggan

Doug Gilbert (left) Lorna Slater (centre) 
Steve Micklewright (right)
© Paul Campbell

Rewilding charity Trees for Life has showcased how large-scale nature restoration can create a wide range of environmental and economic benefits during a visit from Scotland’s minister for nature on 7 October.

Lorna Slater MSP, the Scottish Government’s Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, visited the Trees for Life flagship rewilding estate at Dundreggan, west of Loch Ness, to learn more about the charity’s pioneering work and its ambitious plans for the future.

Together with Trees for Life Chief Executive Steve Micklewright, Ms Slater – the Green MSP for Lothian Region – visited the under-construction Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, which will open next March. The new centre will be the world’s

Scottish Squirrel Survey Week.

 

This week from the 10th to the 16th of October 2022 is the Scottish Squirrel survey week.

Sightings of squirrels recorded during this coming week will help to provide a snapshot of both red and grey squirrel distribution and density across Scotland; which will aid future Red Squirrel conservation efforts.   

For more information and to report your squirrel sightings please go to the Scottish Squirrels website.

Scotland new national park consultation – nature recovery should be front and centre

The Scottish Government’s nature agency NatureScot today announced the public consultation for a new national park for Scotland.

Steve Micklewright, Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance and Chief Executive of Trees for Life, said:

 

“This welcome public consultation on Scotland’s new national park is a golden opportunity to place nature recovery and rewilding front and centre as priorities for our national parks – so these important places can lead the way in tackling the nature and climate crises, while creating all sorts of new nature-based economic opportunities.

 

“Now is not the time to be timid. Nature is declining around us, but we depend on nature for

Scottish rewilding network grows to 50 sites in 18 months

 

A network of Scottish landholdings committed to rewilding has grown to 50 partners in its first 18 months, far outpacing expectations and revealing a strong appetite for nature restoration across the country.

 

The Northwoods Rewilding Network was launched in April 2021 by rewilding charity SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, with an initial goal of signing up 20 landholdings in the first two years. But the network expanded rapidly and has recently welcomed its 50^th partner: Glassie Farm in Aberfeldy, Perthshire.

 

Landholdings in the network range from farms and crofts to community woodlands and private estates, and the network’s partners are

New beaver strategy for Scotland

 ISSUED ON BEHALF OF SCOTLAND’S BEAVER STRATEGY ORGANISING TEAM

A national strategy has been published setting out a route map for beavers in Scotland over the coming decades.

The development of Scotland’s Beaver Strategy 2022-2045 has involved more than 50 stakeholder organisations, representing one of the most ambitious and forward-looking approaches to managing and conserving a species ever carried out

Changes to this blog and a new website

Over the next few weeks and possibly months I'm making changes to the layout of this blog and building a new website, so things are likely to move, disappear and/or re-appear.

Non of the help and information about cameras will be permanently lost but may get moved around, so please bear with me while I get things reorganised.

My new website address is: https://ronburyswildlife.me.uk/

There are inevitably going to be some dead links which I will correct as I become aware of them; but if you wish you can contact me about anything you can't find.

Hopefully this will not turn into too much of a marathon.

Huge appetite among Scottish young people to work in rewilding

Trainee Callum Fraser carrying out a
Herbivore Impact Assessment
at Dundreggan estate
Credit: Paul Greaves

Rewilding charity Trees for Life has finished a landmark three-year skills development project to help 15 people from diverse backgrounds pursue a career in rewilding. 

 

With more than 1,000 people registering their interest to take part in the ‘Skills for Rewilding’ programme across its three-year run, the pioneering project has revealed a significant demand among Scots to find practical ways to help nature and the climate. 

 

Skills for Rewilding welcomed five people each year to the Trees for Life Dundreggan rewilding estate in Glenmoriston, west of Loch Ness, where they

Bid to make Glen Affric Scotland’s next beaver release site

 

A community consultation that will help decide whether beavers are reintroduced to Glen Affric has been launched in the Scottish Highlands, led by Trees for Life.

 

The rewilding charity is carrying out the consultation on behalf of four private landowners and Forestry and Land Scotland, who all manage land that has habitat capable of supporting a beaver population. 

 

If the proposal is successful, it would be the first official release of beavers to the north-west Highlands since the species was driven to extinction some 400 years ago.

 

Trees for Life has long campaigned

Rewilding conference signals fresh thinking for Scotland’s land and seas

Red deer are one of Scotland’s most recognisable mammals – yet 

their numbers in recent decades have soared, bringing into question 

their impact on the wider landscape. Discussion over deer numbers 

is sure to feature at The Big Picture Conference.

Image © www.scotlandbigpicture.com

Against a backdrop of global biodiversity crashes and climate breakdown, a major conference in Stirling this September will examine how Scotland can reverse its widespread depletion of nature and become a world leader in restoring its land and seas to good health, so wildlife and communities can flourish.

 

The Big Picture Conference will explore the potential for rewilding large parts of Scotland’s forests, peatlands, rivers, moorlands and seas, and the benefits this could bring for declining wildlife such as red squirrel, wildcat and capercaillie, as well as for people’s health, wellbeing and employment.

 

Hosted by communications group SCOTLAND: The Big Picture at the University of Stirling’s Macrobert Arts Centre on 21 September, the event will examine why rewilding – the repair and restoration of nature –

Nature-depleted Scotland needs new era of rewilding says landmark book

A sticking plaster approach to conservation is failing Scotland’s wildlife – and with species such as red squirrel, wild cat and capercaillie declining or on the edge of extinction, a new era of massive rewilding is needed, says a landmark new book from Trees for Life and SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.

Scotland has the space and opportunity to take a fresh approach, with people working with nature, not against it, and allowing ecosystems