2019_12_31_annual_general_meeting.docx |
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A new path has been built, losing me a handful of trees. Went round the rest, cleared grass from inside the tree protectors and cleaned them, removed grass round the bases using my strimmer, re-installed canes. Pleased to find 3 wee holly trees have survived in less than optimum conditions. Still lots of leg traps with overgrown slippery logs and bramble tripwires, always happy to get out safely, even with hands dripping blood from hawthorns and brambles!
Lost a few trees (and my wildflowers) to a path on the west side, but 16 thriving, some nearly 5 feet high. 15 doing well on the south side, didn't check the 5 or 6 on the east side. Used my strimmer to clear round the bases. Haven't used tree protectors, as it's a bit exposed and didn't want to draw attention to them, but there's no apparent damage from deer or rabbits.
70 wee trees have been carried a good way up the hill, strimmer used to clear grass and moss round the bases, then the soil hasn't seen a spade in 100 years (and is very stony), tree protectors installed (mainly by park rangers) against rabbits. Hope I haven't put them in too deep, but it's quite a windy site and I wanted them to be quite secure - it's a well-used dog-walking site, and at least one tree has already been uprooted - replaced it. Finished off with 8 lovely holly trees. It has been wet, so watering hasn't been needed.
A new high-altitude forest of 10,000 rare mountain trees supporting wildlife including golden eagles and mountain hares is to be planted near Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands by Trees for Life next spring. It will be the largest of its kind in Scotland. The waist-high trees form a unique and important wildlife-rich habitat called montane scrub. This should be common between woodlands and open hilltops, but it has now almost disappeared from Scotland – largely due to grazing pressure from sheep and high deer numbers over the centuries. Read more
The project involves collecting seed from trees such as dwarf birch and downy willow on precipitous mountain ledges and rocky crags, sometimes with the help of qualified climbers. Planting the woodland itself will be challenging because the location – at Beinn Bhan on the charity’s Dundreggan Conservation Estate in Glenmoriston – lies at more than 500 metres above sea level. But the site is perfect for the tough small trees – known as ‘montane’ species because they can grow near mountain summits, despite high winds and dramatic temperature changes. “This exciting initiative will address the sad loss of these special wee trees, which form a vital but vanishing part of Scotland’s woodlands – while creating a home for golden eagle, black and red grouse, ring ouzel, and mountain hare. We’re urging members of the public to support this project and help make it happen,” said Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s Chief Executive. Trees for Life has launched a fundraising appeal to raise £20,000 to help create the new upland forest, which could also play a role in reducing localized flooding by retaining soils. As well as asking for help from the public, Trees for Life has been awarded a grant by Forestry Commission Scotland in support of the new forest. Doug Gilbert, Trees for Life’s Operations Manager at Dundreggan, said: “We’ve made maximum use of the forestry grant-aid, but to create a bigger, richer forest environment we need the public’s support.” The conservation charity has already begun growing tree seeds it has collected from Glen Affric – but to boost genetic diversity for stronger trees that are resistant to disease, it needs to do more. Expert climbers have to brave difficult terrain and rocky outcrops to collect cuttings from the rare species. Trees for Life’s volunteers will begin planting the new woodland at Beinn Bhan – the White Mountain – in spring 2019, against a backdrop of sweeping views to Glen Affric and its surrounding mountains. A groundbreaking bid to help save Scotland’s almost-vanished mountaintop forests and their wildlife is being launched by Trees for Life, with the creation in the Highlands of what is thought will be the country’s largest planted area of rare high-altitude woodland. Centuries of overgrazing by sheep and deer have left most of Scotland stripped of the once-common, tough, waist-high ‘wee trees’ such as dwarf birch and downy willow – known as ‘montane’ species because they can grow near mountain summits, despite harsh conditions. In a major expansion of action to reverse the loss of these unique woodlands – home to wildlife such as golden eagle, ring ouzel and mountain hare – Trees for Life is establishing a 700-acre mountaintop woodland of 100,000 trees at its Dundreggan Conservation Estate in Glenmoriston near Loch Ness. Read more
