A major environmental project on the outskirts of Castle Douglas will play a key part of the National Trust for Scotland’s work over the next 10 years.
The charity has unveiled its new strategy, called Nature, Beauty and Heritage, with the aim of becoming carbon negative by 2031.
And part of that work includes the Threave Landscape Restoration Project, where 81 hectares at Kelton Mains are being transformed into rich habitats for flora and fauna while restoring the site’s wetlands and native woodlands.
The strategy also includes attracting more than six million people a year to National Trust properties – including Thomas Carlyle’s Birthplace in Ecclefechan and Broughton House in Kirkcudbright – and boosting membership numbers past the 500,000 mark.
And it intends to invest £100 million in its sites over the next decade, with recruitment under way for around 300 seasonal and permanent jobs.
Chief executive, Philip Long OBE, said: “We’ve begun an exciting new chapter for the National Trust for Scotland, building on the experience, knowledge and skills we’ve gathered over the last 90 years, throughout which time our charity has received phenomenal support from its members and many others.
“Everyone can benefit from
Scotland’s heritage and from the work of the trust, and in the years ahead we want to involve as many people as possible in this.
“Our new strategy is a response to all that our charity has achieved over its long history, and to the current health, economic and environmental challenges which affect
everyone. In creating our new strategy we’ve set out a framework that charts our ambitions for the trust’s tenth
decade.
This describes our intended achievements: from becoming carbon negative by 2031, through to championing Scotland’s heritage for everyone.
“We’re also recruiting colleagues to bring even more experience to our dedicated and passionate team throughout the country, to allow us to realise these ambitions.”
