Volunteering - why bother? There is so much negative news about the climate and biodiversity crises that we can feel helpless and discouraged from doing anything ourselves because it just seems pointless, given the scale of the challenge.
It is so understandable that some people may feel this way, but I hope I can persuade you otherwise.
I first became involved in environmental volunteering after I retired from my medical career. Always a keen hillwalker, I had become aware that while the Scottish Highlands look magnificent, in reality, they are largely damaged and degraded land. Anxious to take part in healing the landscape that has given so much joy and wellbeing to me - and after finding a leaflet about the work of Trees for Life in a Highland car park - I threw myself in at the ecological deep-end and volunteered to join a Trees for Life Rewilding Week in Glen Affric.
This really was a life-changing experience. The former crofting ‘but and ben’ cottage at Athnamulloch in Glen Affric offers basic accommodation but there is no running water, no mobile phone or internet connection and electricity depends on a wind generator. Guided by the excellent group leaders, volunteers are reliant on mutual support, mutual respect and looking after one another to make the week's work a success. We took turns to prepare the communal dinner. I am a hopeless cook, so did the washing up instead!
Tasks for the week might include creating new native woodland and putting up enclosures to protect new planting sites or surveys of regeneration. For those who want to take part in landscape-scale restoration but prefer modern comforts, similar opportunities are offered at the Trees for Life lodge on its Dundreggan estate in Glenmoriston, which is undergoing inspirational transformation.
These Rewilding Weeks do demand a good level of fitness and are best suited to regular hillwalkers, but if a long trek squelching across a pathless hillside to a worksite isn't for you, you could choose to volunteer for a week at the Dundreggan tree nursery.
I really enjoyed living and working as a team with interesting like-minded people from a hugely diverse range of backgrounds, whom I would otherwise have had little opportunity of meeting. I learned so much just by chatting with my fellow volunteers. Being in such a remote location with only minimal basics helped me understand that so much of what we regard as essential in our consumerist nature-depleted world is actually superfluous. Privileges - such as waking each morning to the call of a cuckoo or hearing the evocative drumming of a snipe in the evening - are beyond price.
Knowing that you are making a lasting improvement to a degraded land, and to the benefit of the whole chain of life, is indescribably satisfying. And being in such a beautiful place with people sharing the same values, with mountain air, exercise and good, simple food gives an immense sense of wellbeing.
Spending even a short time shorn of modern luxury can lead us in unexpected quirky directions: the only option for washing in Glen Affric was the chilly river, and as a result, I have now become an enthusiastic wild swimmer!
Undertaking such positive work helps us realise that we are far from powerless, and this improved self-confidence motivates us to seek further opportunities to make our world a better place.
My weeks with Trees for Life have encouraged me to join other environmental organisations doing similar work. It also inspired me to seek out how I could help make my neighbourhood
a better place for the community. For example, local councils can be surprisingly supportive if neighbours want to take over and manage a piece of neglected ground at the end of their
road, or if they wish to simply adopt a street planter.
Volunteering with Trees for Life gives the opportunity for personal and environmental healing through intimate contact with nature, sharing with others, mutual support and learning.
We are not powerless in the face of the current climate and biodiversity crises, we can make places that matter to us better for nature and people.
Go for it!
Feeling inspired? Turn to the next page to book your 2024 Rewilding Week.