Planning application submitted for world’s first rewilding centre
Trees for Life has submitted a planning application for the world’s first rewilding centre at its 10,000-acre Dundreggan estate in Glenmoriston, between Loch Ness and the Isle of Skye.
The planning application submitted to Highland Council on 22 June features an innovatively designed visitor centre inspired by wild native forests and the rich natural and cultural heritage of the Highlands.
The conservation charity expects the pioneering project to welcome over 50,000 visitors annually – showcasing the benefits of rewilding and working with nature rather than against it, while boosting the rural economy and creating at least 15 new local jobs.
“Dundreggan Rewilding Centre will be a place for people from all walks of life to rewild themselves by exploring and enjoying a remarkable wild landscape in a beautiful Highland glen, and to spend time learning about the area’s unique wildlife and inspiring Gaelic history,” said Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s Chief Executive.
The inclusive centre will provide events, experiences and exhibitions for casual visitors, those seeking a more immersive experience, and groups with specific requirements – such as those with physical or learning disabilities, families and schools.
To fit in with the landscape, the building’s design has been inspired by local Gaelic heritage and history, and by the globally important but endangered Caledonian Forest – with verticals representing trees, changing light to reflect how light plays in woodlands, and materials and colours conjuring up bracken and forest bark.
In the all-weather visitor centre, a ‘Welcome Tree’ central space – featuring a striking Scots pine sculpture – will be a focal point where people can discover the activities on offer. A Gaelic bothy area will spotlight local history and heritage, and there will be spaces for learning and events.
The building will act as a gateway to the forest and wild outdoors, where there will be fully accessible trails and more adventurous walks. Family-friendly features where people can learn, play and relax will include a Squirrel Wood forest play area, and a wildlife pond for dipping.
An accessible 20-bed accommodation space will be constructed on the site of an original lodge, enabling people – including students and researchers – to have longer stays at the acclaimed rewilding estate.
The project has been made possible thanks to over £2 million support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Scottish Natural Heritage-led Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund funded through the European Regional Development Fund,and from others. Trees for Life is seeking further funding to ensure the centre can be constructed on schedule in 2021.
Feedback from an extensive community consultation – which overwhelmingly supported the project – has been incorporated into the plans. Inverness-based Threesixty Architecture has led the design team for the centre.
Highland Council granted planning permission in principle for the centre in April 2019. Construction should begin in early 2021, with the centre opening in 2022.
Trees for Life has been rewilding Dundreggan – including by protecting and expanding fragments of the Caledonian Forest – since its 2008 purchase of the former deer stalking estate. Dundreggan is home to over 4,000 plant and animal species – including some never recorded in the UK before or once feared extinct in Scotland.
Trees for Life is dedicated to rewilding the Scottish Highlands. Its volunteers have established nearly two million native trees at dozens of sites, encouraging wildlife to flourish and helping communities to thrive. See www.treesforlife.org.uk.
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Why don’t they build it on the edge of Inverness or somewhere, so more people can visit, & without driving to get there? (Because that’s what 99.9% of them will do, producing huge quantities of pollution in the process.) Is what they are proposing really the best solution: another ‘visitor centre’ theme park? Please.
Cos they don’t own anything on the edge of Inverness.
I suppose this project is an atheroma of everything I disapprove of in a rewilding project, the commercialisation of the natural world for the express beneficial requiem of mankind, fuelled by the over imaginative expectations of the media press. Nature as in many other similar projects is an after thought – a side dish to entice the uninitiated, a place you can do anything you wish and there’s a chance the kids might see some wildlife.
Eight years ago we started this farms’ wilding project, our objective to hand over the whole lot to nature, we succeeded, you can’t walk your dog, ride the horse, mountain bike, camp in lodges, even nature watch, we don’t charge £50 to see purple emperors, although it’s an idea which would make us a fortune. There are no humans; the cows are the only species that see anybody on a daily basis, and as a consequence the bio-diversity on this farm is sky-high.
But perhaps commercialisation is the only way forward, the human race has proved pretty inept at managing the natural world, but adept at exploitation not only of our own species but every other organism on this planet.
I’ve long argued that the charities need reforming, to be financially independent, and for once and for all wean themselves off the funding nipple. Commercisation must be part of that if these organisations are to survive, the exploitation of a consumer market however distasteful is probably the only option left to us.
Whatever you think of Knepp, it’s still a commercial farm and marketing exercise in how to manage a nature situation, but above all it’s a brand that people wish to be associated with. Stick a Knepp logo on a pot of marmalade and you can flog it for the same price as Fortnum & Mason, purists might look down their nose at that thought, but marketing is what humans do very well, certainly much better than we look after our own wildlife. I might hate the idea of plonking an image of an otter on a plastic lunchbox to fog to the parents of kids, but corporate advertising is a world I know very well, it works.
My hope is that there are others out there who look at this project and say this is the wrong approach, we can and should do better and I will. Humans have rights but equally the wildlife in this country have the same rights and for once we should put those to the forefront, not on the premise that a bunch of humans will earn a careers salary and a gold plated pension at the end of it.
God you’re a grumpy old bugger Thomas.