Some of our colleagues from across the business spent a day with the Borders Forest Trust late last year, learning about their efforts to re-wild the Scottish Borders, and planting trees at their site near Moffatt to help them do so.
The team were very lucky to have dry weather on the day, which was cold and sunny as the group of 8 headed south to the area.
Colleagues planted a mixture of Willow, Alder and Rowan trees, forming an area of woodland which will help to support the local ecosystem, capturing carbon and re-wilding areas of historic woodlands. These are trees which prefer wetter soils and were specifically chosen as historically native species which would thrive in the area. They won’t be used for timber and will form a new protected forested area.
After an early start, the team spent the day preparing the ground and planting the saplings with anti-vole protection as demonstrated by the team from Borders Forest Trust.
The charity was established in 2009 and are a small but very busy team who are working with volunteers and organisations like Edinburgh Trams to re-establish native species of trees and flowers to the area of land they own in Scotland. The 3000-acre site, located in the Southern Uplands, has slowly grown over the years as donations have enabled the charity to purchase land for this effort.
Michael Dabrowski, Renewals Manager at Edinburgh Trams, said,
“The work being done by the Borders Forest Trust is vitally important, and we were pleased to support them in a small way. We hope to make it an annual trip, so we can continue to do our part to support their mission, and see how the area develops over the next few years.”
Although the estimated 500 trees planted directly by the team are just a drop in the ocean of what is required to rewild the area, Edinburgh Trams also made a donation to help the charity to continue their work.
