‘Literally growing the future’: volunteers help save Scottish rainforest by collecting 11m seeds

A small band of volunteers has helped to grow nearly 8m native trees in Scotland , crucial to efforts to restore lost parts of the Atlantic rainforest, after collecting 11m seeds by hand. About 100 volunteers, including retired teachers and doctors, office workers and young families, have spent tens of thousands of hours venturing into often remote woods in the western Highlands and islands to search out seed-bearing trees. They have used detailed maps compiled by NatureScot and Scottish Forestry that identify pockets of ancient woodland, often in exposed, challenging locations, scrambling up hillsides to find the right specimens. They search for a select range of trees, known to have colonised Scotland after the last ice age: hazel, sessile oak, dwarf birch, willow, juniper, birch, wild cherry, wych elm, yew and elder. Tree nursery staff are seen holding Aspen seedlings at the Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, near Loch Ness, in December 2024. The trees are stressed to produce seeds in a controlled nursery environment, nicknamed by the workers the ‘torture chamber’. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian The ecologists involved said these trees have inherited the genetic resilience to survive in specific microclimates and soil types along Scotland’s Atlantic coast – an advantage non-native trees would lack, particularly as the climate changes. …