A key factor holding back native forest restoration and expansion in Scotland is grazing pressure from unnaturally high numbers of deer, giving native woodland little chance to recover. Consequently, deer management is a necessary tool for ecological restoration. Find out more. 

If you visit Wildland Limited’s Glenfeshie Estate, you can witness some of the remarkable natural regeneration of woodland that has taken place across this landscape in recent decades. Our research shows that collaborative deer management across a landscape can achieve rapid landscape-scale native woodland expansion with minimal need for planting or fencing. 

We use science to inform, monitor and improve our restoration work. Click here to find out how monitoring moths at different altitudes and studying the creation of deadwood within a forest can inform the restoration work we do. 

We are working to restore watercourses and floodplains to a more natural state within the Cairngorms Connect partnership area. Find out more about this work here. 

RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes is one of the largest and most important inland wetland areas in the UK, supporting a variety of wildlife and over 500 species of plants. Visit the reserve for your chance to spot some of the rare and important wading birds that call the marshes home. 

Community plays an essential role in landscape-scale restoration. Come along to one of our upcoming events, meet other people from the local community, and find out more about this landscape and the work we do. 

We are working to restore vast areas of degraded peatland, to lock in carbon and ensure important habitats such as blanket bogs and bog woodland exist for the plants and animals that rely on them.  

At the Cairngorms Connect Tree Nursery we grow broadleaf species to plant out across the Partnership. This work is supported by the dedicated work of volunteers. Find out more about why we have a Tree Nursery and how you can get involved here. 

Restoring a healthy, biodiverse native woodland depends on the control and removal of non-native trees and shrubs and restructuring plantations to create more deadwood and increase light on the forest floor. You may be able to see some of this work at Forestry and Land Scotland’s Glenmore Forest Park.

Visit RSPB Scotland’s Loch Garten Nature Centre for walks through wildlife-rich Caledonian pineforest and the chance to watch Ospreys and other birds.

From April - September, pick up some Cairngorms Connect Venison at the Nature Centre shop and help restore the forests one burger at a time.