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About me
Welcome to my web site! I am an inspirational public speaker, ecologist, nature photographer and writer based in the Findhorn Community in the northeast of Scotland.
In 1986 I founded the award-winning conservation charity, Trees for Life, which works to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands.
I care deeply about our planet, and have dedicated my life to protecting its biological diversity and sharing the beauty and wonders of the natural world through my photographs, talks and writing. Read more
My latest blog post
Unseen biodiversity of Glen Affric, part 3
This blog follows on from Part 1 and Part 2 in this series with the same name, covering some of the species and ecological relationships I observed in Glen Affric during my visits there in 2018. It picks up the story in the middle of August, when the forest was full of a wide diversity of insects, many of them feeding on the flowering plants that f …
Read moreImage of the Week
News
Forests Forever perpetual calendar now available
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just published a new perpetual calendar – good for any year – entitled Forests Forever. It features 366 beautiful photographs of trees and forests from over 45 countries around the world – one for each day of the year – combined with quotations from people who have been inspired by trees, including Wangari Maathai, John Muir, Hermann Hesse and many others.
The calendar makes an ideal gift for anyone who appreciates trees and cares about the forests of the world. Further information, including many sample pages, and ordering details are available here.
Read moreOver on Twitter…
This is a major cause for concern. Elephants are the largest land animals & numbers are already declining seriously across their range. Botswana holds a significant proportion of the total population so if this phenomenon spreads, it could be disastrous. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/01/more-than-350-elephants-dead-in-mysterious-mass-die-off-botswana-aoe
Dry tropical forests are also much more susceptible & vulnerable to being burned, either deliberately by people or through increased temperatures from #climatebreakdown so this new report indicates that they are facing a 'double jeopardy' situation. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/03/dry-tropical-forests-may-be-more-at-risk-than-wet-rainforests-study-says
This makes for very depressing reading, especially given the Australian's govt.'s abysmal record on tackling #climatebreakdown . "as much as 81% of (koala) habitat had been burnt" in the recent fires. How many more wake up calls do govts. like this need? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/koalas-will-be-driven-to-extinction-by-2050-in-nsw-major-inquiry-finds