Alan Watson Featherstone
Alan Watson Featherstone (born 10 February 1954) is a Scottish ecologist. He is a natural history photographer, speaker and the founder of the conservation charity Trees for Life.
Biography
[edit]During the 1970s he travelled throughout the United States, Canada and South America.[1] On his return to the United Kingdom, he joined the Findhorn Foundation in 1978.[1] In October 1986 he organised for a international conference on the world's ecological crisis called, 'One Earth: A Call to Action', involving 240 delegates.[1]
In 1986, he formed Trees for Life, with the aim of restoring the Caledonian Forest and its wildlife to the Scottish Highlands.[1] The charity works in partnership with the Forestry Commission, the National Trust for Scotland and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at a number of sites to the west of Loch Ness and Inverness.[2] As of April 2014, the charity has planted over one million native trees.[1] In August 2008, Featherstone oversaw the purchase of the 4,000 hectare Dundreggan Estate for £1.65 million in Glenmoriston.[3] The charity has received numerous awards.[1] He has helped to inspire similar ecological restoration projects in the Scottish Borders, Dartmoor in England and the Yendegaia National Park Project in Tierra del Fuego, Chile.[1]
Featherstone gives lectures and workshops and has spoken at the World Wilderness Congress, the Society for Conservation Biology annual conference and the Society for Ecological Restoration conference.[1] He has written articles for journals and magazines as well as appearing on television and radio.[1] He is also a nature photographer. He produced the Findhorn Nature Calendar from 1983 to 1994 and the annual Trees for Life Calendar and Diary from 1988 to 2017.[1] His photographs have been published in Time, BBC Wildlife magazine and the Encyclopædia Britannica.[1]
In 2002, Featherstone established the Restoring the Earth project, "to promote the restoration of the planet's degraded ecosystems as the most important task for humanity in the 21st century".[1] The project is overseen by the Earth Restoration Service of which Featherstone is a trustee.[1][4] He is also a trustee and former chairman of Wild Things! an environmental education charity based in the North of Scotland and a former trustee of the Findhorn Foundation.[2] He is a trustee of the Findhorn Hinterland Trust, and Trees for Hope, a charity that promotes the ecological restoration of the Fertlle Crescent region.[citation needed]
In 2001 he received the Schumacher Award from the Schumacher Society, for "his inspirational and practical work on conserving and restoring degraded ecosystems".[5]
Awards
[edit]- Schumacher Award from the Schumacher Society, 2001.[5]
- Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards – Environment, 2012.[6]
- RSPB, Outstanding Contribution Award, 2013.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Alan Watson Featherstone confirmed as keynote speaker for green events and innovations". A Greener Festival Limited. 13 December 2013. Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
- ^ a b "Wild Things! Board of Directors". Wild Things!. 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
- ^ "Travel: The Grumpy Green: Return of the natives". The Guardian. 15 November 2008. ProQuest 244320433.
In 1992 Alan spotted an opportunity to join up patches of forest in Glen Affric, creating a wooded corridor right across the country, a vision now nearing completion. This year the charity also bought the 10,000-acre Dundreggan estate in neighbouring Glen Moriston, allowing the possibility of bringing other valleys into the project
- ^ "Repair work: Activists take on Earth restoration". The Guardian. 13 March 2002. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
- ^ a b "Alan Watson Featherstone". Schumacher College. 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
- ^ "Farmer who took on Trump triumphs in Spirit awards". The Scotsman. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
- ^ "Nature of Scotland Awards – 2013 winners". Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
