The Tree Seed Collection Project is a collaborative three-year initiative between Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland to enhance the availability of native trees from western Scotland. 80 volunteers are supporting the project by collecting seeds from targeted areas across the west of Scotland, including within areas of temperate rainforest, and on the Skye, Lewis and Orkney. This project is both profound and grounding. Seeds are the unassuming beginnings of life while offering us a symbolism for the future and an awareness we can significantly help ecosystems to thrive and flourish.
I am very excited to announce our successful first tree seed collection season. We have already exceeded our targets with approximately 2.2 million seeds collected since August, enabling a predicted 1.5 million trees to be grown for reforesting and rewilding projects. These tree seeds have been going through processing and germination testing, with batches now going out to nurseries for sowing and most will be available for planting at sites across Scotland this autumn.
The project focuses on collections from key seed zones where there are pockets remaining of ancient woodland and Scotland’s rainforest that have unique genetics from the end of the last Ice Age. It is important to preserve these diverse populations and historically it has been difficult to source seed from these areas without local knowledge or collectors being geographically based near the sites. Volunteers, however, are able to visit their local woods easily and have local knowledge, which means the project can provide highly sought-after seeds, alongside working with tree experts for more niche and montane species collections.
The project is in collaboration with Woodland Trust Scotland and provides a vital resource for a wide range of their projects, specifically the restoration of Scotland’s rainforest and Caledonian pinewoods at the trust’s sites in Argyll and Bute, Lochaber, and the Trossachs. The project’s seeds are also feeding into the trusts’ Croft Woodland and MOREwoods schemes, which help crofters, smallholders and common grazings associations manage and plant woodlands. Most recently, we are excited to be working with the team starting a 30-year landscape scale project in Assynt establishing new native woodlands and restoring remnant rainforest.
As the project’s coordinator, it’s a privilege to support the team of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers whose efforts are making this ambitious ‘citizen science’ rewilding project come to life. It has been a delight to get to know all of our volunteers from the pilot project and those newly recruited; hearing their passion for trees and woodlands, as well as their joy at knowing the tree seeds they are collecting will directly benefit woodland restoration and wider climate change and biodiversity loss mitigation. The project delivers a range of training to volunteers for tree identification and to know when tree seeds are at their optimum condition for collection, as well as providing kit and equipment for collecting, short-term storing and postage.
Since September, we have also been developing a range of connections across the tree seed and conservation sectors, which includes working closely with tree seed processors, seeking expert advice from Sarah Watt for montane species, as well as drawing on the knowledge of Peter Livingston at Eadha and our own Jill Hodge at Dundreggan nursery. A significant part of the project is also working closely with both small-scale and commercial UKISG nurseries in Scotland, coordinating the seed journey from start to finish.
Without donations and grants it would not be possible to deliver this far-reaching project, nor support the volunteers to collect tree seeds from the vital ancient woodlands remaining in western Scotland. We would like to thank everyone who donated to the Trees for Life Wild Seed Appeal in 2023, along with the BrITE Foundation and Clean Planet Foundation. Woodland Trust Scotland would like to thank players of People’s Postcode Lottery and other supporters who have provided funds for this project.