Rare trees conservation gets lottery grant

Vital conservation work, including the growing of rare trees, by award-winning charity Trees for Life has received a welcome funding boost thanks to players of a charity lottery.

The seven thousand pound award from People’s Postcode Trust, has allowed Trees for Life to expand and develop a tree nursery at its acclaimed Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston near Loch Ness, Inverness-shire.

Trees for Life has been able to invest in a much-needed new polytunnel, tools and equipment – increasing the nursery’s capacity to grow rare trees and plants to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands.

Volunteers will carry out much of the work in the nursery, allowing them to gain new skills and experience, and to improve their health through outdoor exercise.

“The opportunity to expand our tree nursery at a time of widespread concern about diseases from imported trees to the UK is a very positive development,” said Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s Executive Director.

“Our new facilities will significantly increase the number of trees we can produce, and enable more volunteers to get involved in growing rare Caledonian Forest species, including dwarf birch, juniper, tea-leaved willow and twinflower. We would like to thank the Postcode Lottery Trust for its generous grant, which has made this possible.”

The expanded nursery will help the charity to meet its target of establishing a million more trees by planting and natural regeneration within the next five years.

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