The site – Carn na Caorach, meaning ‘sheep cairn’ – lies at 450-600 metres above sea level on Dundreggan’s northeastern edge, with sweeping views over Glenmoriston and Glen Affric. It is thought to have been an important place for grazing livestock for hundreds of years. “Montane woodlands are a vital part of Scotland’s precious Caledonian Forest, but are often restored over only small areas if at all. To bring these special ‘wee trees’ back from the brink, and create habitats for the wildlife that depends on them, we need something bigger – and that’s what we’re setting out to achieve at Carn na Caorach,” said Doug Gilbert, Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Manager. This month Trees for Life has erected its largest-ever exclosure – a fence designed to protect young trees by keeping grazing animals out – at the site, supported by funding from the Scottish Natural Heritage Biodiversity Challenge Fund. The conservation charity’s volunteers will begin the first phase of planting next spring – with trees including downy willow and dwarf birch on the higher ground, and Scots pine and juniper on the lower slopes. Further planting will continue over the next few years, and self-seeded saplings will also be able to thrive in the grazing-free exclosure. The initiative will also see the return of plants including wood cranesbill, globeflower and alpine sowthistle, in turn supporting mammals, birds, and pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies. It will benefit people too, with the new forest helping to tackle climate change by locking away carbon dioxide, and reduce flooding by improving the soil’s capacity to retain water. Because such high woodlands take longer to establish than those in sheltered locations, the project is long-term. It will take 50 to 100 years before the forest is fully established, if grazing levels are kept low. The ambitious project follows Trees for Life’s successful planting this year of 10,000 trees at another area of Dundreggan called Beinn Bhan, which lies at over 500 metres above sea level. Seed from montane trees – for growing saplings in Trees for Life’s specialised tree nursery at Dundreggan – often needs to be collected from precipitous mountain ledges and crags, sometimes by qualified climbers. Trees for Life is dedicated to rewilding the Scottish Highlands, and its volunteers have established nearly two million native trees at 44 sites, to benefit wildlife, people and communities. To support the charity’s fundraising appeal to help create the Carn na Caorach woodland, see www.treesforlife.org.uk/appeal. Helped by volunteers, Trees for Life planted nearly 2 million native trees on its Scottish projects. It wants to plant millions more The bracken-clad hills are marked “Dundreggan forest” on the map but this Scottish glen is mostly stark Highland scenery: open, beautiful, and almost totally devoid of trees. I'm going in March 2020 for a week's volunteering! Read more
On a steep-sided little gully, 40 years ago, a few baby silver birches escaped relentless browsing by red deer and grew tall. Now, the nearby path through the bracken is dusted with thousands of brown specks: birch seeds. “Each year, this ‘forest’ produces trillions of birch seed,” says Doug Gilbert, the operations manager for the charity Trees for Life at Dundreggan. “Until we reduce the deer pressure, not a single one has grown into a tree. Once we get the deer population right, this forest will absolutely take off. It’s starting to do that now.” The charity purchased the Dundreggan hunting estate 11 years ago. Slowly – “at tree speed,” smiles Gilbert – it is rewilding 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of this degraded Highland landscape, restoring a diversity of native trees, scrub and associated life, from the dark bordered beauty moth to black grouse and, yes, red deer.Trees for Life is one of four charities chosen for the Guardian and Observer’s 2019 climate emergency appeal, each of which is committed to renewing nature and the planet by planting and protecting trees, forests and woodland. Increasingly, Trees for Life’s aims – to revive Scotland’s native forests with practical rewilding that includes Scottish people at its heart – are chiming with the times. During the general election campaign, politicians desperately tried to outbid each other with tree-planting pledges. Who doesn’t love a tree? More trees can tackle the climate crisis – absorbing carbon dioxide – and the biodiversity crisis. But Trees for Life’s efforts reveal it is not quite so simple. Since Victorian times, when the sheep estates that followed the Highland clearances were replaced by more lucrative deer hunting estates, the landscape, and economic model, has been shaped by red deer. Around Dundreggan there are also non-native sika and roe deer. What many see as a wild, natural landscape – the treeless mountains – is engineered by deer, whose grazing of tasty young shoots prevents old trees being replaced by young. Less than 2% of Scotland’s native