Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest
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asrainforest.bsky.social
Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest
@asrainforest.bsky.social
940 followers 190 following 210 posts
We're a partnership of 24 very different organisations who love Scotland's temperate rainforest, and want to see it protected and restored. You can find out lots more about us on our website https://savingscotlandsrainforest.org.uk/ #ScotlandsRainforest
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asrainforest.bsky.social
Join the Integrating Trees Network for an online Tea and Trees with Crofters event, 11 Nov, 6–7 pm. During this informal session, you can share your knowledge and experience, and chat with other crofters, Scottish Forestry and Woodland Trust staff. buff.ly/ehaa7QK
📷 Richard Faulks
Someone planting a young tree in grassland
November 5, 2025 at 1:55 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
It seems to be a fantastic year for acorns in #ScotlandsRainforest! Are these the oaks of the future?
Acorns sitting on a mossy tree stump
October 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
#ScotlandsRainforest grows in a zone with high rainfall right through the year. But with Wildfire Warnings becoming more common in Scotland’s springs and summers, how much of a threat do fires pose to this already vulnerable habitat? buff.ly/zlUM1Fh
📷 Samuel Lindsay
A fire burning in an area of rainforest, with young birch trees on fire, and blackened by the flames.
October 6, 2025 at 11:47 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Can you help remove invasive rhododendrons from #ScotlandsRainforest? @actinargyll.bsky.social is contracting for rope specialists to help tackle some of the most challenging sites. Is this role for you? buff.ly/iYWJKVp
📷 Caz Austen
Pink rhododendron flowers
October 6, 2025 at 9:41 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
This is your last chance to apply for an amazing opportunity with National Trust for Scotland and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for a two-year role working on some of the finest lichen habitats in Scotland, including #ScotlandsRainforest! The closing date is tomorrow
buff.ly/82AyPTd
📷 Laura Corbe
A group of lichens of all different textures and colours all growing together
October 2, 2025 at 1:17 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Both Knapdale and Loch Arkaig have had the honour of being included in the first four Nature30 sites to be announced by NatureScot. This recognises areas that deliver positive, sustained, and long-term outcomes for biodiversity 👏 buff.ly/waKiLiD
📷 Jill Donnachie & Richard Thompson
Looking up the trunk of a mossy oak tree with polypody ferns and dark branches above Looking out from the shores of a rippling loch towards trees and islands, with the blue sky beyond.
September 29, 2025 at 9:45 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
There's not much still in bloom at this time of the year in #ScotlandsRainforest. But one flower to look out for is Devil's-bit scabious. The story of its name goes that the Devil, apparently upset at the flower's healing abilities, bit off its roots. 😈
📷 Jenny Tweedie
A purple globe-shaped flower with pin-like stamens and a blurred background
September 4, 2025 at 2:17 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Event: Walking and talking trees. Discover how farmers Katharine and David Lowrie are transforming their farm to dramatically increase biodiversity by planting new native broadleaves on a third of their land. 9 Sep 2025 10AM-1PM, Tighnabruaich. buff.ly/QRNqbrS
📷 Niall Benvie
An oak sapling viewed looking down onto the leaves
September 2, 2025 at 2:43 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
You can see fungi all-year-round in #ScotlandsRainforest, but autumn is a particularly good time to look out for different species.
📷 John MacPherson Laura Corbe
Bracket fungus on a lichen covered tree Bracket fungi on a lichen -covered tree
September 2, 2025 at 12:09 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Fly agaric will be starting to appear in the birch woodlands of #ScotlandsRainforest, a sign that autumn isn't far away. These fabled fungi form symbiotic relationships with the trees around them, but they're toxic to humans. 📷 Ben Andrew
A fly agaric toadstool with a blurred dark background
August 28, 2025 at 1:30 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
As the seasons change in #ScotlandsRainforest, there are lots of early signs of autumn to look out for, like the red berries on rowan trees. Did you know that rowans have a long association with magic in Scotland?? 🧙 Find out more: buff.ly/LSxMd7n
📷 Andy Hay
Big bunches of red rowan berries hanging from a tree
August 27, 2025 at 9:45 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
You might see filmy ferns growing in #ScotlandsRainforest. They're easy to mistake for moss or liverworts, but they're very very tiny ferns! The one you're most likely to see is Wilson's filmy fern, named for William Wilson, a 19th century botanist. 📷 John MacPherson
A hand running over a green mass of tiny ferns growing on a vertical surface.
