Funding hopes for Highlands conservation project

PEOPLE are being urged to help a charity win £20,000 to fund restoration work at a glen in the Scottish Highlands.

Glen Affric, with Loch Affric in the foreground. Picture: Wiki Commons

The Glen Affric Landscape Project, run by Trees For Life, is one of seven to be shortlisted for the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) award.

Trees For Life would use the money to expand Glen Affric’s native Caledonian pinewood forest and conserve its rare wildlife.

The native pinewoods in Glen Affric represent one of the largest and last remaining fragments of Caledonian forest in the UK, supporting over 1,000 species including golden eagles, red squirrels and Scottish wildcats.

Funding would enable volunteers to plant 20,000 native trees, remove non-native trees and restore high-altitude montane scrub habitat.

It would also be used to create opportunities for outdoor activity and hill walking groups, residents and those from disadvantaged backgrounds to take part in practical action to help reverse the loss of native woodlands and rare wildlife.

The winner of the EOCA award will be chosen by a public vote, which opened earlier this week.

Alan Watson Featherstone, executive director of Trees For Life, said: “We are asking people to vote for us and help make the most of this opportunity to protect one of Scotland’s finest wilderness forests.

“Glen Affric has been described as the most beautiful glen in Scotland, and this is a golden opportunity to help conserve its wildlife and wild places, and to reverse centuries of forest loss.”

Voting is open until October 6. For details, visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/voteTFL or call 0845 458 3505.