Planting seeds for future impact

Just the gist

Short on time? Here's what you need to know this month:

• 🛣️ To remove thousands of disease ridden trees from Hainings forest, the team have built their own forestry road through their site.
• ✨ The project has just conducted its first biochar field test, in an attempt to win a grant from Innovate UK, the government technology funding body.
• 🌳 It's the off season for native tree planting at the moment, but the project are still adding new members to their team. In this update we meet David Carruth, who's working on site at Brodoclea forest.

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Thank you for supporting our work with The Future Forest Company. This month, the project are in an in-between phase: They're planting the seeds to have even more impact in the next few months.

We'll have more to share on the future impact of this project soon. Watch this space!

Between the trees: building roads in Brodoclea Forest

At Brodoclea, Summer is in full swing, bringing lots of new growth, and much more colour and wildlife to the hillside. For once, the team at Brodoclea are taking a break from tree planting and instead are hard at work laying down stones to build a road.

As the site grows out towards The Haining, the team are building a new forestry road to transport diseased trees from Hainings forest to a biochar production site. The road's construction has been a source of great excitement for some of our youngest pigs who love to use the drainage ditches as a wallow to keep cool during these hot days.

Over the Sea: Biochar demonstration at the Glenaros Estate, Isle of Mull

The team at Glenaros have been busy demonstrating the potential of their biochar carbon storage project to grantmakers at Innovate UK. Innovate UK is a Government Sustainable Innovation Fund which supports projects that are making a measurable impact counteracting climate change.

The trees are all growing healthy on Glenaros, and new native saplings will be planted in October.

More Scottish naturalists join the team!

This month the team welcomed David Carruth to their growing number. David grew up on two family-run dairy farms in the heart of Renfrewshire, and it was working these farms with his grandparents that he fell in love with the natural world.

Inspired by his grandfather’s love of nature, he began working and volunteering in conservation and habitat creation in Norway, Canada, Tanzania and the Peruvian Amazon, where he experienced working in thriving ecosystems first-hand. His volunteer work led him to helping communities who have suffered the devastating impacts of climate and ecological crisis.

When he’s not hard at work on the hills David loves to play guitar, garden, and watch rugby all whist drinking Irn-Bru (believe it or not, Scotland's favourite beverage!).

Thanks again for your support, and we look forward to sending you the next update!

- the Wren Team