Conservation Officer vacancy with @n-t-s.bsky.social 40 hours per week based at Mar Lodge Estate, Braemar, Aberdeenshire c-js.uk/4oubBG7

Book your #ScotBotanistsConf place now! Its going to be a fantastic day @thebotanics.bsky.social, with brilliant talks on restoring montane woodland, Tufted Saxifrage, urban flora and much much more! @sarahwatts.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social @botsocscot.bsky.social @naturescot.bsky.social

My best botanical day of the year! While hillwalking in the #Cairngorms we discovered a new, unrecorded population of the ultra rare Marsh Saxifrage (Saxifraga hirculus). This beautiful upland plant is a protected species & only found at a few sites in Scotland. #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

Making the most of flower power! This week at #Corrour we have been repeat #monitoring to determine if our tall herbs and upland calcareous grasslands are continuing to recover after a reduction in deer densities on the estate. It's wonderful to study these lovely plants in a dynamic landscape!

Volunteers from our Tree Seed Collection Project recently visited Ben Lawers NNR for their annual trip to learn more about montane tree species. Montane scrub is a rare and fragmented #habitat found in mountainous regions, where dwarfed #trees and shrubs dominate. 🌿 Learn more 👉 bit.ly/3IfJ2wq

An interesting early morning start joining #forestry #PhD researcher Ben Wilson from @stir.ac.uk recording the #moths found in light traps set up at Loch Ossian woods on #Corrour. My favourite find of the day couldn't help but be the large & very charismatic Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)!

Here's the delighted face of someone who has just said "This looks exactly like Carex rariflora habitat"...moments before finding Carex rariflora (Mountain Bog-sedge)! We've got our eye in on this Nationally Rare high-altitude plant & the special places it occurs. #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

Lovely time botanising in the #Cairngorms finding Alpine Speedwell (Veronica alpina), Alpine Cat's-tail (Phleum alpinum), Alpine Foxtail (Alopecurus magellanicus), & a new record of Scottish Pearlwort (Sagina x normaniana) last recorded at this site 24 years ago! #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

Want to see a map of where mega-rare Alpine Catchfly grows in Britain? Check out its #PlantAtlas2020 page: plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9... Our online Plant Atlas has pages for 3,495 plants with maps, info on conservation status & trends plus galleries of photos: all free for you to use & enjoy!

How many #montane #scrub enthusiasts can you fit around a relict montane willow? We found out on a #Mountain #Woodland Action Group field trip to #Dalnacardoch Estate last week, while discussing exciting potential options for #regeneration & #restoration alongside landscape-scale deer management.

The ultra-mega-rare #Alpine Catchfly (Silene suecica) is only found in two sites in Britain! We were absolutely delighted to see it in full flower today while botanising in the #Cairngorms; growing on a very unusual high-altitude serpentine rock rich in magnesium. #mountainflowers #wildflowerhour

Here's a plant that only occurs at one single place in the ENTIRE WORLD!! How special to see the #endemic Scottish Mouse-ear (Cerastium fontanum subsp. scoticum) in the #Cairngorms showing off its lovely long petals today, also alongside Cyphel (Cherleria sedoides). #mountainflowers #wildflowerhour

Delighted to have completed Phase 3 of our multi-year #peatland #restoration project at #Corrour with Peatland ACTION! The 245ha at Loch na Lap brings our total for this particular project to 648ha, & our overall peatland restoration area on the estate up to 870ha. Works by Barker and Bland.

How wonderful to receive these photos from the @treesforlife.bsky.social Dundreggan tree nursery who have been growing montane willows for us. These precious plants are to become our future seed stand for Whortle-leaved Willow on #Corrour; a high-altitude specialist listed as Endangered in Britain.

One of my very favourite jobs of the year: #monitoring our #montane #willows at #Corrour! These Downy Willow saplings were planted two years ago & they're flourishing, all on the open hill without the use of fencing. I'm looking forward to surveying some of our other planting sites next week. 🤗 🤩

I had a fantastic #fieldwork day this week planting Downy Willow (Salix lapponum) saplings for an experiment designed by PhD student Rory Abernethy @stir.ac.uk. Their growth & survival will be assessed as part of #research on Sitka Spruce colonisation at the treeline in Scotland.

