3 minutes

Angus Glens: a 'living laboratory'

A river leading to a group of conifer trees. Grassy foreground and a single white cottage in the distance.

The Angus Glens are the southern gateway to the Cairngorms National Park and we’re privileged to be looking after them for the future. 

Last September we hosted scientists from across the UK at Glen Prosen. The aim was to show how our Angus Glens project will support landscape-scale efforts to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. 

The project will take place across an impressive 7,500ha of land and is a great opportunity to test different land management interventions and work out what balance can deliver the best results.  

The event considered the impacts and benefits of habitat restoration and large-scale native woodland creation, as well as how effective land management could be in flood mitigation.

On the opening the day, Mat Williams, Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture said:

Glen Prosen could provide a living laboratory to help address key research challenges and needs. 

"Our biggest challenge is understanding systems – how ecology, economy and people work together – a site-based approach like Glen Prosen could help make connections to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss."

Our acquisition in Glen Prosen is the missing piece of the jigsaw, linking our existing forests in the Angus Glens and other areas of public land together. The scope of the Angus Glens project could cover over 10,000ha with the participation of neighbouring landowners. 

Christine Reid, our Angus Glens Programme Manager, said: 

We hope to accumulate a body of knowledge over years, to help demonstrate the benefits of integrated landscape-scale land management for people, nature and climate.

We want people and nature to be at the heart of the Angus Glens project. As well as helping local people to develop businesses that will draw visitors to the area and increase the level of economic benefit, longer-term work includes the creation of new native woodland and montane scrub in a mosaic of restored habitats such as:

  • open heaths
  • grassland and pasture
  • peatland
  • rivers and ponds

In this way, we're working to create a more balanced and resilient ecosystem which will increase biodiversity. 

Davy McCracken, a Professor of Agricultural Ecology at SRUC and Head of both SRUC’s Hill and Mountain Research Centre and the Integrated Land Management Department, said:

This is a unique opportunity that will deliver a lot of useful information for everyone who is engaged in responding to the climate and biodiversity emergencies.  

“The creation of what is effectively a ‘living laboratory’ on such a scale has the potential to show other land managers how their combined efforts can affect valuable and positive change and deliver public benefits– such as flood mitigation. 

“Any action to increase the project area’s biodiversity value must be grounded in an understanding of the starting point and what went before, FLS – and others – have carried out 2 years of ecological surveys to underpin that work." 

This is a long-term project for us and an important opportunity to work with our neighbours and partners, to achieve landscape-scale habitat restoration in the Cairngorms National Park.

Our project team co-hosted the event with colleagues from the Scottish Government’s Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services Division (RESAS).