Jackson’s and Trees for Life: Helping to replant the Caledonian Forest

For over a decade Jackson’s has been donating to Trees for Life, a Scottish Charity which is reforesting areas of the Highlands. We are pleased to announce that we have now planted more than 1000 native trees in the Scottish Highlands.

Trees for Life

The idea of giving to Trees for Life first came about from a desire to offset the environmental cost of producing our catalogues. We have distributed thousands of catalogues over the years; as well as ensuring these catalogues and guides are printed on FSC-certified paper, we decided to give back to the environment and offset some of our carbon footprint by planting trees.

We have kept to our pledge and have now reached an impressive milestone – 1005 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Trees for Life has reached one of its own staggering milestones. Volunteers for Trees for Life have planted over a million trees and are now on their way to planting a million more, helping to re-establish the Caledonian Forest for future generations. We are continuously inspired by this organisation and hope that our readers and customers will join us in supporting them for years to come.

Scots Pines at Glen Affric – Photographer: Grant Willoughby

The Caledonian Forest is one of the most important forest ecosystems in the UK and has provided a home for spectacular wildlife for centuries. It is now severely fragmented and in many places consists entirely of old trees. This is largely due to the fact that for many years landowners encouraged the clearance of native mixed woodland in favour of heather moorland or Forestry Commission monoculture forest. This has lead to a decline in native species such as Scots pine, Birch, Willow, Aspen, Rowan, Juniper and Oak, as well as the fauna which depend on them.

Trees for Life is working to expand and link these ancient pinewoods by using three strategies. The first part is facilitating the natural regeneration of native trees by fencing deer out of specific areas of forest. This allows seedlings to grow naturally to maturity again, without being over-grazed.

Scots Pines – Photo: Trees for Life

The second strategy is planting native trees in areas where the forest has disappeared. This is achieved by collecting seeds from the nearest surviving trees, which maintains the local genetic variation in the forest. The seedlings are grown at the Trees for Life nursery at Dundreggan, near Loch Ness, before they are transported to be planted. The seedlings are planted in a random pattern inside fenced exclosures, replicating the natural distribution of the trees.

The third part of their Action Plan involves the removal of non-native trees. In some areas commercial crop has been planted amongst the old trees of the Caledonian Forest, preventing their regeneration.

Trees for Life’s aim is that in time these trees will connect the surviving fragments of Glen Affric’s ancient forest and establish a large habitat area for species such as Red Deer, Capercaillie, Black Grouse and Red Squirrel. Their aim is to spread this forested area towards the west coast.

Glen Affric – Photographer: Colin Leslie

Our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint don’t stop there. Alongside our commitment to supporting Trees for Life, we have recently fitted solar panels to the roof of our main distribution centre in Gloucester, England. We send well over a thousand parcels a day from this centre, so installing solar panels will help us to reduce the environmental impact of our parcel distribution. Covering 3154 square feet, this system will generate 42 500 kWh of electricity per year. This will save an impressive 22 400 kg of CO2 per year.

Jackson’s Art Supplies – Gloucester
Photo credit: Kristaps Pukitis

Click here to visit our grove and consider donating to Trees for Life. Read more about our environmental commitments here.