Scotland’s rarest mountain woodlands get £108k grant markavery.info/2026/07/31/s... #rewilding #nevis #corrour #glencoe @n-t-s.bsky.social @johnmuirtrust.bsky.social @treesforlife.bsky.social 📷 @scotlandtbp.bsky.social

This eve at 8.30 I'll be launching a set of 4 new hr-long pre-recorded video w'shops on neuroscience-backed ways to improve mental health that I use a LOT Each vid will cost just £10 I had a breakdown last yr so signing up to one of my videos would be a 👍 way to support me workshops.emmamitchell.uk

Colourful botanical dopamine for you today: research shows that if you pause on my photos & look at the floral detail your brain will shift away from fight or flight & into rest & relaxation mode & if you find my 📷s beautiful your 🧠 will release dopamine, lifting mood & motivation #neuroscience 🌿

We're excited for the Mountain Woodland Action Group Conference! 📅 Wed 23 Sep 📍 Birnam Arts Centre, P&K 🕛️ 0900 - 1715 Includes #MountainWoodland project showcases, pioneering action, the latest research, international perspectives & more. Info/tickets 👉️https://buff.ly/Ovm9XLz @sarahwatts.bsky.social

Congratulations to #UofStirling PhD researcher @sarahwatts.bsky.social, who has published a new article with colleagues @kirstyjpark.bsky.social, Al Jump and Nadia Barsoum, exploring how microhabitats drive mountain #woodland restoration ⛰️🌲 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 👏

Room to regenerate: microhabitats and the recruitment niche as drivers of mountain woodland restoration

Within fenced areas that protect adult plants from browsing, montane willow regeneration is limited by ground flora growth and restricted to rare microsites of bryophyte mats. These moss-dominated mi....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

This looks like a great PhD for someone...

Sarah Watts@sarahwatts.bsky.social · 2mo ago

📢We're recruiting for an exciting new mountain woodland #PhD on "Mountain birch genetics & recovery in Scotland"! Full funding is guaranteed for this project involving molecular genomics & high-altitude field experiments at #Corrour & Mar Lodge. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

📢We're recruiting for an exciting new mountain woodland #PhD on "Mountain birch genetics & recovery in Scotland"! Full funding is guaranteed for this project involving molecular genomics & high-altitude field experiments at #Corrour & Mar Lodge. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Eldest and youngest experiencing the Elephant Hawk-moths and Poplar Hawk-moths caught in our home-made #garden #moth trap 🤩💡

Very grateful to live super close to the best place in Britain for #mountainflowers, particularly since I’m not able to get out very far due to having a tiny person. Recent finds include Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) & Blue Moor-grass (Sesleria caerulea) which is nationally scarce! #BenLawers

Delighted to announce that the winner of The Dr Cyril Hart Memorial Award for 2026 is Sarah Watts et al for the article, “Why the present is not the key to past or future: moving beyond restricted relict habitat conditions to improve outcomes in mountain woodland restoration.” #ConforAwards2026

Congrats to @sarahwatts.bsky.social who won the Dr Cyril Hart Memorial Award from @forestrytrust.bsky.social for her research paper: "Why the present is not the key to past or future: moving beyond restricted relict habitat conditions to improve outcomes in mountain woodland restoration." 🧵 1/3

Personal news: I'm rather quiet on here with work updates because I've been very busy over the last two months with a new addition to the family. 🥰 I'll be finishing off my #PhD later in the year before returning back to work in due course, but for the meantime I'm on #maternityleave! 👶

Not got mush-room, unless you’re a willow! @sarahwatts.bsky.social is unearthing the ectomycorrhizal fungi co-occurring with relict arctic-alpine willows and restoration sites using eDNA

Great work from Sarah, who is so passionate about what she does and whose paper about Montane #woodland restoration has just been published!

Woodland Trust Scotland@wtscotsocial.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Congrats @sarahwatts.bsky.social @stir.ac.uk for completing this important study buff.ly/rksat4z looking at the impact of deer management on montane woodland (sadly increasingly rare in Scotland). Data revealed that if deer densities are reduced, dwarf birch can survive across multiple habitats.1/2

Congrats @sarahwatts.bsky.social @stir.ac.uk for completing this important study buff.ly/rksat4z looking at the impact of deer management on montane woodland (sadly increasingly rare in Scotland). Data revealed that if deer densities are reduced, dwarf birch can survive across multiple habitats.1/2

Lowering deer densities can help restore Scotland's lost Highland mountain woodlands, new research shows

A six-year long Stirling-led study looked at the impact of deer management on mountain woodland

buff.ly

Excited to be speaking at #BES2025 next week on my PhD research also just ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION: "Thinking outside the bog: planting Dwarf Birch for mountain woodland restoration beyond habitat refugia constrained by overgrazing" Implications for practice, policy & deer management. @stir.ac.uk

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

National Trust for Scotland: Conservation Officer advertised with CJS

Salary: £28,228 - £30,118 Hours: 40 hours per week Location: Mar Lodge Estate, Braemar, Aberdeenshire, AB35 5YJ Working at one of the most important sites for nature conservation in the UK, this…

c-js.uk

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

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI)@bsbibotany.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Bookings are open for the 2025 Scottish Botanists' Conference at @thebotanics.bsky.social. 1 November, 10am - 6pm. #ScotBotanistsConf is always a great day for botanists: talks, workshops, exhibits & networking. £30 registration fee inc tea & coffee: www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

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!

Sarah Watts@sarahwatts.bsky.social · last yr.

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

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.