Please help us restore the Heart of the Plantation on Dundreggan!

The conversion of the commercial plantation on Dundreggan back to native woodland is the biggest challenge for restoration on the estate. Please make a donation to help us to make an inspiring start to that now!

Dear Supporter

It's 16 months now since we took on ownership of the 10,000 acre Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston, and I'm delighted to report that we're making great progress with plans and action for the restoration of native forest there. This autumn, volunteers have planted several thousand native trees, including a large number of aspen, in an area beside the River Moriston. In two weeks time, 6 wild boar will arrive on the estate, to help control brackenthat project last year. Now, I'm writing to ask for your help in raising £18,000 to keep us moving forward with innovative restoration work on Dundreggan, by making a donation to our Heart of the Plantation project.

Situated in the southwest section of the Estate, the Dalreichart plantation was established in the 1980s by the previous owner to provide a commercial crop of timber trees. A mixture of lodgepole pine, Sitka spruce and Japanese larch were planted, interspersed in many areas with Scots pines. The plantation includes areas of mire and bog that were ploughed and planted with trees in dense linear ranks, and many of those have not grown well. With no road access to most of the site, harvesting the trees is neither practical nor desirable, and instead we plan to fell the non-natives and leave the wood in situ, restoring the area to native woodland and mire. Given the size of the plantation, this is long-term work that will take at least 10 years to complete.

However, we have an excellent opportunity to make a significant and highly symbolic start to the restoration process now, right in the centre of the area, in what we're calling the Heart of the Plantation project.

Please help us rise to the challenge of restoring the plantation back to forest!

Along with natural regeneration and planting native trees, the removal of non-native trees is one of the three key elements of our strategy for the restoration of the Caledonian Forest. Dundreggan provides an ideal opportunity to integrate all three on the one site, and Steve, our Project Manager, has a number of innovative and exciting ideas for tackling the conversion of the plantation. Walking there with him, I've been inspired and impressed by what we can do, both to restore that part of Dundreggan, and as an example for similar projects elsewhere. My heart is fully behind this project, and I'm counting on you to help us rise to the challenge now of raising £18,000 for the Heart of the Plantation.

Here's how we plan to return the Heart of the Plantation area back to native forest:

• We've identified an area situated in the centre of the plantation, alongside the Allt Bail' an Tuim Bhuidhe stream, as the ideal site to begin the process of converting it back to native woodland. Sparsely planted with non-native trees intermingled with some Scots pine, this 8.4 hectare (20.7 acre) area contains much open ground and some good sites for planting native broadleaved trees.
• As these photographs show, volunteers have already begun clearing non-native trees from the area. This will enable the planted Scots pines to grow successfully, in a more natural, spreading shape, without being shaded out by the faster growing non-native species.
• We need to put up a deer fence, 1,330 metres in length, around the area, to enable the naturally-regenerating young Scots pines, and the approximately 2,000 native broadleaved trees we plan to plant there, to grow successfully without being eaten by the deer that are living in the plantation.
• As part of this project, we also need to alter the access to the plantation, which allows volunteers to enter the site for working there. At present a gravel road penetrates about 500 metres into the plantation area, and ends at a turning circle. However, the turning area has been adopted by the resident black grouse as a lekking site, and we need to create an alternative site for turning and parking vehicles that will not disturb the grouse.

You can make a heartfelt difference for the Caledonian Forest this Christmas!

This Heart of the Plantation project goes right to the heart of the matter - the clear vision, hard work and funding needed to turn our goal of a restored Caledonian Forest into reality. Now, as Christmas approaches, and people are drawn to give gifts that reflect the values of their hearts, I hope that, like me, you will be inspired to make a heartfelt contribution that will help restore the forest for centuries to come - a true gift to the Earth and future generations.

To make a donation online to this project, please follow the link below, and I offer my heartfelt gratitude to you for any gift that you can make.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Watson Featherstone
Executive Director

PS. Contributions of any amount will help us reach our target of £18,000, so please give as generously as you can to this appeal. Thank you!