Spring means new growth for our regenerative agroforestry project
The team have bought 35 more acres of unused land, and have added an experienced new team member to take care of their growing forests.
Just the gist
Short on time? Here's what you need to know this month:
- 🆕 The team have bought 35 acres of new forest! It's called Hainings, right next to their first forest of Brodoclea.
- 🔥 The biochar burners on the Glenaros Estate are ready to go. Kris has created the first of thousands of tons of biochar.
- 🌲 A new team member, Jim, has just started! Jim has been a forester for over 35 years, and will lead Forestry Management for the project.
For more updates like this one, follow Wren on Twitter and Instagram.
Spring is here: The sun's coming out, the leaves on the trees are growing, and our project in Scotland is growing too. They just bought another 35 acres of forest!
In this update, we'll see just how they intend to use their new land.
Between the trees – Brodoclea & Hainings Forests:
The new forest is called Hainings, and is right next to our project's first forest of Brodoclea, in Dalry, Scotland. The team will plant up to 25,000 trees, and restore the land to make it a comfortable home for all kinds of wildlife.
“We will plant a mixture of deciduous tree species, to restore the land to just how the native forest would have been.”
Future Forest Team
In the meantime, Andy has remained hard at work at Brodoclea, where he's planted another 1,500 trees. The winter winds have been blowing nonstop, so Ken's had to build another pig arc to keep the newborn piglets out of the cold.
Over the sea– The Glenaros Estate, Isle of Mull:
Biochar has been the word of the month on the Isle of Mull. It's been all hands on deck to do the heavy lifting needed to prepare the big biochar burners. Even Future Forest CEO, Jim Mann, has been getting his hands dirty.
The machinery is all in place, and the biochar burners are at their operating temperature of over 800 °C. Kris has made their first batch of biochar to test out the burners.
In a few years, the project will have made thousands of tons of biochar. They'll spread it into the soil to use as an environmentally friendly fertiliser, helping plants grow while storing carbon for thousands of years.
In other news, our partner, Future Forest, have added yet another member to their team this month. Meet Jim O'Reilly!
Jim has just joined as a Forestry Manager. He's been a forester for over 35 years, and specialises in silviculture, land use, food security, land economics and forest carbon sequestration. He's been a member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters for more than 23 years– Jim really knows his trees!
That's a good thing– because this project is going to be planting a lot more of them. With the new land secured, they're well on their way to their goal of planting 1 million trees by the end of the year.
That's it for this update! If you have questions or feedback, please reply directly to this email. I'll reply as soon as I can.
- Thomas Hollands