August 26, 2025 at 11:45 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Event: Walking and talking trees. Discover how farmers Katharine and David Lowrie are transforming their farm to dramatically increase biodiversity by planting new native broadleaves on a third of their land. 9 Sep 2025 10AM-1PM, Tighnabruaich. buff.ly/QRNqbrS
📷 Niall Benvie
An oak sapling viewed looking down onto the leaves
August 25, 2025 at 9:43 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Help the Our Rainforest Futures project by filling in their short survey! buff.ly/YAQTW0e What you tell them will help shape a funding bid for 5 years of work across the rainforest zone, which will mobilise and equip people to get stuck in to saving #ScotlandsRainforest.
📷 John MacPherson
People looking at lichens on a tree
August 22, 2025 at 12:07 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Glasdrum Wood, on the edge of Loch Creran, is a remnant of #ScotlandsRainforest that's rich in woodland flowers, mosses, liverworts and lichens. This National Nature Reserve is also home to 20 species of butterfly!
📷 John MacPherson
A beautiful Scottish river valley with mountains on the horizon and temperate rainforest coating the rolling hills. The sun is just coming up and glinting on the river.
August 20, 2025 at 9:53 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Find out more about what @actinargyll.bsky.social have been up to in the last few weeks with their August update - including a visit to #ScotlandsRainforest by @jennimintomsp.bsky.social (check out those brollies!)
buff.ly/vovGr4w
MSP Jenny Minto with staff from ACT and Plantlife standing in Scotlands Rainforest holding green umbrellas
August 14, 2025 at 3:03 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Hazel gloves is an odd-looking fungus that's a specialist of hazel trees in temperate rainforest. It doesn't parasitise the tree but instead grows on another fungus, called the glue crust fungus, which sticks branches together.
📷 Ben Mitchell & Jenny Tweedie #ScotlandsRainforest
A light brown lumpy fungus growing among lichens and mosses A light brown fungus growing among lichens and liverworts
July 31, 2025 at 12:55 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
There's still time to take part in the Big Butterfly Count! If you live in the rainforest zone, look out for species like the pearl-bordered fritillary 👇 buff.ly/4pAZzyX #ScotlandsRainforest
📷 Peter Eeles
An orange butterfly with white markings sitting a dead leaf
July 31, 2025 at 11:02 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
The hazelwoods of #ScotlandsRainforest are ancient, special places, some of them stretching back 10,000 years. Today their unique habitat is home to incredible wildlife, including rare mosses, liverworts & lichens. This is Ballachuan buff.ly/1pmH1SD
📷 John MacPherson
A dark wood with twisted, ancient trees growing out of grass and ferns, the narrow trunks covered in green mosses.
July 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
The sheer range of lichens that you'll find in #ScotlandsRainforest is a bit 🤯! Look closely, and you'll see different species all mixed up together with mosses and liverworts and filmy ferns and fungi and slime moulds...
📷 Gordon Willoughby, Jill Donnachie, Gus Routledge
A green coral lichen trailing down from a tree A grey lichen with black fruiting bodies Green lichens and mosses on a tree trunk A mix of different lichens, mosses and liverworts of different colours on a tree branch
July 17, 2025 at 1:45 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
If you're a rainforest practitioner, tell Our Rainforest Futures what networking and learning opportunities you would be interested in: workshops, conferences, field trips? But hurry! Their survey closes tomorrow buff.ly/MopAn4M #ScotlandsRainforest
📷 Helen Pugh
A room full of people gathered to discuss Scotland's rainforest
July 17, 2025 at 10:36 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
This is the ASR's vision for #ScotlandsRainforest. We want all of Scotland's rainforest to be restored, and its size doubled, so it becomes a better functioning and more resilient ecosystem. We've come a long way, but there's a long way still to go!
A tree with circles of text showing the progress of the Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest
July 3, 2025 at 2:40 PM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Birch is the commonest tree in #ScotlandsRainforest because they can spread their tiny seeds far and wide, and deer tend to avoid eating the saplings. Downy birch can survive further north than silver birch, but they also hybridise easily. #ThickTrunkTuesday
📷 John MacPherson
Looking up into the green canopy of a huge birch tree
July 1, 2025 at 10:46 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Fancy visiting #ScotlandsRainforest this summer? From tangled hazel woods, to gloriously green oak woods, there are plenty of places to enjoy. Some have steep paths, but some are more accessible. See our map for more info: buff.ly/4BUMDbK
📷 Jill Donnachie, Jenny Tweedie, Ben Andrew
Hazels growing thickly in Dunollie Wood at Oban Steep stone steps lead up into Glenborrodale with towering oak trees above Mossy trees at Ariundle, one of the more accessible rainforest woodlands
June 27, 2025 at 10:24 AM
asrainforest.bsky.social
Join ‪@wtscotsocial.bsky.social‬ for a stroll through the majestic pinewood of Gleann Shìldeag, part of #ScotlandsRainforest, June 24 or August 16.

buff.ly/RRZHzOp

📷 Phil Formby
Pine trees on a steep hill
June 23, 2025 at 9:43 AM