Trust supports Clydeside rewilding project

Find out about the Yearn Stane Project - an exciting rewilding project in the Renfrewshire hills, just outside of Glasgow

The Yearn Stane Project started in January 2017 when aspen specialist Peter Livingstone from a local social enterprise, Eadha (Gaelic for aspen), and ecologist Joe Greenlees  from another local social enterprise, Starling Learning, planted some trees at an abandoned barytes mine in Scotland’s largest regional park.

At over 28,000 hectares, the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park spans Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire and Inverclyde. This sizeable chunk of open land contains one of Scotland’s most accessible Wild Land Areas: Area 4 Waterhead Moor – Muirshiel. The symbol of the project – the Yearn Stane (or Eagle Stone) – is a four-tonne boulder in the very heart of the project area.

The Yearn Stane team is working with the local community and landowners to plant trees and restore the park’s badly degraded peatlands and increase its biodiversity.

“It is not unusual to sit on a hill here for three hours or more and not see another living thing,” commented Joe Greenlees (pictured in blue above, planting trees with volunteers) who has worked in this landscape for 20 years.

“The aim of the Yearn Stane Project is to bring together a diverse group of people from the local area and get them all working together towards a common goal which will benefit everyone.”

• The Yearn Stane Project is a partnership project between two local organisations Starling Learning and Eadha plus The Woodland Trust, Rewilding Britain and John Muir Trust.
• Take a look at the degraded landscape Joe and the local community are restoring and their vision for the future in a 20 minute film introducing the Yearn Stane Project. Yearn Stane Project