Caledonian forest – dominated by Scots pines – remains. The first step at Dundreggan has been to increase deer culling. Ecologists calculate that a red deer population of five per sq km in the wider landscape will allow natural regeneration; in many Highland regions it is 20. But culling deer is controversial because the value of stalking that estates base on deer numbers. Trees for Life has proceeded slowly with culling, seeking positive dialogue with neighbouring stalking estates. They’ve also tried non-lethal methods such as bagpipe-playing volunteers acting as nocturnal deer scarers. Trees and deer can coexist and Dundreggan’s deer population is now at a level where some young birches, pines, rowans and junipers will grow tall. “We would like to let the trees come on their own,” says Steve Micklewight, the chief executive. “But because this land has been so bare for so long, there isn’t the diverse seed source to make this happen.” So, helped by volunteers, Trees for Life has planted nearly 2 million native trees so far at Dundreggan and on its other Scottish projects. It wants to plant millions more. All the trees come from Scottish seeds – meaning they are suited to Highland climates and species, as well as being free of novel diseases. Half have been grown from seeds collected around Dundreggan. Its on-site nursery bristles with 94,000 saplings. Seed-collecting is not as simple as it sounds. Seed must come from a wide variety of individual trees to ensure genetic diversity. Cones from Scots pines have to be harvested before they drop to the ground, so specialist tree-climbers are employed. Trees for Life specialises in growing non-commercial high-mountain species such as woolly willow and dwarf birch. Surviving specimens are often only found on cliffs and crevices – with seeds or cuttings only retrievable by specialist climbers. Because of the deer grazing, every sapling is planted within a fenced enclosure (costing £10 per metre). Fencing is “a little bit of an admission of failure,” says Gilbert. In the long term, when reducing deer numbers becomes less controversial, trees won’t need fences. Gilbert hopes the fences will last 30 years, when the well-established trees and scrub will survive browsing deer. At first, Dundreggan’s biggest fenced enclosure looks dominated by bracken. But crouch down, and the horizon is fuzzy with young trees: downy birch, rowan, and plump little Scots pines. There are no straight lines – it is emphatically not a “plantation” like the rigid blocks of non-native sitka spruce on the far side of the glen. (Trees for Life are concerned that politicians’ tree-planting pledges will lead to new non-native commercial plantations, which are disastrous for most wildlife). At Dundreggan, life is beginning to return. A black grouse shoots up and a raven scuds on the wind, prospecting for the small mammals and young birds in the burgeoning scrub. Gilbert has a better word for scrub: elfin forest. “It’s getting to the blue touch-paper stage,” says Micklewight. “You plant the trees and not much visible happens for seven years as the roots slowly build. Then it suddenly moves quite fast. We’re just about to see that at Dundreggan. The trees in the ground enable the landscape to take off.” At the end of the last ice-age, 15,000 years ago, Scotland was a frozen land covered in thick glaciers where nothing could grow. As the ice rapidly melted, the bare rock was colonised so that by 7,000 years ago most of Scotland was covered in a rich, diverse forest. In the Highlands, the Caledonian Forest characterised by Scots pine trees was a huge wilderness of about 15,000km2. Among the trees were great herds of grazing animals – including wild cattle and horses – which were preyed upon by lynx, wolf and other predators. This great forest was home to an intricate web of life and humans had little, if any influence over it. About 6,000 years ago the climate became wetter, allowing peat bogs to grow and this caused some of the Caledonian Forest to disappear. However, humans had a much bigger effect. They began felling trees often for fuel, buildings and later to make way for farming. By the 1700s the Caledonian Forest remained in only the most remote places, but this too was mostly felled, often for shipbuilding. Much of the wildlife that depended on the forest was also lost, either through hunting or because there was just not enough forest left. The last wolf is thought to have been shot in Scotland in 1743, meaning that all of the large animals had gone, except for red deer, an animal that has symbolised the Highlands since the 19th century. By the 1950s only about 1% of the original Caledonian Forest remained in about 80 small isolated patches from near Ullapool in the north, to Loch Lomond in the south and eastwards towards Aberdeen. They were oases of wild forest, providing refuges for capercaille, crested tits and red squirrels; the last remaining remnants of a once wild forest. Read more
