Field Notes: A windy day at Jamie’s Wood

Sophie Mackaness from our fundraising team reports on an uplifting planting project that's taking shape at Glenlude in the Scottish Borders.

Despite Storm Kathleen's projected 40mph winds, 19 people headed to Glenlude in mid April to continue work on Jamie’s Wood: one of our native tree planting projects at our site in the Scottish Borders.

The woodland project was created in memory of Jamie, a passionate hiker, explorer and advocate for wild places. His friends and family have fundraised over £70,000 for the project and make the trip to Glenlude regularly to plant new trees and do important maintenance work on previous years’ saplings to encourage a thriving mixed woodland.

We all arrived at 9am, raring to go and well prepared with waterproofs, warm layers and trays of pasties and sweet treats to keep us going. We fuelled up on coffee and Glenlude Manager Karen Purvis’ famous tea cake and, after a competition of who could carry the most tree stakes, we walked around to the planting site on the lee side of the hill safely sheltered from the worst of the wind.

Half the team set about planting new saplings while others worked on maintenance; weeding inside tree tubes, replacing damaged guards and strengthening tree stakes where necessary.

After a few blustery hours of trees, chatter and laughter, we headed back to the warmth of the volunteer hut for lunch by the cosy stove before planting the rest of the 120 downy birch, 30 rowan, 30 wild cherry and 24 willows that Karen had prepared for us.

It was a special day for all of us at Glenlude. A time for reflection as well as celebration for someone who had such a love for the outdoors. Jamie’s mum spoke to me about how important it was to Jamie to bring people together in the outdoors; she remarked that some of the people who had come to volunteer never knew Jamie, but had come as likeminded individuals through friends of friends and family. In this way, he is still encouraging people to enjoy wild places and engage with nature in whatever way they can.

Every person who contributes to Jamie’s Wood at Glenlude becomes part of his story and will go away with a new appreciation for the positive impacts wild places can have on people and planet.

• Find out more about our work at Glenlude.