26 February 2015 Rebecca Thoms -Woodland Trust

The speaker at last week's meeting was Rebecca Thoms. Rebecca is undertaking a Masters degree in Environmental Management at the University of Stirling and joined the Woodland Trust a volunteer to further her research on Public Consultation on the Great Trossachs Forest Project.
She spoke about her involvement in the project, a large scale woodland restoration project which will ultimately create one of the biggest native forests in the UK. The project covers an area of 160 square kilometres or 22,000 football pitches. The project has a 200 year time scale and will create and restore habitats within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Funding, which involves Forestry Commission Scotland, Woodland Trust Scotland, RSPB Scotland and BP, came from BP which reallocated £10m from their budget and from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Rebecca explained there would be many different habitats created as well as removal of non-native and invasive species such as rhododendron and creation of a 'woodland corridor'.
The Great Trossachs Path is 30 miles long from Callander to Inversnaid and links 3 of Scotland's Great Trails, the Rob Roy Way, the West Highland Way and the Three Lochs Way and is suitable for walkers and cyclists. There is a new visitor centre at Glen Finglas and one will open this year at Inversnaid.
Further information can be found on their website: http://www.thegreattrossachsforest.co.uk/

Rebecca was thanked for a very interesting talk by Colin Strachan.