The realisation that the great forest that once covered the Highlands was almost gone encouraged many to take action, including Alan Watson Featherstone who founded Trees for Life. Since 1993 the charity has been working tirelessly to restore the Caledonian Forest, especially in Glen Affric where one of the most important fragments of Caledonian Forest survived and at Dundreggan, a Highland estate the charity bought in 2008. Not only has Trees for Life brought Scots pine back to areas it had been lost from for generations, but it has grown rare trees such as aspen and mountain top willows and birches so that the full range of trees can grow in the new forest. The charity is now recognised as one of the leading experts in wild forest restoration in Scotland and its Dundreggan tree nursery continues to strive to ensure enough rare and hard to grow trees are available to be planted in the Highlands. Trees for Life recognised that the Caledonian Forest is more than trees, but an intricate web of life, that should include the full range of wildlife that originally grew there. This includes large predators such as wolf and lynx, forest grazers such as wild cattle and special plants such as twinflower. The charity has returned red squirrels to forests in the North West Highlands where the animal had not lived for over 50 years and it has sought to bring back beavers to rivers and lochs that are its natural home. This is because without the full web of life that make up the forest, it cannot thrive and grow naturally. Trees for Life is now working to ensure the Caledonian Forest grows from the last patches of the original wild forest that remain so it can grow again in large areas of Scotland. The charity is also seeking to ensure the wild forest can grow at a scale that enables rewilding to happen so nature can look after itself, especially around Glen Affric and Glenmoriston where it has worked for many years. While human activity has been the cause of the loss of so much forest in Scotland and around the world, people are vital to its future. Much of the work Trees for Life has done so far has been with the help of thousands of volunteers who have joined us to return forest to remote mountains. Working to grow a new wild forest in an inspirational setting has changed many lives. As we work in more places at a bigger scale we know that landowners, local communities and business need to thrive alongside the wild forest. This means working together to strike the right balance between a forest that can take care of itself and humans being able to make a living from it. We take inspiration from other parts of the world where wild forests full of wildlife also provide work for people who use its riches wisely. The new wild forest we are working to create will benefit everyone: helping to reduce the impacts of climate change by storing carbon; preventing flooding and erosion by holding back water after rain and; providing opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people to experience and be inspired by wild nature. We know if we can achieve this in Scotland nature and people can thrive together, forever. This beautiful, mature woodland sits on a vantage point overlooking Pressmennan Lake and the surrounding countryside.
It is home to an abundance of wildlife, such as deer, owls, otters and bats, as well as some strange, mythical creatures, ‘Glingbobs’ and ‘Tootflits’. Kids will love searching for their hidden homes in the gnarled trees. This beautiful spot in the Scottish Highlands offers an enriching and magical experience to visitors looking for fantastic walks, a vast array of wildlife, tranquillity, and a rich and diverse habitat to explore. At nearly 700 hectares (1730 acres) it is one of the largest sites owned by the Woodland Trust and encompasses three Sites of Special Scientific Interest: Ledmore Oakwood (95 hectares/235 acres), Migdale Pinewood (144 hectares/356 acres) and Spinningdale Bog (29 hectares/71 acres).
This mix of ancient woodland, sheltered glens, jagged outcrops, newer plantations and rugged moorland lies at the foot of the spectacular Kilpatrick Hills. Our closest site to Scotland’s largest city Glasgow, it offers superb hiking, fascinating flora, an abundance of wildlife and stunning views of the Clyde, Dumbarton Rock and Ben Lomond.
With sweeping vistas of rolling hills mirrored in glassy lochs, heather-covered uplands, hidden glens and ancient woodland, Glen Finglas epitomises the Scottish Highlands.
Our largest site, it lies at the heart of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park and is part of the Great Trossachs Forest National Nature Reserve. It has something for everyone: a wealth of wildlife, intriguing history, and walks to suit all abilities. This masterpiece is my brother Duncan's photo - he was a volunteer with the Scottish Wildlife Trust at Falls of Clyde, and used to run the badger watch.
