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Reflections on the 4th International Conservation Translocation Conference
“Conservation Translocation is the deliberate movement and release of organisms primarily for a conservation benefit.” 3 Days, 300 delegates and 174 presentations Earlier on this month, the 4th...
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The Scottish Plant Recovery Team Take on Norway
The Scottish Plant Recovery Team went on an invaluable expedition to Norway for an multi-day trip to assess the optimal ecological conditions for many of our target species. Many of our species that...
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FINDING JEAN, FINDING FLORA
Hayden Lorimer teaches cultural geography and environmental humanities at University of Edinburgh. His research explores connections between landscape, memory and the geographical imagination. He is...
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One in a milestone
Saxifraga hirculus in bloom at natural population within Caithness. (photo: B.Drew, 2023) This is it, the last planting for our project. I feel a mix of pride and sadness bittersweet, really, as we...
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Resurrecting the Fern; Looking Back At Our Woodsia Translocations
Translocations are, by their very nature, complex and demanding undertakings – something our team knows all too well. Challenges such as logistics, limited time, unpredictable weather, difficult...
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Four Weeks, Three Species, One Mission: A Riparian Rescue
In the months of October and November 2025, the NRF Scottish Plant Recovery team carried out a series of translocations which challenged us logistically, mentally and physically and which required a...
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Viral or Cultural? A Mini Experimental Trial on Polygonatum Verticillatum
The NRF (Nature Restoration Fund) Scottish Plant Recovery Project at RBGE aims to restore genetically diverse populations of our endangered Scottish native plants around the country. Whilst rewarding,...
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Unearthing the secrets of the One-flowered Wintergreen
By Jennifer Baker, a conservation horticulturalist from the Scottish Native Plant Recovery Team. Fascinated by the complex life cycle of the One-flowered Wintergreen, Jennifer set up a three-year...
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Marking a Month: My Scottish Natives experience so far…
A younger me taking a selfie at RBGE Weeding woodsia. (Photo by Iain Stewart from Leaves by Studies in Photography). RBGE has been a place that I have visited since I was little, with my parents, with...
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Partners giving elm and apple a better future
March and April saw the completion of a marathon planting exercise by the Scottish Plant Recovery team to give a helping hand to two threatened native tree species – wych elm (Ulmus glabra) and wild...
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Restoring a fern wiped out by collectors and botanists
Oblong woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis), a small, rare mountain fern, was virtually wiped out in the Moffat Hills by commercial collectors responding to the Victorian craze for ferns – pteridomania – that...
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People making a difference
March and April saw the completion of a marathon planting exercise by the Scottish Plant Recovery team to give a helping hand to two threatened native tree species – wych elm (Ulmus glabra) and crab...
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Wilding Garden trials – small cow-wheat
The Garden is now being used as a test bed to explore some of the challenges and unanswered questions involved in returning threatened Scottish plants to wild sites. The focus of this activity is in...
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Weeding moss
Weeding moss might sound like the endless battle that some people engage in to maintain their lawns and block paving in immaculate condition. Today I stumbled across a literal example of weeding moss...
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A second chance
Trees in general, and wych elms (Ulmus glabra) in particular, are being given a second chance in the dramatic landscape of Assynt. Land owned by both the community and environmental charities now...
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A homecoming in the Borders
My visit to assess the potential for wych elm (Ulmus glabra) planting on land owned by the Borders Forest Trust will pave the way for a homecoming of sorts for the elms in the next month or so. The 12...
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Restoring nature at Balmoral
As its winding course runs past Balmoral Castle the River Dee is flanked by a mix of farmland and woodland. Much of the woodland is composed of majestic old Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) growing...
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Restoring salmon elms in Caithness
‘It’s not necessarily about fishing, just knowing the salmon are there is what matters’, explains Anson Macauslan, estate manager at Braemore & Langwell Estate, as he drives me upstream along the...
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Elm in its place
A story that is told in pictures alone is somehow very satisfying. Nobody needs to be a wordsmith to get the message across. When Chris Puddephatt sent me his latest images of Assynt’s elms I saw a...
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Translocating resilience
Assisting the migration of plants is something that has already been carried out in a limited way to help them respond to climate change. The concern is that some plants are either unable to migrate...
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