Field Notes: Happenings at Glenlude in 2024
Glenlude Manager Karen Purvis shares some of the many highlights of restoring our wild patch in the Scottish Borders over the past 12 months.
During 2024, 158 volunteers gave us 230 days of conserveration work.
Our regular Thursday work parties re-started in March, after a break over the colder months. As well as keeping up with essential tasks, our core volunteers carried out further tree planting and maintenance in our young woodlands. This included checking 5,500 trees on the south side of Glenlude, which were newly planted in the footprint of our old larch compartments after storms tore through the area early in the year.
We were also delighted to host conservation work parties for Phoenix Futures and the Jamie's Wood team in their respective woodlands, as well as groups from Absolute Escapes, George Watson's College and Friends of the Pentlands.
During the warmer months, we surveyed breeding birds, adders, dwarf shrub heath plots and marked seedlings. Monitoring our flora enables us to assess browsing pressure from deer, while the fauna surveys are a good marker of progress with our restoration plans.
Thanks to funding from Rewilding Britain's Innovation Fund, we carried out a Woodland Scoping Study in 2024. We will use the findings to review the Glenlude Forest Plan - our long-term plan for native woodland restoration across the 149ha site.
A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past year, keeping the show on the road, moving forward and spirits high.
- Read a longer illustrated version of Karen's news - including details of some of the fantastic groups of volunteers that helped with conservation tasks and surveys - in her annual newsletter Glenlude Happenings 2024.
Give wild places a future
Support for our Vital Appeal helps us respond where need was greatest