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

New ‘suspension bridge’ keeps red squirrels safe in Highlands

A specially designed rope bridge slung between trees high over a Highlands road is giving red squirrels a safe crossing. Camera footage has revealed regular use of the bridge by the charismatic species.

Conservation charity Trees for Life installed the bridge over a road near Shieldaig last summer, as part of its project to reintroduce red squirrels to the northwest Highlands.

Footage collected for more than a year from a camera trap has now revealed squirrels from a flourishing new population at Shieldaig crossing the bridge and exploring their new homes.

Together with nearby road signs alerting drivers to the squirrels’ presence, the innovative bridge appears to have had a significant impact in reducing road deaths of the

Vision for collaboration to make Glen Affric forest reach from coast-to-coast

Glen Affric National Nature Reserve could be at the core of an unprecedented collaboration between landowners and communities to create an unparalleled forest corridor stretching from Scotland’s east to west coast, says a new film from Forest Enterprise Scotland and conservation charity Trees for Life.  

Narrated by acclaimed cameraman and filmmaker Gordon Buchanan, the five-minute film – ‘Glen Affric: A landscape worth restoring’ – celebrates 60 years of

Great Pied Hoverfly (Volucella pellucens) west of Loch Ness

Volucella pellucens  © Ron Bury

I'm sorry for the lack of posts over the last two and a half months but I was away most of April and busy catching up after I returned so apart from anything else I missed posting a number of press releases from TFL and the HWDT. I might put a couple of the more significant ones up but thought I'd start off with some images and a video of a female Splayed Deerfly  Chrysops caecutiens feeding on a blue cornflower.

Well I thought it was until Neil Anderson pointed out in the comments below that it was the Great Pied Hoverfly Volucella pellucens which is the very opposite of the rarity I thought I'd found.

I should have paid more attention and feeling suitably

Helping ‘The Reds Return’ to the Highlands

Red squirrel © Peter Cairns

Trees for Life has launched an appeal to raise £22,000 to ensure a better future for red squirrels in the Highlands of Scotland.

The Reds Return appeal will enable the reintroduction of red squirrels in up to eight woodlands in the north-west Highlands, where new populations will be able to flourish, safe from competition and disease from grey squirrels.

This will also help the natural expansion of the region’s pine forests, because reds inadvertently plant new trees by forgetting where they have buried their winter stores of nuts and seeds. 

It will allow more people to see red squirrels in the

Record numbers of common dolphin sightings off Scotland’s west coast

HWDT Common dolphin

Sightings of common dolphins across the Hebrides have reached a new record high according to research conducted by marine conservation charity, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.

Evidence collected during marine research expeditions on the Trust’s specialized research yacht Silurian in 2017 has revealed a dramatic 24% increase from the previous year’s already record-breaking figures.

The findings were made in a research season running from April to October 2017, part of the charity’s unique long-term citizen science project monitoring whales, dolphins and porpoises – collectively known as cetaceans – and basking sharks in the Hebrides.

“We have never documented so many sightings of common dolphins off Scotland’s west coast before. Our findings highlight the importance of on-going monitoring and research to strengthen our understanding of what is

Results of the National Whale and Dolphin Watch 2017

Short-beaked common dolphins
Rebecca Knee/ Marine Discovery

As announced on TV’s BBC Countryfile last night, results of the 2017 National Whale and Dolphin Watch are in!

During last year’s event, which took place 29^th July – 6^th August, a record-breaking 1,529 hours of dedicated watches took place. Some 300 hours more than any previous occasion, this represents 2,500 volunteers all around the British Isles getting involved to report on the UK’s whale and dolphin species.

2017 was the sixteenth year that this huge citizen science scheme had taken place and clearly the event is building on popularity year on year. “It’s so important for people to join in helping us to track

Rare high-altitude money spider discovered near Loch Ness

Rare money spider Hilaira nubigena © Jens-Kjeld Jensen

Surveys at Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Conservation Estate in Glenmoriston near Loch Ness have revealed a rare money spider in a find described by experts as “spectacular”.

The discovery of an adult male of the species Hilaira nubigena at the native forest restoration site in Inverness-shire is the first record of the spider west of the Great Glen for more than 25 years.

The rare arachnid has been recorded from damp moorland above 400m and up to 700m, but little is known about its habits. It may be characteristic of high-altitude habitats such as ‘montane woodland’ – a

Crucial work to help save Scottish wildcats

 Pete Cairns - The Big Picture

This press release was issued on the 16th January 2018 so I'm a bit late posting, but better late than never. January was not a good month.

DNA collection and genetic analysis of wild Scottish wildcats is taking place this winter to help guide current and future conservation efforts for this endangered Scottish species.

Scottish Wildcat Action (SWA) and the Royal Zoological Society for Scotland (RZSS) will take part in a short period of wildcat trapping over two months in three of the project’s five priority areas.

The focus of this work is on targeted trapping of

Protecting Scottish trees for the future at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank

Award winning Scottish charity Trees for Life is helping to secure the future of Scotland’s native trees by collecting seed from wild tree species in the North-West Highlands. The seeds are being stored in the underground vaults of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank – forming part of the UK’s first national collection of tree seeds.

The UK National Tree Seed Project has been set up by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to help protect UK trees and woodlands against pests and diseases such as ash dieback and other threats. The collections are used by researchers working on solutions to tackle the issues facing the UK’s woodlands and is funded by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

The seeds contributed by Trees for Life to Kew’s vaults so far are equivalent to around 160,000 trees. This includes a unique collection of ash seeds, known as keys, harvested from the most northerly ash wood in Britain at Rassal in the Highlands. Professional climbers helped to collect the ash keys from this

Boost for Scotland’s international reputation for wilderness and wildlife

Glen Affric © Ron Bury

Scotland’s international reputation as a key destination for experiencing world-class wild landscapes and outstanding wildlife is to be boosted by Trees for Life joining a prestigious and growing European association of rewilding projects.

The conservation charity was invited to become a member of the European Rewilding Network – placing its restoration of the globally unique Caledonian Forest in the Highlands, especially in Glen Affric and Glenmoriston, firmly on the European map.

A key focus of the network is to show how rewilding – the restoration of damaged natural ecosystems – can benefit economic development, including through