News
27 June 2007Turcan Connell Supports Inversnaid Reserve
Turcan Connell has marked its 10th anniversary with a project to provide 2,000 tree seedlings for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at the Inversnaid Reserve, Loch Lomond. The planting is designed to help restore Scotland’s broad-leaved woodland, a habitat that has become so scarce that less than 2% of the original cover remains.
The venture with the RSPB is part of the firm’s “engaged philanthropy” initiative, which attempts to go beyond the mere act of giving. Douglas Connell, Joint Senior Partner at Turcan Connell, said: “For us this is a great project because we can give something back. We can involve our Partners and staff in the tree planting and visits to the reserve. We hope to establish a project with which we can be engaged for many years.”
Planting is scheduled for November, when a team of 20 Turcan Connell employees will plant the trees in clumps of 50 or 100 over a weekend. The planting of trees, grown from local provenance seeds, will create about one hectare (100m x 100m) of woodland. The project’s long-term aim is for the trees to act as a seed source to allow the rest of the proposed woodland area to develop naturally over the next 50 to 100 years.
The wildlife that depends on this habitat varies, but the RSPB is particularly concerned with increasing the population of black grouse, which depends on a mixed habitat including broad-leaved trees. It also wants to increase populations of woodland speciality species like wood warbler, redstart, pied flycatcher, spotted flycatcher, tree pipit and lesser redpoll. Surveys undertaken in the 1980's and 2003-04 indicate that populations of these species have fallen by between 30% and 70%.
As well as helping to restore bird populations, the project will increase the biodiversity that exists in Scottish mixed woodland, which already provides a habitat for scarce butterflies, some very rare ferns and a lichen that is new to science.
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Louise Keane, Head of Communications
Tel: 0131 659 8689
Mobile: 07816 850 961
E-mail: louise.keane@turcanconnell.com
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