Carrifran valley was purchased on 1st January 2000, and since then we have been working towards transforming the valley into a tract of wild and mainly forested land. More than 450,000 native trees and shrubs have been planted, establishing young woodland in most of the lower half of the valley.
We have initiated a beautiful, natural-looking and functioning woodland ecosystem, which is already becoming home to a wide variety of wildlife and an inspiration to human visitors.
In spring 2007 we started to establish treeline woodland in a hanging valley high above the valley floor, but most of the upper part of the site will be allowed to return to its original state more gradually, mainly by natural regeneration.
Planting by Contractors
Out of the 450,000 trees now established at Carrifran, about 45,000 have been planted by volunteers, including many of those in the highest and most difficult places. The rest of the planting, however, has been done by our dedicated contractors. These are individuals or members of small companies, who come back to work for us year after year and are thus an integral part of the Wildwood project. They are prepared to work high up on Carrifran through the winter, probably meeting tougher conditions than any other tree planters in Britain, and we are deeply grateful to them.
Here is a short summary of our achievements up to June 2008:
Total area planted: 282 hectares
Number of trees planted: 453,000
For a more detailed breakdown on this and other work in progress, please view the Woodland Restoration Data.
To see exactly where the planting has taken place, we refer you to the Carrifran Site Map when viewing the Restoration data.
If you would like to learn more about ecological restoration and the challenge of establishing trees at Carrifran, refer to the Ecological Restoration page. For a more in-depth understanding of the planting techniques, refer to the Silviculture page.