I had a very interesting, unique & fun day of sunny #fieldwork this week on Ben Ledi with our University of Stirling 1st year PhD student Rory Abernethy who is studying Sitka Spruce colonisation at the treeline in Scotland. We were tagging trees for a planned experiment @stir.ac.uk.

I had a very productive & enjoyable day of #fieldwork last week promoting #montane #willow #conservation! Great to join a team from @hutton.ac.uk & Catkin Ecology working in Glen Lochay to collect cuttings for creating new local provenance seed stands from five threatened willow species!

Fantastic weather this weekend for a round of the epic "Fisherfield 6" in the North-West Highlands, featuring plenty of sunshine, wind, deer, mountains, ridges, scrambling, bog, big river crossings, & some very remote Scots Pine indeed. 🔭🤩🥰💪🏔️☀️

We've begun a #riverwoods #restoration trial at #Corrour through the Loch Abar Mòr partnership. These small unfenced seed islands are intended to provide cover & nutrients along the river where seed sources are currently lacking. I'll be #monitoring their progress! #naturerichLochaber

Rainy day roadside botanical safari staring the stunning arctic-alpine Purple #Saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) this weekend at Ben Lawers! #WildflowerHour #NTSBenLawers #botany #

We've planted more trees in our bespoke #montane #willow seed stand at #Corrour! These arctic-alpine Downy Willow are cuttings from wild plants on the estate. The stand has clones from 92 individuals to upscale seed production for the local area. It's the largest stand for this species in Britain!

It was fun to take part in the panel discussion on nature restoration at #SNSC2025 this week with Professor Colin Galbraith, Nikki Yoxall, Ashleigh Kitchiner & Clive Mitchell. My advice to my early career peers to "embrace nerdiness, as much as possible" certainly got quite the reaction! 💪🤓

It was fantastic to be invited as a #keynote speaker at Scotland's Nature Student Conference #SNSC2025 this week & share my enthusiasm for mountain woodland #restoration! I really enjoyed hearing about lots of exciting ongoing research & joining the afternoon panel discussion @scotnsconf.bsky.social

Two key messages from #SNSC2025: we have a big problem, but we can do something about it. @scottishgov.bsky.social CSA Mat Williams laying out reality - 47% native plants in decline, 1 in 9 Scottish species threatened with extinction, & @sarahwatts.bsky.social sharing hope for mountain woodlands

Great to get along to @scotnsconf.bsky.social this week - two great days at RBGE talking to student naturalists about wild plants and their interests. We talked skill levels, training, data, recording, Sticky Catchfly and arctic alpines (obviously inspired by @sarahwatts.bsky.social!)

Time for our exciting panel discussion on “Nature Restoration and the role of people” in both Scotland and globally! #SNSC2025 @naturescot.bsky.social

Tree are the champions! - Ben Wilson with a poster titled: Tree-mendous change: exploring the effects of implementing alternative forest management in Scotland #SNSC2025

Yay, great to see the fabulous @sarahwatts.bsky.social at #SNSC2025 spreading the word about restoration of Scotland's montane woodlands. My colleagues @bsbiscotland.bsky.social & @sarahelizwoods.bsky.social are at the Conference again today. Do catch up with Matt & the Sarahs for a plantbased chat!

No fake plastic trees on these mountains! - Our first student keynote of the conference is @sarahwatts.bsky.social who is blending both research and practice to highlight how and why we can successfully restore mountain woodlands in Scotland #SNSC2025

The hour draws near... GROUNDBREAKERS is out in paperback on 13 March! (With a little makeover) Pre-order at www.bloomsbury.com/uk/groundbre... 1/2

#winter #Cairngorms #pinewoods #Deeside #snow #cornice #hillwalking

Our Scottish Seed Stand Project wants to hear from anyone with an existing stand (some might say 'orchard') of montane willow, rock whitebeam or juniper. 🌱 More here.👉 https://buff.ly/40QIjIP @sarahwatts.bsky.social 🧵 1/3

Only just reading this now so I'm a bit behind, but we really need a bit of positivity just now and it's lovely to find it coming from @stir.ac.uk 😊

