In the news
A pine forest from the sky
Immersion in the forest brought all our senses alive and the frosty, freezing conditions gave it a stillness that lent a timeless air, like we could have been there centuries earlier and we would not have been surprised to hear the mournful howl of a wolf from the depths of the forest!
In this film James Crawford presents the story of the ancient Caledonian pine forest from within the very crown at the top of a beautiful Scots pine tree in the incredible opening sequence of Living off the Land in the second series of Scotland from the Sky.
We were super excited to be brought in as specialists to rig and climb in the such a special place as Glen Affric. Rich in biodiversity, the ancient pine forest still has secrets to reveal. Climbing up into the very top of the trees we discovered a forest of lichen. Here, the top-most twigs are home to lichens of all kinds, and they in turn provide cover and habitat for invertebrates that feed birds like the iconic Crested Tit.
New heights in adventure tourism!
“Sitting in a hammock 100ft up in a tree, Tim Chamberlain feels calm and relaxed.”
Wild Tree Adventures starred in a great article in The Herald titled How tree climbing in Scotland is scaling new heights in adventure tourism. Appearing alongside Speyside Wildlife’s Sally Dowden, the feature accompanied a larger article talking about the importance of adventure tourism to Scotland. This will be further discussed at Vist Scotland and Wild Scotland’s first annual Adventure Tourism Week that takes place 16-20 November 2020.
For the love of trees
“Author Vicky Allan went looking for stories of remarkable trees and found a nation slowly recovering thanks to their healing powers.”
Tim features in a fabulous new book packed with stories of love and joy and sadness and solace, each person writing about a tree special to them. With contributions from Dame Judy Dench, Miranda Hart and Chris Packham, Tim was in fine company! See this article in The Telegraph.
Tim wrote about a tree which at first appears almost unremarkable and is certainly not the oldest, tallest or largest one he knows by any means. A spherical bushy tree about 6m in diameter, it stands at a junction of paths on village common land, and it looks just like any other tree. In part due to daily adventures in the woods, hills and coasts of Scotland stuffed with fabulous fresh air and exercise, Tim’s mum Biddy lived with Alzheimers for over 17 years. To find out why this is called Biddy’s tree, get your copy of For the love of Trees for yourself or for a great Xmas pressie!
My favourite place among the trees…
“Later, I took my mum walking there in sunshine, rain and snow; those trips were a big part of her life with Alzheimer’s. For me, every walk in the Eildon Woods is a still-fresh adventure.”
Following on the book, The Guardian ran a lovely article entitled My Favourite place among the trees from some of the book’s contributors. I chose to write about a place close to my heart and one in which I have spent probably hundreds if not thousands of hours, walking, mushrooming, bird watching, surveying, tree hunting, running, exploring, guiding friends and relations, and simply watching the change of the seasons. Caring for my mother full time for many years, the woods was a place of solace and adventure for us. This is one of my favourite photos of her in a place we called Little Narnia, you can see why! Read the article to hear about Magical pines: Eildon Woods, Scottish Borders.
Ancient trees recorded in lockdown
Throughout lockdown and this summer like no other, people across the UK have been surveying and recording special trees. The Woodland Trust has an amazing resource called the Ancient Tree Inventory which is a record of the UK’s amazing trees. Anyone can help add to this great logbook by measuring a tree they have found, and you can check online see if it is as yet unrecorded.
Tim discovered this large veteran common beech with a girth of over 7m which featured in a Woodland Trust blog of Ancient trees recorded in lockdown.
Wild Tree Adventures