As Confuses says a journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first step. We need more healthy forests all over our beautiful planet.

Lovely

Need to reduce the deer population so those trees can get established

This has to be the most moving video I've ever watched. What a man Alan is and he is an inspiration to all who pass his way. Love Glen Affric and all wild places.

Good job sir my hats off to you

We moved to our house 10 years ago. The garden was just grass in an area of an acre, no trees shrubs or plants. Fields all around us but big agriculture so no bio diversity. We have planted trees, hedges, shrubs, plants and had two random stone walls built. We have many visiting birds now, bats in the roof and many berries etc for wildlife. We have two small ponds and garden organically. Every little helps but watching farmers around here one does despair.

Wait is this a film festival dedicated entirely to conservation? I need to know more!!

Bless you. There should be many more people like you.

I would call that place Featherstone forest.

You are soo goose

bless him!

I love you,thankyou! My grandfather was a Watson from Edinbururgh, so Im claiming you as kin.

A true hero of the earth. And an inspiration.

superb.

We h ad a fewscary moments with a bobcat and black bears in New Hampshire USA when we had a house there I am not sure how wolves and lynx can be safely reintroduced, what happens when the first clueless hillwalker gets eaten, it might solve the deer problem but could also solve the overpopulation in the country

Thank you for this interview. Very inspiring.

I love his heart.

Off to a good start imo BUT.. unless you understand the 7 layers of a forest..planting both habitat and edible species for the different seasons, your not gonna get the wildlife diversity return your after. Jmho.

Thank you for this incredible video! Keep it up! StocktonRob

Right on bro

Absolutely fantastic! 💚

A Candle that light's up the Darkness. A Tree Jedi ..<<bows to my Sensei>>

What wonderful work. This is pure joy! Thank you for sharing this treasure.

love it!

Too sentimental for my taste. I’d like to learn more about how big the are is that is restored and if there is plans to expand it etc

Fantastic video

Fantastic video well done Simon and Ashleigh

Great video and urgently important. Thank you. I used to hill walk in The Highlands all the time. Thought it was a beautiful and wild landscape. Didn't give the lack of trees a moments thought. Just assumed that was how it was meant to be. But once you know, you can't unknow. Once you see, you can't unsee. The trees cling on in small pockets in inaccessible places, and most of the remaining woodland is 'ghost' woodland. Not everywhere, but mostly, with large swathes of the Highlands completely devoid of trees. Not because they won't grow, but because they can't grow. They're eaten. Until we grasp the nettle and properly replace the effects of the wolf and the lynx Scotland will continue to be mostly barren. And yet what potential we have for carbon capture and a biodiversity explosion.

Great work!

Great work sir!! Appreciated👏

I get all choked up every time he does

Love to see a woodland named after him this man’s life is the true meaning of life thanks for being there for nature

Awful contamination of the video's sound with background music.

That degraded "tree graveyard" holds unique species. I spy some Drosera sun dew right there. That kinda plant needs low nutrient-high moisture soil.

Need to call this out, the crofters where not given other jobs on the estates during the Highlands clearance, they were then contracted as indentured servants, (slaves) under contract to work on plantations in the new world, like Jamaica.. Whereas you would work your fare off as the kindly lord or lady would pay your fare to the new world and would have the opportunity to buy your way out of your contract through hard work. I suggest you plant a tree for every poor tenant farmer who was thrown off their land. And your looking for volunteers, more slaves.

Since the beginning of this project in the southern Scotland area how many birds have been released and does anyone know how they are doing and if they have gone on to breed and if they have settled in the south?

I'm glad this video comes out in favour of 'deliberately' planting trees, rather than just leaving land fallow to regenerate on its own. Often, land is just so depleted, so bare and open, those creatures that do all the planting avoid this sort of terrain for fear of exposure to predators. I only have a little bit of land here in Scotland (or a large-ish garden by English standards. Probably about 2.5 acres altogether (a sliver of it already established woodland with a stream as its border. The rest was originally grass - where grass could grow, but there was a lot of exposed rock, centuries of intensive sheep farming having gnawed everything down. So, I 'could not' plant trees to begin with (even though I had moved here with potted trees ready to go). The soil was too shallow, and deer had replaced the sheep, keeping that grass low. I waited for tree seeds to start popping up in that grass, yet nothing happened, even though we had a flourishing red squirrel pipulation at the time, plus mice and types of bird that will bury seed stashes. Several years passed, as I let the grass grow unmowed, to slowly build soil levels, adding only additional leaves from my bit of woodland, kitchen scraps, and the odd finished potted herb. But not one tree seed grew on that land. It took 'me' to start that work, as I planted a hedge to bridge my neighbour's woodland with the riparian stream. Once that hedge started to grow, animals began using it as a highway. Indeed, I was quite surprised just how much life suddenly started to use it one summer - wandering pheasants, small birds, burrowing animals, hedgehogs, foxes and badgers. It was clear they needed cover, and once they started to use this part of the garden - Hazel and Oak seedlings started to appear here and there. I added Alder, Birch, Rowan and Beech, and the first two are now self seeding. The more I plant - the more Nature matches my efforts. I may plant a 100 trees one Autumn, and not only does she add a few of her own - I'll discover a few new wild flowers, orbird, or fungi. After 21 years, this past year has been unmatched with the number of new species Nature has introduced. 7 new wild flowers, lizards, Goldcrests, and this weird blue and copper fly (or perhaps a bee. I have been unable to identify it). So all this prives to me that helping Nature by planting a range of trees that we find easier to grow from seed or cuttings does not limit that land's capability of recovery. From out of nowhere, it seems, wildlife will bring in a stock of plants to add a much greater variety to whatever you put into the ground. I wish I could help out at that nursery, but if there's anything that does give me stress - it's travelling. I will have to make do with my piece of garden (which isn't the only project I have in mind. A couple of miles walk away, there is a bit of abandoned ground, prone to flooding now, but used for cattle not so long ago. I think the introduction of a few appropriate species from the surrounding neighbourhood will help kickstart this area into action. Anyway, always good to see a nice, young channel on a subject I like, so pressed like and subscribed. Good luck!

You mentioned about reconnecting the forest… I think that all the remaining/undeveloped riparian areas (about 50 meters on either side of natural rivers) should be declared protected all around the world. The land should then be rewilded… providing a space for native trees and wildlife. It will then act as a wildlife corridor.

Not unless done properly

A great example of what a human should be.

#PLANTMORETREES #INVESTinBIODiversity "Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money." Cree Indian Prophecy

What a legend. Alan is my hero

Simon Dures is a dignified follower of Richard St Barbe Baker, the man of the trees !!! Hope he can contemplate his trees still for another 50 years...

I love this man

Nicely done, I used to live in the UK and planted many hundreds of oaks willows birch alder etc etc I have no idea how many but could be well on the way to 1000. that was my relaxation place, planting trees, I now live in Canada and spend a lot of my time clearing deadfall off of trails etc . and planting trees and doing what i can, it is one of the most relaxing things in the world planting trees. keep up the good work hats off to you guys.

Just up the road from me. I'll need to go have a look. Well done, keep ep up the great work🙏🏻

A beautiful soul, well done Alan

There’s no climate change, they are geo engineering it and have been since all major weather disasters

Misguided in my view and nothing to be proud of. Is this project about making ppl feel good and ticking boxes in terms of number of trees planted? How will a forest be diverse or adaptable to climate change if full of the wrong type of tree or thousands of clones?

Great Video