Guest Blog: Reforesting for a greener Dumfries and Galloway - Jack Barrie's 2050x Story

Story by Jack Barrie, 2050x Fund Awardee; Edited by Shivali Moda, Communications Co-ordinator

Having grown up in the Dumfries and Galloway area, its landscapes and sights have always occupied a special place in my heart. Earlier this year, I applied to the 2050x fund with the hope to secure funding that would help me reforest our family’s hill farm - an initiative that is part of a bigger project aiming to reforest key areas of the upland farm that have suffered degradation, owing to generations of livestock grazing. 

A second aim of the project is to improve and reforest areas which contribute to vital wildlife corridors that connect upland areas to the sea. Improving and expanding wildlife corridors is critical to the conservation of species and enhancing species resilience to a changing climate.

The project

With generous support from the 2050 Climate Group (both in terms of funding and volunteer time), a phenomenal group of 14 volunteers (including 4 from the 2050 Climate Group) successfully planted 450 mixed deciduous trees on the hill farm in a single day! The mix of species planted spanned a wide range - from common oaks, silver birches, hornbeams, rowans, wild cherry, maple and willows through to hawthorn, dog rose, hazel and spindleberry. I was conscious of the mix of species as I envision the area to be a highly diverse forest containing many different habitats and homes for birds and small mammals. 

Challenges encountered and how we countered them

The trees had to be planted around an old mill pond which has unfortunately completely silted over. As such the pond will be dug out, thereby creating a natural habitat for wildlife. The site is also in a highly waterlogged area – as such the trees were planted using the mounding method where a mound is created from digging a hole. The mound raises the soil above the water level ensuring that the trees will not be waterlogged. It also creates small pools of water to support insects and aquatic life.

My 2050x experience

I sincerely hope that the volunteers had a fun time from the planting weekend (I know I did!) and were also able to pick up some useful and practical knowledge about tree planting and reforestation. 

After witnessing the glowing success of the planting weekend supported by the 2050x Fund, we have now applied to substantially larger pots of funding to reforest a further 2 hectares of degraded land (~1500 trees). I would like to invite any 2050 Climate Group member to come along for our next run to help make Dumfries and Galloway lush and abundant again by planting some trees and hopefully also make some new friends whilst at it.