Please help us to plant a million trees in the next 5 years!

Having planted a million trees, we’ve set an ambitious goal of a million more in five years, so please make a donation now to our Million More Trees appeal!

Dear Supporter,

Thanks to you and our other supporters, Trees for Life has now planted one million trees. We’ve created 4,000 hectares of new Caledonian Forest and worked at 45 different locations across our Project Area. With almost every tree planted by a volunteer, and funded by supporters like you, that’s a fantastic achievement.

This is the difference you can help us make. Scots pines we’ve planted at Athnamulloch (left) and Glac Daraich (right) in Glen Affric, flourishing amongst blossoming heather, and returning life and diversity to the landscape.

Amongst these emerging forests, a complex web of life is now renewing itself. Dense carpets of moss, heather and blaeberries are alive with insects. Forest birds and wildlife are beginning to make their homes in this expanded habitat, including some of our rarest species. Black grouse numbers are steadily increasing at Corrimony, and pine martens are regularly seen at Dundreggan.

West Affric is one of the earliest places where Trees for Life began work. Volunteer groups planted trees there in the 1990s, and when I visited those sites in June, I was deeply touched to see how this work has progressed, restoring life and diversity to the land.

Beyond the trees we’ve planted, however, the view could not be more different. An empty, bleak landscape stretches into the distance.

Seeing these treeless expanses is a powerful reminder that we can’t stop now. That’s why I’m asking you to make a donation today to help us restore the forests with a million more trees.

Will you help restore the Caledonian Forest with a million more trees?

Stretching from Loch Ness to Skye, our Project Area is breathtakingly beautiful. Amongst the landscape of mountains, lochs and glens, you can already see the impact of our first million trees. Young woodlands are beginning to replace the old and dying trees of the former forest. These trees, which you have helped to plant, will take decades to mature. Some will still be standing five hundred years from now.

At current rates of work, it would take 10 years to reach our next million trees. However, time is running out for the forest and its unique wildlife. With your renewed support, we want to set an ambitious target to double our efforts: one million more trees in five years is our new goal!

There are a million reasons why I am asking for your support now.

By sending a donation today, each tree that you fund will make a real difference to the restoration of the Caledonian Forest. Your contribution will help to:

• Plant trees and protect naturally regenerating seedlings.


• Create new forest networks to link existing woodlands.


• Engage more volunteers with our rewarding conservation work.


• Restore habitats for strawberry spider, wood ants, Scottish wildcats, red squirrels, rare sawflies, ospreys, capercaillies - and all of our forest dependent wildlife.

A million trees in five years is our goal, but like any journey, we need to start with small steps. Here are some examples of what we’re planning in the next year:

• Follow up planting on West Affric, to add to the trees already growing there, and to bring species diversity to the areas that have been fenced for natural regeneration.


• Planting trees in a cleared part of the commercial plantation of non-native conifers on Dundreggan, to restore it to natural forest.


• Further work to protect regenerating aspens, and to plant new aspen seedlings at Scatwell, in the northeast of our Target Area.

It costs just £5 to plant and protect each tree

To implement the three projects I’ve outlined above, we need to raise a total of £20,000. By sending a donation today, you can help us to take these first three steps towards a million more trees.

The planting of the millionth tree is a fantastic achievement. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to launch the next phase of Trees for Life’s work: together, we can plant a million more trees for the Caledonian Forest.

Donations can be made very simply using the link below and my sincere thanks for any gift that you can make.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Watson Featherstone
Executive Director

PS. If you send a donation for five or more trees, we’ll send you a stunning Caledonian Forest print (below). Thanks a million for any contribution that you can make!