Scotland’s only entry in major international competition aims to address biodiversity loss and deforestation

Pine marten © Laurie Campbell

Scotland’s only entry in a leading international conservation competition could this week secure funding to address biodiversity loss and deforestation in the Highlands.

Trees for Life’s Rewilding the Highlands initiative will receive more than £20,000 from the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) if it wins an online public vote, which is open to anyone until Tuesday 22 March.

The project – competing against three other shortlisted finalists in the bi-annual competition’s ‘Alpine’ category – will involve ambitious habitat creation to support endangered and rare wildlife, the

Emergency tree rescue appeal launched for West Affric woodlands

Trees for Life team inspecting a section of
damaged fence in West Affric

Conservation charity Trees for Life has launched an emergency rescue appeal to protect tens of thousands of young trees on West Affric from grazing deer.

A new generation of trees – many planted by Trees for Life volunteers – has become established on West Affric over the past 20 years, after Trees for Life and the National Trust for Scotland created a series of 10 fenced exclosures. The exclosures – areas from which large grazing animals are excluded – were designed to boost the recovery of native woodland by preventing the pressure of browsing deer.

But recent damage to the fences has left many of these trees vulnerable to grazing by deer, and Trees for Life

Trees for Life emergency appeal to repair damaged deer fences protecting forest regeneration.

Trees for Life are making an emergency appeal for donations to repair damaged fences that are vital to the successful growth of trees that have been successfully recovering for the last 25 years

In the 1990s Trees for Life established a series of 10 fenced exclosures for native forest recovery on West Affric which encompasses the headwaters of the Affric River, in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), and tens of thousands of young trees, planted by volunteers, are now growing successfully there. However, recent damage to the fences has left many of these trees vulnerable to grazing by deer, so Trees for Life are making an urgent appeal to you to help them raise £20,000 for vital repairs to protect them before this winter.

This is an emergency situation, as Trees for Life stand to lose the results of their forest restoration work unless the protection can be reinstated.

Read more and make a donation

Filmmaker backs bid to transform derelict bothy into wilderness base

Athnamulloch Bothy in Glen Affric

A leading wildlife filmmaker is backing a bid by Trees for Life to transform an iconic but derelict mountain bothy into an eco-friendly weather-tight base that will be used to launch a quarter century of forest restoration in one of Scotland’s great wildlife wildernesses.

Glasgow-based cameraman and filmmaker Gordon Buchanan – well known from television programmes such as Big Cat Diary and Springwatch – is supporting the conservation charity’s appeal to raise £30,000 to renovate Athnamulloch Bothy in Glen Affric on the Forestry Commission Scotland managed

Funding hope for conservation of iconic Scottish glen and rare wildlife

Loch Affric - TFL

Hopes of protecting and restoring a magnificent Highland glen and its rare wildlife – including golden eagles, red squirrels and Scottish wildcats – have received a major boost after conservation charity Trees for Life was named as finalist for a major European funding project, with the winner to be chosen after an online public vote.

The charity’s Glen Affric Landscape Project is in the running to secure almost £20,000 in the European Outdoor Conservation Association’s ‘Outdoor’ funding scheme, with online voting taking place over two weeks until Monday 6 October. Trees for Life can be supported via www.treesforlife.org.uk/voteTFL.

The Trees for Life project will also create

‘Lost world’ open day near Loch Ness to celebrate 25 years of conservation action

Wild boar at Dundreggan. Photo: Alan Watson Featherstone

Moray-based conservation charity Trees for Life is celebrating its 25^th anniversary with a special celebration open day at its acclaimed Dundreggan Conservation Estate in Glenmoriston to the west of Loch Ness, Inverness-shire on Sunday 25 May 2014, from 10.30 am - 5.00 pm.

 

Members of the public are warmly invited to attend the free event and to join BBC presenter and Trees for Life Patron Vanessa Collingridge for a day of activities at this renowned biodiversity hotspot, as the award-winning charity marks a quarter

Planting Scotland’s wee trees!

Trees for Life volunteers plant Scotland’s wee trees in Glen Affric

News from Trees for Life which I should have posted in December.

A group of hardy volunteers braved the cold and ventured to Coire Sneachdta in Glen Affric National Nature Reserve to take part in conservation charity Trees for Life’s ‘wee trees’ planting day on 27 November.

 

This project – part of Trees for Life’s award-winning restoration of the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands to the west of Loch Ness and Inverness – was made possible thanks to a grant through the CSV Action Earth scheme, which supports volunteers across Scotland in making a positive difference to their local

CONSERVATON VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES IN HIGHLANDS

Volunteer planting Juniper

Conservation charity Trees for Life has announced details of its Conservation Weeks for 2013, the Year of Natural Scotland – offering people the opportunity to make a positive difference to the environment whilst experiencing an unforgettable visit to the Scottish Highlands.

 

Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s Executive Director, said: “The Year of Natural Scotland is the perfect time to enjoy Nature and wild Scotland, and to take action to restore the Caledonian Forest and its unique wildlife. Our 2013 Conservation Weeks offer an inspiring hands on conservation experience in breathtaking Highlands scenery of mountains, forest and rivers.”

 

Trees for Life is restoring the Caledonian Forest to a spectacular wilderness region of 1,000 square miles in the Highlands to the west of Loch Ness and Inverness.

 

The award-winning weeks will allow people from all sorts of backgrounds and experience to directly help in the restoration of Scotland’s equivalent of a rainforest. Trees for Life is running Conservation Weeks at

Scientists crack genetic code of dwarf birch from Highlands forest restoration site

Richard Buggs & Dwarf Birch
(Betula nana) inside exclosure

Scientists today announced the sequencing of the entire genetic code – the genome – of a dwarf birch from Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Estate near Loch Ness in Glen Moriston, where the conservation charity is working to conserve a natural population of the species.

Dwarf birch (Betula nana) is a nationally scarce species in Britain, occurring mainly in small populations on Scottish mountains. The genome’s sequencing – a laboratory process that identifies the complete DNA sequence of an organism – lays the foundations for genetic research into the birch genus, which includes up to 60 tree species. This will benefit studies on the conservation of dwarf birch.

“Increasing our understanding of tree genomes is essential for our long-term ability to conserve and grow tree species in the UK,” said Richard Buggs, lead scientist of the project, who is based at Queen Mary University of London.

Alan Watson Featherstone, executive director of Trees for Life, said: “This is a tremendous breakthrough. Together with our woodland

FORRES TAXI FIRM HELPS RESTORE CALEDONIAN FOREST

David Macpherson
with his state of the art hybrid Honda Civic taxi

Forres taxi operator David Macpherson is helping to bring Scotland’s Caledonian Forest back from the brink by supporting Findhorn-based conservation charity Trees for Life.

David’s firm, Mac’s Eco Taxi, donates 20 pence to the award-winning charity for every journey that picks up or drops off at the Findhorn Ecovillage in Findhorn Bay, Moray.

The scheme has already notched up more than