Appeal to help "Trees for Life" in Scotland

[Maggi Young]

Trees for Life is an award winning conservation charity working to restore the Caledonian Forest
and all its species to a large contiguous area in the Highlands of Scotland.
Trees for Life is a registered charity Scottish charity No. SC021303  with its registered offices at Forres, Scotland.

"Please vote to help us win £20,000 for our Glen Affric Forest Landscape Project from the European Outdoor Conservation Association.

Voting is now open for the only UK-based project in the Outdoor awards category."

Trees for Life has been shortlisted by the prestigious European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) to receive £20,000 funding for their Glen Affric Forest Landscape Project.

"Our project aims to engage outdoor users in practical action to expand Glen Affric's native forests. Funding will enable volunteers to plant 20,000 native trees, remove non-native trees and restore high-altitude montane scrub habitat.

The native pinewoods in Glen Affric are one of the last remaining fragments of Caledonian Forest in the UK, supporting over 1,000 wildlife species including golden eagles, pine martens and red squirrels. With your help to win this vital funding, we can safeguard threatened wildlife habitats, and transform this stunning glen into a wilderness forest.

Voting is free and couldn't be simpler. Simply click here to be directed to the voting page, where Trees for Life's project is listed first. Please share this page with your family and friends and encourage them to support the only UK-based charity in the 'Outdoor' category of the EOCA awards. Voting closes on October 6th, 2014.

Thank you for your support!"
This page tells you more and has a link to the voting page

Perhaps SRGC folks are interested in this? 

[ian mcdonald]

This looks like a worthwhile project. I think more detail would be helpful. Which species are to be planted. Which species are to be removed. In my own experience of management on a local NNR, rhododendrons have been sawn down and the stumps treated with brushwood killer. The following year the stumps put on new growth.

[Maggi Young]

Amazing how strongly the superponticum will cling to life. What a survivor!

I have written to  Trees for Life asking for some more details but there is quite a lot of information through out the website about which tress they favour and so on:  http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/about/actionplan.html - for example

[Maggi Young]

A reply from Trees for Life :

"Re species for the G Affric project; downy birch, rowan, alder & eared willow will be the main spp, plus Scots pine and juniper if we have clearance to plant these.
Planting Scots pine within the core pinewood zones is suspended at the moment due to risk of introducing infection by Dothistroma.
Similarly planting juniper is not advised due to the risk from a Phytophthora fungus.

There may be opportunities to plant small nos of broadleaves, eg aspen, oak and hazel.

And for the treeline woodland area we will be looking at planting dwarf birch and possibly some of the montane willows.

We have all of these, of local provenance, growing at the tree nursery at our Dundreggan estate in Glen Moriston.

Do get back with any further queries.

all the best ….

Mick Drury,
Field Projects Coordinator "

[Maggi Young]

A bit more from Mick Drury on the trees they want to remove :
" ......usually Sitka spruce and Lodgepole pine are the non native plantation species we have problems with in Affric; occasional rhododendron crops up too.


cheers … Mick  "

[ian mcdonald]

Thanks Mick and Maggi, hope all goes well, ian.

[ian mcdonald]

Has a decision been reached yet regarding the outcome of the appeal?

[Maggi Young]

The appeal for the Glen Affric project was successful - Thank you to everyone who voted.

From the Trees for Life site :  8th October 2014     http://treesforlife.org.uk/news/article/we-won/

"We're delighted to announce that we have won £20,000 from the European Outdoor Conservation Association for our Glen Affric Project. A huge thank you to everyone who voted and to Northshots for nominating us - we couldn't have done it without you all!"

So  nice to have good news!

[ian mcdonald]

Good to hear of this project being given the go ahead.