UK or Irish #Botany buffs: the Basal Project has updated their WANTED list. Pls take a look & consider submitting juvenile/basal #WildPlants pics to this great community project in 2025 Xls: shorturl.at/5WDz0 BasalProject.org.uk @richardmabbutt.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social‬

Results of our 14th #NewYearPlantHunt are out! >3K hunters, 647 wild & naturalised species in bloom, c25K records: plans afoot to extend the Hunt across rest of year. Huge thanks to all plant hunters! Summary/ press release here: bsbi.org/download/45297 Longer report here: bsbi.org/download/45290

📢 We're recruiting for an exciting #PhD in #paleoecology "Montane mosaics in Scotland: understanding the past to inform the future". At University of St. Andrews + University of Aberdeen, #Corrour & Mar Lodge Estate. For more details (see ‘staff-led proposals’): www.st-andrews.ac.uk/geography-su...

Registration is now open for Scotland's Nature Student Conference: People, Nature and Climate! I'm delighted to have been invited as a #keynote speaker & am really looking forward to this event. 18th & 19th March 2025, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh #SNSC2025 snsconference.wixsite.com/2025

Have you been involved in #Herbivore Impact Assessments on the #Scottish uplands? Then our researchers would like your feedback. With @naturescot.bsky.social, we are conducting a survey on Herbivore Impact Assessment methodologies with the aim of improving methodologies. Survey: bit.ly/4gVreTI

Lovely to see Buxbaumia viridis, a rare #moss on the European Red List & "Schedule 8" of the Wildlife & Countryside Act. Found on rotting logs & stumps of Scots Pine & other conifers in the Eastern Scottish Highlands. Difficult to spot because you're looking for these centimetre-long capsules!

Hi Ben, thanks for your post on #HighMountainTrees! The 1160m Scots Pine from Cairn Lochan was an older (2003), vague record. In July 2023 Jim McIntosh, Andrew Painting & I recorded one also at 1160 on Ben Macdui, so I'm taking the later as the highest confirmed Pine record in Scotland (for now!) 👇

📢 We're recruiting for a guaranteed fully-funded #interdisciplinary challenge-led #PhD in cutting-edge #environmental #monitoring for nature recovery, through the NETGAIN DFA @netgain.bsky.social. Based at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social in collaboration with #Corrour www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Stunning #winter mountaineering day in the #Cairngorms - this year in the hills has got off to a wonderful start! 🤩☀️😎❄️🏔️

Excited to share my new (and first!) paper. We reviewed how environmental DNA can be applied to terrestrial rewilding monitoring- particularly which sampling substrates to use and how eDNA compares to other monitoring approaches 🧬 www.frontiersin.org/journals/con...

Fantastic to see #mountain #woodland #regeneration featuring high-altitude krummholz Scots Pine during our New Year's Day walk on Creag Bhalg above Mar Lodge. Wonderful transitional treeline vegetation featuring a mosaic of trees and dwarf shrubs. 🤗

So #NewYearPlantHunt is over for another year. Please send in all your records by Sunday so we can analyse them & report back. Meanwhile here's our Day 4 round-up: what we know so far, messages from the Hunt founders & a shout-out to the fab Support Team! bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/01/new-...

Taking part in the #NewYearPlantHunt @bsbibotany.bsky.social while on a walk through Glen Quoich in #Deeside. No surprise that only two plants were #flowering up here, but it was lovely to see classic #Pinewood understory species Ling Heather (Calluna vulgaris) & Bell Heather (Erica cinerea)!

📰Published📰 Carnivorous sundews are more carnivorous in high-light bog microhabitats that are not also nutrient-rich https://buff.ly/3VKigQx 🧪🌍

I'm trying my hardest to strive for nature recovery including mountain woodland restoration & championing arctic-alpine plants! So chuffed to have my work featured in this article in The Guardian alongside other uplifting projects for biodiversity. 💪🤩

Delighted that my #PhD #research at University of Stirling @stir.ac.uk features in this uplifting @theguardian.com article! Wonderful recognition of 30+ years of restoration action for montane willows across Scotland, spotlighting Ben Lawers @n-t-s.bsky.social. www.theguardian.com/environment/...