Dundreggan Biodiversity Discovery Day

Dundreggan Biodiversity Discovery Day Sunday 14th July 2013 Dear friend, I am delighted to invite you to Trees for Life’s Biodiversity Day at Dundreggan, near Loch Ness. 2013 marks the fifth anniversary of our purchase of Dundreggan, and to

Buckingham Palace reception for Trees for Life celebrates Jubilee Wood

Right to left at Buckingham Palace
Executive Director Alan Watson Featherstone;
 Trees for Life patron Gordon Buchanan,
Rosalind Grant-Robertson, who generously supported
Trees for Life’s purchase of Dundreggan;
Steve Morris, Operations Manager for Dundreggan

Trees for Life’s creation of a Diamond Wood in Inverness-shire to celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 has been recognised at a Buckingham Palace reception this week (27 March), hosted by HRH The Princess Royal.

 

The event recognised the creation of 60 new Diamond Woods across the UK, each at least 60 acres in size, to symbolise the Queen’s 60-year reign. As part of this tree planting campaign, Trees for Life planted a new 60-acre Jubilee woodland of native trees at its Dundreggan Estate, to the west of Loch Ness in Glen Moriston.

 

Two million trees have been planted across Scotland in a range of locations during this project, which was organised by The Woodland Trust.

Eight UK biodiversity firsts discovered in ‘lost world’ near Loch Ness

Aphids (Cinara_smolandiae) on Juniper

Biting midge in the genus Atrichopogon
feeding on a cranefly (Helius longirostris)
Pictured on Eared Willow

Eight UK biodiversity firsts discovered in ‘lost world’ near Loch Ness

Biodiversity surveys in 2012 at Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Estate near Loch Ness revealed eight new species never recorded before in the United Kingdom, and brought the total number of species recorded on the forest restoration site to over 2,800, it was announced today.

New species for the UK discovered at the 10,000-acre site in Glen Moriston, Inverness-shire are a sawfly (Nematus pravus), an aphid (Cinara smolandiae), two species of aphid parasitoids (Ephedrus helleni, Praon cavariellae), three species of fungus gnats (Brevicornu parafennicum, Mycomya disa, Sceptonia longisetosa), and a species of mite (Ceratozetella thienemanni).

Another key discovery, made by Trees for Life’s Executive Director Alan Watson Featherstone, included the first record in Europe of a biting midge in the genus Atrichopogon feeding on a cranefly (Helius longirostris). Although known in the tropics, this behaviour has never been observed in Europe before.

Alan Watson Featherstone said: “The surprisingly rich variety of life at Dundreggan highlights the vital importance of conservation work, and of protecting

ACCLAIMED FILMMAKER PLANTS MILLIONTH TREE IN CALEDONIAN FOREST – ONE OF WORLD’S GREATEST WOODLAND HABITATS

A symbolically important moment in the restoration of one of the “world’s greatest woodland habitats” was celebrated on Sunday 20 May 2012 when acclaimed wildlife cameraman and filmmaker Gordon Buchanan planted Trees for Life’s Millionth Tree in Scotland’s Caledonian Forest.

The event took place at a celebration event held at the award-winning conservation charity’s Dundreggan Estate near Loch Ness, in Glen Moriston, Inverness-shire.

"Magnificent and magical, the Caledonian Forest is a wild place at its most wonderful. Every single tree planted helps to restore one of the world's greatest woodland habitats. One tree will be used by a thousand species in a forest that will stand for 10,000 years, which in that time can be enjoyed by a million people. Great forests are established one tree at a time. I am honoured to plant the millionth tree on behalf of Trees for Life," said Gordon Buchanan.

Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s founder and executive director, said:

New discoveries in charity’s ‘Lost world’ Highland estate

Larva of sawfly
(Amauronematus sp.)
feeding on dwarf birch
(Betula nana)
 on Dundreggan. 

Biodiversity surveys carried out on Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Estate, in Glen Moriston, Inverness-shire in 2011 – the first year of the United Nations Decade of Biodiversity (2011-2020) and also the International Year of Forests – have revealed a range of rare and endangered species.

The new discoveries on the 10,000-acre estate include the first Scottish record of one species of sawfly and what may be the first British record of another; the second-ever British record of a waxfly species; and species of spider, cranefly and dragonfly all listed in the UK’s Red Data Book of endangered species.

At least 60 priority species for conservation have now been identified on the site........Read more