LONG READ: After forming apprentices through the Skills For Rewilding traineeship initiative, Trees for Life charity at Dundreggan near Loch Ness now looks at the future
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It feels much quieter now, at Dundreggan Estate, near Glenmoriston. An almost strange sense for the Trees For Life team, who in the past four years had the company of fifteen people – five at a time – young people willing to learn the skills of the rewilding trade. The last cohort of trainees have just left the estate when I spoke to Doug Gilbert, Dundreggan Conservation Manager.
"There is a bit of sadness tinged with a lot of pride," he said. "It comes from being able to give those people the opportunity to learn with us. And for us to learn from them."
Launched in 2018, the Skills for Rewilding programme sought to give five apprentices, each year for three years, the opportunity to live in the Dundreggan Conservation Estate for 12 months and learn the arts and crafts of the rewilding trade on-field.
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the programme focused on different aspects of environmental conservation: tree nursery and horticulture, deer management and estate maintenance, conservation and landscape planning or community engagement.
"We were not quite sure what to expect when we first started, other than acting as mentors and having more people around," said Mr Gilbert.
"It was a really engaging experience, having people asking questions about what we do and why we do it. It meant that we were always learning as well as the trainees.
"Their personalities were all very different. Each cohort brought a different vibe. Some people stayed all the time, others disappeared at the weekend. They were all great in their own way."
The programme soon became really popular, with more than a thousand people registering their interest to take part in the programme across its three-year run.
"When we first started we didn’t expect the amount of entries we had, and we were really surprised. It’s really affirmative to know that there are so many people wanting to learn about what we do and want to help."
Having started more than three years ago, the project had to endure the pressures of covid restrictions and multiple lockdowns.
"It was quite weird," Mr Gilbert recalls. "A couple of trainees locked down with us here in the spring of 2020, and that was quite an amazing special times, to have a couple of youngsters helping us out.
"We have accommodation here so that wasn’t an issue. The difference, like everywhere else, was that there were no people coming and going. And people weren’t able to leave. We have a huge facility and huge freedom, much more than many other places, so we were lucky in many ways.
A lot of work was given by the trees that would normally be sent elsewhere to be planted, which could not leave Dundreggan that spring. "We were almost swimming in trees!" said Mr Gilbert.
He said that in terms of future opportunities for the trainees, the results have exceeded the initial expectations. "The majority of the trainees I have spoken to have been able to get employment, and some have completely changed their career track."
Among those who have remained in the loop of the conservation world are digital marketing trainee Alice Mellon, who has gone to work as project officer at RSPB in her native Glasgow.
Tree nursery horticulture trainee Heather McGowan, from Inverness, will keep on working with the charity at Dundreggan.
One of the former deer management and estate maintenance trainees, Callum Fraser now works as a deer stalker on a private estate in Caithness and Sutherland.
He said: "Twelve months of hands-on learning, guided by a mentor with vast experience, definitely helped me to get the great job that I have now. The practical qualifications that I gained during the Skills for Rewilding programme have been really useful in my current role, where we carry out habitat and wildlife management across a large Highland estate. I hope to keep working in the land management sector. making a positive contribution to Scotland’s wild places."
Next year, the charity will be opening a rewilding centre at Dundreggan, and although the traineeship scheme is now over, Mr Gilbert believes training will be present in some form.
He said: "We are sure that it will have a training and educational element to it, but we are not quite sure yet which shape it will have.
"Rewilding and conservation is a human endeavour, which needs people to carry it forwards. The plus of being a rewilding organisation, is that there are differences between what has been going on before. Showing to people what we do, talking to them about how and why we do it is an important step in expanding the body of people who are able to understand that and take it forward."
