A Scottish Clan Chief Plans To Rewild His Ancestral Estate As Part Of An Ambitious Project To Transform The beautiful But Not Natural Isle Of Skye

A Scottish clan chief plans to rewild his ancestral estate as part of an ambitious project to transform the 'beautiful but not natural' Isle of Skye.   
Hugh MacLeod, the 30th Chief of Clan MacLeod, hopes to overhaul the 'lunarscape' surrounding Dunvegan Castle by planting a total of 371,875 native trees in its land.
It is hoped these broadleaf forests will provide a home for reintroduced beaver populations and the declining numbers of red squirrels and wildcats which inhabit parts of Scotland. 
The ambitious project, which has been in development on the 42,000-acre MacLeod Estate for years, has been awarded a £1million grant from the Scottish Government and the EU.            
The native forest will contain different species mixtures to suit the land's terrain and ecology.

The carbon offset is estimated to exceed 40,000 tons over a 65 year period.  
The focus will be on planting trees which historically grew in the Isle of Skye's peat soil - such as birch, rowan and tour yên tử ba vàng cherry trees, the [ ] reported. 
Hugh MacLeod, tour chùa yên tử chief of Clan MacLeod of Dunvegan, hopes to overhaul the 'lunarscape' surrounding Dunvegan Castle (pictured) by planting a total of 371,875 native trees in its land
It is hoped the rewilding strategy will encourage others to take on similar initiatives to restore Skye's 'wet desert' landscape, which is 'a legacy of centuries of depredation caused by over-grazing.'
Mr MacLeod, the Estate Director, tour chùa yên tử said: 'In a difficult year of persistent bad news, I am thrilled that the MacLeod Estate has been awarded this grant for one of the largest and most ambitious native woodland creation projects on the Isle of Skye. 
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'I had the idea over ten years ago, when I decided to stop farming at the estate's Totachocaire Farm which is not only marginal land, but was also loss making for almost every year of its operation since it was revived by my late father in the 1970s. 
'This is the first phase of our nascent rewilding plans and once the woodlands are established, this will create an extensive and biodiverse habitat to support a number of native species.'
It is hoped new broadleaf forests will provide a home for reintroduced beaver populations and the declining numbers of red squirrels and wildcats which inhabit parts of Scotland.

Pictured:  Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye
Pictured: The 42,000-acre MacLeod Estate, where the rewilding project is set to take place
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-acf7e9a0-33ce-11eb-b627-53cabe711cd2" website clan chief plans to rewild his Isle of Skye estate