A selection of articles from newsletters, the journal, and project related.
Contact with nature has lots of benefits for both physical and mental health, so wouldn’t it be good if you could go to your doctor, and instead of (or as well as) giving you a bottle of pills, they could prescribe you a good dose of nature? Well, depending on Read more…
Across much of Europe, weekends and holidays see thousands of families head out to their hytte, hydda, cabaña or dacha – in other words, their hut – to recharge their batteries and spend time in nature without the distractions of city life. There used to be a hutting tradition in Read more…
“Perspective is the Temple of Decision” – inscription in Falkland Palace No grander – nor, in some ways, more unseemly – could have been this year’s setting for Reforesting Scotland’s Blue Skies weekend retreat but Falkland Palace. I decided to write this article from a great vantage point atop the Read more…
In this discussion paper, published by Reforesting Scotland, Jim Knight argues for a creative blurring of the boundaries between ‘production’ and ‘natural’ forest, with a greater emphasis on natural regeneration in both. Jim is a founding trustee of the Borders Forest Trust and a retired Lead Officer for Natural Heritage Read more…
Over the last few weeks, hill walkers have encountered dead deer lying scattered over many of Scotland’s hills. While some may have been shot to put them out of their misery, most will have starved to death – the combination of months of exposure to harsh weather and poor nutrition. Read more…
Rewilding may be a hot topic but, says Alan Carter, the legal framework for reintroductions needs to be improved. This year, Denmark got its first wild wolf pack for over 200 years. It wasn’t part of any government programme. No NGOs or wealthy individuals got involved. They simply wandered over Read more…
From Reforesting Scotland Journal 56: Wild Again (autumn 2017 issue) At first glance, ‘rewilding the city’ might sound like a contradiction. To some people, the wild is defined by the absence of interfering humans. How can wildness exist in that most human of habitats, the city? For me, that contradiction Read more…
If there was ever an animal that showed the changes that cascade through the web of ecological relationships when you add or remove one of its members, it is the pine marten (Martes martes). This native woodlander was once removed from most of the country by the usual suspects – Read more…
Alan Carter asks, could Brexit be an opportunity to craft a sane economic vision for our uplands? In 2011, consultants from the Scottish Agricultural College began a study into the comparative economics of commercial forestry and hill sheep farming in the Southern Uplands. They took a specific area of forest Read more…
This is a foretaste of what can be expected at the 2014 Reforesting Scotland Gathering. Dr James Merryweather is an independent naturalist, tutor and field guide compiler working in the Western Highlands. He will be giving a talk and leading a visit looking at the best way of managing gorse Read more…