Great oaks from little acorns grow; if those acorns get a little help from their friends they can grow into a forest and that is just what Argyll and the Isles Coast and Countryside Trust has in mind.
ACT, as the trust is known, is working to protect Argyll’s unique countryside and one of its major aims is to help save and expand Scotland’s rainforest; half of nation’s temperate rainforest is here in Argyll but it is in small pockets.
The trust’s goal of establishing a native tree nursery to create a sure supply of trees has been helped along with a generous donation from the Drax Foundation, the charitable entity of renewable energy company Drax Group.
Drax owns Cruachan Power Station pumped-storage hydroelectric scheme on Loch Awe and is currently planning Cruachan 2, a massive extension.
ACT has been given a share of a £82,000 donation from Drax; the other recipient being a primary school water-safety programme.
“This support from the Drax Foundation enables us to establish a tree nursery, which is at the heart of what we are aiming to achieve with Argyll’s rainforest – a secure supply of a range of native tree species will help us to expand, restore, and connect fragments of the rainforest, and also provide great training opportunities for our Rainforest Squad,” said Julie Young, who heads ACT.
“We are very excited to have our team and tree nursery in place in the next few months – we’ve already started gathering acorns, which will be Argyll’s mighty oaks in the future.”
They mean it when they say they are collecting acorns. Phillip McKeen the ACT woodland co-ordinator announced: “Over the last month, we’ve collected 43kgs of acorns! This was possible thanks to the support from Forestry and Land Scotland and local volunteers through the Action West Loch group.
“Thanks to all of you who supported this effort. The acorns are now in cold storage until they can be planted and grown-on. We’re looking forward to the next stage, turning these acorns into oak trees for our future rainforest restoration work.”
The Knapdale and Tarbert woods, along with Taynish, Ballachuan, Glen Nant and Glasdrum are some of the finest examples of the remaining temperate rainforest in all of Europe.
They include not just oak, but also ash, birch, hazel and Scots pine, rowan, willow and more; creating an environment of flora, fauna and fungi that is home to songbirds, birds of prey, butterflies and red squirrels and pine martens and other mammals.