This reserve is famous for its spectacular waterfalls, historic visitors and scenic woodland walks. Over 100 bird species have been recorded including dipper, raven and kingfisher. Daubenton’s bats can be spotted feeding over the river in the evenings. Badgers forage amongst the undergrowth and otters are sometimes seen along the riverbank. Address: Falls of Clyde, New Lanark ML11 9DB Highlights include:
My brother Duncan used to plant trees here with the Scottish Wildlife Trust An additional 20,000 trees will be planted in and around Beinn Eighe next year as part of work to expand native woodlands on some of Scotland’s finest National Nature Reserves (NNRs). Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) made the commitment at the start of Climate Week to build on a long-running tree planting programme at the Wester Ross reserve. Read more
Woodland expansion is part of the solution to the climate emergency, helping to increase biodiversity, conserve Scottish species and help our society and economy adapt to climate change, for example by reducing potential for flooding and reducing the effects of heatwaves. Beinn Eighe with its stunning ancient Caledonian pine forest was designated as the UK’s first NNR in 1951. Since its establishment, some 800,000 trees have been planted at the reserve. Most have been Scots pine as well as additional broadleaf species such as birch, aspen, holly, rowan and oak. The tree planting is designed to supplement wider management work to encourage natural regeneration at Beinn Eighe NNR and also at Creag Meagaidh NNR in the Highlands, which allows the woodlands to expand by natural ecological processes in the presence of wild deer. Meanwhile Rum NNR marked one million trees planted back in 1997, with the full benefit of these trees now beginning to be realised, including the building up of natural seed sources around the reserve. The precious native woodlands in SNH’s nature reserves capture more than 30,000 tonnes of ‘greenhouse gases’ annually in total. This is the equivalent of removing around 10,000 vehicles from the roads every year. The economic value of this carbon sequestration was estimated to be around £2.2 million in 2017. Stuart MacQuarrie, SNH Head of Nature Reserves, said: “Beinn Eighe is renowned for its beautiful ancient pinewoods and we have long managed the reserve to expand and enhance this special woodland. “Planting a further 20,000 native trees will help increase the nature reserve’s biodiversity, restore habitats to healthy ecosystems and provide greater resilience against the effects of climate change. “Nature-based solutions such as woodland expansion are a crucial part of the solution to the global climate emergency, and this is another important step towards ensuring a nature-rich future for Scotland.” On other SNH nature reserves tree cover is carefully managed to ensure it is not lost, unless there are good ecological reasons, for example if trees are encroaching on peatland restoration. SNH is also looking to expand native woodland at Invereshie & Inshriach NNR through natural regeneration. The SNP has promised to plant 36 million trees every year in Scotland by 2030 to tackle the climate emergency. Senior party figures signed the pledge – along with Confor, the trade body representing forestry and wood-using businesses – at Leith Links in Edinburgh today. Planting figures across the UK to the end of March 2019 showed 84% of new woodland creation was happening in Scotland. The annual planting target in Scotland of 10,000 hectares (ha) – roughly 20 million trees – was smashed, with 11,200 ha of new woodland planted – while other areas of the UK fell well short of their targets. Today’s pledge promises to “share Scotland's success in this area in an effort to drive up planting rates across the UK." Read more
It was signed by Fergus Ewing MSP, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Deidre Brock, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith from 2015-2019 and SNP candidate in the current election. She spoke on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for the SNP in the last Westminster Parliament. The pledge was also signed by Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor, which is based in Edinburgh but represents 1500 forestry and wood-using businesses across the UK. Confor set planting targets to 2030 in a document this year and the SNP has signed up to those targets, which would see planting in Scotland rise to 18,000 hectares annually by 2030 – about 36 million trees. Fergus Ewing MSP said: “We have raised our game in Scotland because planting trees matters – not only to tackle climate change, but to encourage biodiversity and support an industry worth £1 billion annually to the economy and employing more than 25,000 people. We are committed to maintaining the increase in planting rates, working with leadership bodies like Confor and anyone else interested in what trees can deliver for our environment, economy and society. Only this shared national endeavour can deliver success.” Brock said: “Although forestry policy is devolved, this Westminster election is an opportunity to highlight success in Scotland and look at how we can share that success across the rest of the UK. The SNP is committed to working with Confor as the industry body to drive up planting rates further – and to share our success with other parts of the UK that have missed their planting targets year after year. It’s great to see the ambition in all party manifestos, but Scotland is the only place where we are truly making it happen – and where we can say with confidence that the targets we are setting are achievable.” Goodall said: “I’m delighted the SNP has committed to the targets we set this year. Scotland’s success is based on a combination of political leadership, joined-up policy [linking planting to climate change mitigation and greater use of wood], plus simpler procedures for tree planting application and approval. Close co-operation between politicians, the industry and all other industry stakeholders has also been crucial.” The pledge card signed today says: “We will press for an increase in new woodland creation, working towards a target of 60 million trees planted annually in the UK by 2025, with 30 million of these in Scotland to help tackle the Climate Emergency and to support biodiversity and rural employment. We will share Scotland's success in this area in an effort to drive up planting rates across the UK." An accompanying letter commits to the following annual planting targets (in hectares):2020: 12,000; 2021: 13,000; 2022: 13,500; 2023: 14,500; 2024: 15,000; 2025: 15,500; 2026: 16,000; 2027: 16,500; 2028: 17,000; 2029: 17,500; 2030: 18,000 The letter says: “It is only this level of ambition which will deliver the new planting we need if we are truly serious about tackling the #ClimateEmergency. If we can do this, we can also deliver multiple additional benefits for nature, people and our rural communities.” A Canadian multinational tech group has launched a UK-wide initiative – No Planet B – to help the environment and tackle climate issues by planting 5500 trees in the Scottish Borders.
