Fallago Environment Fund has awarded a £50,000 grant to Destination Tweed’s Designed Landscapes project to help plant landscape trees that will grow to be visible from the new River Tweed Trail and provide many additional environmental benefits.
The Tweed catchment’s designed landscapes are an essential part of the area’s character, with many developed during the 18th and 19th centuries to provide an enhanced setting for the region’s great houses. Unfortunately, many of the impressive trees within them have been lost to old age, harsh weather and disease.
The Designed Landscapes project aims to address this by planting 5,000 individual landscape trees such as oak, beech, sycamore and holly planted in copses, treelines and as individual parkland trees. As well as adding to the beauty of the landscape, the trees will capture carbon, improve biodiversity and provide shelter for livestock and wildlife.
Managed by Tweed Forum, the first Designed Landscape project planting has been taking place at the Old Melrose Estate, Traquair, Hirsel, Floors and Ladykirk estates.