More Than 1,000 Native Trees Now Planted In Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright Rotary Club, with the help of the local community and students from Kirkcudbright Schools, have now planted more than 1,000 trees in the Castledykes area of the town.

In November 2021, Rotarians, the local community, and pupils of the Kirkcudbright Schools came together to plant the Castledykes Woodland Regeneration area. This was supported by local firms James Smith & Co and WC in Fields. Through a series of dedicated planting days, the trees have been planted with appropriate tree guards and it is hoped that this becomes a valued woodland resource on the edge of the town. The initial work to plant more than 900 trees has now been supplemented to give the figure of more than 1,000.

Keith Bruce from the Kirkcudbright Rotary Club, said:

“This initiative by Rotary Kirkcudbright is one small part of Rotary’s widespread work in helping to create a sustainable improvement to our Environment. We are very grateful to the support provided by Galloway Glens, as well as our local Inner Wheel team”. 

A portion of the funding was secured through the South of Scotland Tree Planting Grant Scheme – this is just one of what is now more than 50 grants supported by the scheme across Dumfries & Galloway, with planting taking place from Langholm to Stranraer. The last few grants are available for planting to take place in coming weeks, for more information, see: https://gallowayglens.org/native-tree-planting-across-dumfries-galloway-further-round-of-funding-available/. It is planned that the scheme will fund the planting of more than 11,000 native trees before April 2022.

The South of Scotland Tree Planting Grant Scheme is administered across Dumfries & Galloway by Jonathan Barrett from the Galloway Glens Scheme. Jonathan, admiring the planting achievements in Kirkcudbright, said:

“The work of Kirkcudbright Rotary and the local schools will have a real and lasting impact on raising awareness of the importance of trees in addressing climate change whilst promoting a spirit of woodland stewardship in the local community.

We anticipate that approximately 11,000 native trees will be planted across D&G by the end of March. We are so grateful to everyone involved, particularly funders and the Council’s Environment Team. Behind the scenes, we are in the process of trying to secure funds to run it again next year.”