Over the years we have produced a range of projects, publications and policy statements, but what we do, individually and collectively, also goes beyond formal projects, and covers a wide range of themes, some of which are illustrated in the ‘What we do‘ section. Our activities are inspired by the Reforesting Scotland vision.
The annual Reforesting Scotland Gathering provides the opportunity for members to meet and share ideas and experiences in an informal and sociable atmosphere. Members also have various online forums through which to communicate throughout the year.
Through its international networking, Reforesting Scotland links with people-focused projects throughout the world, particularly among the temperate and boreal forest zones.
As a grassroots charity we are looking for new members who can help us take up the challenges that face Scotland’s native forests and woodland culture in the future. Whatever your interest, be it as a tree grower, a craft worker, a designer of buildings, or simply as a supporter of Reforesting Scotland’s aims, join Reforesting Scotland and help practical work towards the regeneration of Scotland’s land and communities.
Members
Reforesting Scotland is its members, and one of the most important things it does is to give them opportunities to communicate and collaborate with each other.
Meeting other members
The best opportunity to meet RS members is at the Annual Gathering.
The Radical Rowan newsletter
The Radical Rowan is a newsletter by and for RS members, keeping each other up to date with RS projects and RS-related projects we’re involved with. Email if you have material to offer for the next issue or if you can help with collating, editing or layout.
A say in our running
The AGM – held each year during the Annual Gathering – gives Reforesting Scotland members an annual opportunity to review how the organisation is running and what it is doing. It is at the AGM that the charity’s directors are appointed for the coming year. If you are an RS member and would like to serve as a director, get in touch before the Annual Gathering.
Other ways of being involved
Depending on your time, energy, talents and inclination, there are many ways to help Reforesting Scotland! You could arrange for the RS display – or the Forest Garden display – to be on show at a local venue or event. You could simply distribute a few RS leaflets, or help to distribute the Journal. If you’re a public speaker, there’s a Reforesting Scotland powerpoint slideshow which you could use to tell people about RS.
Everything Reforesting Scotland is and does happens because its members make it happen. If you think something is missing from current activities, maybe you’re just the right person to add it to the mix.
Directors
Reforesting Scotland (RS) is all of its members, but work done and decisions made are often down to a much smaller group of people, the directors, staff and core volunteers.
Anna Woolverton has been a member of RS for about 10 years, starting off working in the office doing finance and admin when it was in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh, and getting to know many of the regular attendees at Gatherings since then. She lives on the edge of the Pentland Hills, in Carlops, enjoying walking, cycling and gardening. She and Peter were able to extend their garden 5 years ago, and have planted over 200 native species, looking forward to a woodland for the future.
Amanda Calvert describes herself as ‘thriving on work’, which is just as well given her CV. She started as a biology teacher but quickly moved out of teaching and into building dry stone walls and gaining a Masters in forest ecology. She has had a varied forestry-related career, from auditing wood fuel quality assurance schemes and checking nursery bio-security to researching markets and management systems for small woods. She has also been a director of the Community Woodlands Association.
A former weather forecaster, Matt Hay has always been interested in understanding the natural world. He now works for Forest Carbon, a small business helping landowners to fund woodland creation and peatland restoration projects through the sale of carbon credits. In his spare time, Matt leads conservation weeks in the NW Highlands with Trees for Life and he is currently writing a children’s book about the ecology of Scotland. Matt looks after the Reforesting Scotland blog.
Liz Murdoch, a member of RS for about a decade, is a social anthropologist and a community mental health nurse based in Edinburgh with a lifelong interest in the therapeutic aspects of the natural environment, appropriate technology and woodcraft skills. An enthusiastic treeplanter, she is steward of a fragment of Celtic Rainforest in Argyll and keeps a small non-commercial nursery of local tree stock. Liz loves to get her hands dirty and is happiest working directly with people or plants, or bringing them together.
Nicky Penford is a lecturer at Scotland’s Rural College in Aberdeen where she teaches countryside management. She was a farm conservation manager for fifteen years, encouraging farmers to create and manage woodlands and other habitats. She has studied forestry and rural development projects in Eastern Europe and is involved in a project in Romania to maintain hay meadows. She has worked as an ecological surveyor, including surveying the Common Lands of England and Wales. Nicky has been a member of Reforesting Scotland since the early days.
Gus Routledge is an ecologist who is rarely without his camera. He tweets wildlife photos and observations as @PinkfootedGus. His work takes him to many remote parts of Scotland and he is taking the lead on the Mountain Birch Project.
Al Whitworth is a woodland crofter and woodworker in the north Highlands. As crofters, Al and his wife Aurore aim to live simply off the land, and see trees as a major part of this system. On their 8-acre woodland croft they are starting a small tree nursery, growing willow for basketry, fruit trees and shrubs and coppice for craft and woodfuel. Since joining RS Al has re-started our coppice discussions and now oversees the Scottish Coppice Network.
Staff and consultants
Much of Reforesting Scotland’s activities are carried out by the directors and other volunteers, but there are also a few part-time staff and freelancers working on specific aspects.
Alan Carter is our Co-ordinator, dealing with most of Reforesting Scotland’s day-to-day admin –
Mandy Meikle edits the Reforesting Scotland Journal –
Al Whitworth and Alan Carter manage this website, which is updated by a team of RS members and staff –
Other Funders & Supporters
Reforesting Scotland is reliant on the generosity of individuals, companies and other organisations in order to help us achieve our aims. Over the years we have been very successful in attracting funding support to allow us to work on a variety of projects. However, funding – especially core funding – is always a challenge for a small organisation like Reforesting Scotland.