Stay Wild
THE NEED
After centuries of deforestation, less than one percent of the original forests in the Scottish Highlands have survived, a tiny fraction of the original native forest cover. The history of this deforestation in the Highlands is long and complex and the potential implications of such a loss of biodiversity are still unknown.
THE OBJECTIVE
HAGGiS Adventures has teamed up with Trees for Life, the only organisation in Scotland specifically dedicated to restoring large areas of native woodland, to create the ‘Stay Wild’ project. The ‘Stay Wild’ project gives HAGGiS travellers the opportunity to help Trees for Life achieve their goal of re-establishing 600 square miles of self-sustaining, wild, Caledonian Forest (the official term to describe the native woodland which originally covered the Scottish Highlands).
THE IMPACT
To date, Trees For Life has planted more than 80,000 trees in the Caledonian Forest. The Stay Wild program has been embraced by HAGGiS; the operators are now offering their travellers several ways to directly engage in a meaningful way with the Trees For Life organisation. Travellers on a number of HAGGiS trips are able to meet with a ranger on site and work with them to clear invasive species, repair infrastructure or plant trees in the HAGGiS Grove, the dedicated forest being developed by HAGGiS travellers. Additionally, those who are not set to visit the site can dedicate a tree, which allows travellers to have a tree planted in the HAGGiS Grove by Trees for Life on their behalf.
Project Details
- The Caledonia Forest is a name of the woodland that once covered large areas of Scotland
- Formed at the end of the last Ice Age, today less than 1% of it remains
- To date Trees For Life has planted more than 80,000 trees in the Caledonian Forest
- The Stay Wild program allows travellers to plant their own tree, or sponsor a tree
- There is a special HAGGiS Grove set aside where HAGGiS travellers can plant their tree
Project Partners
HAGGiS & Busabout
Busabout, HAGGiS & Shamrocker are a collective of companies offering choice, value and flexibility to young, independent travelers. Busabout is the flexible Hop-on Hop-off coach network in Europe plus adventures in Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Eastern Europe and the top festivals. HAGGiS run award-winning trips throughout Scotland, Cornwall and Wales and Shamrocker in Ireland with the best local guides.
Trees For Life
UK based Trees For Life is a UK based charity working to restore the Caledonian Forest, which formerly covered a large part of the Scottish Highlands. Since 1989 Trees For Life have been helping to bring this forest back from the brink, both through natural regeneration and by planting trees. The organisations long term vision is to restore the forest, and all its constituent species, to a 600 square mile area west of Inverness, including our 10,000 acre Dudreggan Estate.