The trees mark one for each CGI worker in the UK as part of a scheme to reforest land in partnership with Forest Carbon and Borders Forest Trust during National Tree Week. Lindsay McGranaghan, CGI’s business unit leader in Scotland, planted the first of the native trees and shrubs – including birch, oak, rowan and willow – on former farmed land owned by Borders Forest Trust at Talla and Gameshope Estate, near Tweedsmuir, part of a programme to create a 250-acre public access native woodland. McGranaghan said: “CGI’s Scottish members wholeheartedly backed the planting of trees as a way to offset some of our carbon emissions and are excited to be taking part in local tree planting initiatives in their local communities.” Less than £1 per person per year is spent on planting trees in England, compared with £90 per person per year on roads and £150 on fossil fuel subsidies.
Scotland is beating tree planting target. Born out of a wartime need for wood, the Forestry Commission has grown to become the protector and promoter of all Scotland's forests. As it celebrates its 100th anniversary, the Forestry Commission finds itself more relevant than ever as tree-planting is pushed to the front lines in the fight against climate change. The Scottish Government has set ambitious targets to re-forest areas of the country, with a plan which calls for 10,000-hectare a year to be replanted. The Forestry Commission was split into two arms-length organisations this year to help achieve this goal, Forestry and Land Scotland and Scottish Forestry, and though the names have changed, the mission remains the same. Scotland’s forests cover 18.7 per cent of the total land mass area and the plan contained in Scottish Government’s forestry strategy is to increase this to 21% by 2032. The figure was just 5% at the beginning of the 20th century. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) looks after, manages and promotes Scotland's national forests, while Forestry Scotland is responsible for policy, support and regulation. So far, the plan is working, with Scotland leading the way for the UK. Read more
According to the latest figures, 11,200 hectares of planting has been undertaken in Scotland in the past year, comfortably beating the current annual target. Last year, 7,100 hectares of new trees were planted. Tree-planting is an established way of combating global warming, as trees absorb greenhouse gases and lock them away from the environment. The Scottish forestry industry is far outstripping the rest of the UK, with 84 per cent of all new planting taking place north of the border.The Scottish Government itself planted 1,000 ha of the trees, with a mixture of an improved and streamlined applications process, more promotion and better grant packages said to be behind the boost in planting. Ministers, as part of their climate change commitments, have now upped the targets for the future, rising to 15,000 ha a year from 2024/25. The 100th anniversary of the Forestry Commission, and its evolution into the new Scottish Government agencies has been marked throughout the year as people across the country commemorateg the occasion and reflect on all that has been achieved over the last century. The latest event saw staff from FLS return to their roots, for a special tree planting event at Monaughty, near Elgin, this month to mark the occasion when the Forestry Commission planted its first tree in Scotland on 8 December 1919. The event was presided over by 100-year-old-veteran forester George Stewart, and Simon Fraser, 16th Lord Lovat, along with Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing. The story goes that Simon Joseph Fraser, the 14th Lord Lovat and the first Chairman of the Forestry Commission, raced fellow commissioner Lord Clinton to plant the first FC trees in Britain. Lord Clinton got to his destination first as his journey was much shorter, so the first FC trees were planted at Eggesford in Devon. Speaking after the event Lord Lovat, Simon Christopher Fraser, said; “It was a pleasure to help recreate the events of 1919 when the first Forestry Commission trees in Scotland were planted. “It is ironic that the Forestry Commission, established immediately after the world emerged from one global catastrophe will, in its latest incarnations, play such an important role in addressing our 21st Century global catastrophe – that of the climate emergency. “The tree that we planted will help in the ongoing effort to raise awareness of forestry’s currency, relevance or standing and to enrol the support of people from all walks of life in planting more trees.” Rural Economy Secretary, Fergus Ewing, said: “Forestry in Scotland has never played such an important role in sustaining livelihoods, communities, habitats and species and in delivering so many other environmental, social and economic benefits. “Marking this centenary was a gesture of thanks both to the farsighted people who established the Commission and to the generations of foresters – men and women - who have planted, nurtured and developed Scotland’s forests and woodlands over the past century.” People in Scotland, wake up! You have many opportunities. You have a magnificent place, the best, most beautiful country in the world
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