Glenlude partnership wins Nature of Scotland Award 2025

Our inspiring nature recovery partnership with Phoenix Futures at Glenlude has won a 2025 Nature of Scotland Health and Wellbeing Award.

Congratulations to our Glenlude team and our partners Phoenix Futures whose Recovery Through Nature in the Phoenix Forest programme last night won the Health and Wellbeing category of this year's prestigious Nature of Scotland Awards.

The Phoenix Futures Recovery through Nature programme has been working with our Glenlude team for over a decade to grow the ‘Phoenix Forest’ at Glenlude in the Scottish Borders.

The project contributes to our plans for Glenlude, helping to create a mosaic of habitats across the site, where Glenlude Manager Karen Purvis and Conservation Officer Ellie Oakley and our volunteers are gradually replacing an old conifer plantation with native broadleaf trees.

The trees come from locally collected seed and are grown in Glenlude’s tree nursery. Trees planted in the early days are now producing seed. This has kick-started natural ecological processes, enabling the woodland to become self-sustaining.

Karen said: “We have always been immensely proud of our joint project, the benefits to people and nature, and of all that has been achieved at Phoenix Forest over the past 13 years. What was initially a stark, bare hillside is now a thriving young woodland that is producing seed, taking on a shape of its own and becoming increasingly biodiverse. This would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the Phoenix family.”

Jon Hall, Commissioning and Development Manager, Recovery Through Nature, Phoenix Futures, said: “The enduring partnership between the John Muir Trust and Phoenix Futures gives us the opportunity to bring Phoenix people together for a wonderful day and celebrate recovery in truly beautiful surroundings, whilst making a genuine impact on the conservation of an important wild place and its habitat.

“The process of caring for Glenlude is as enriching for those who visit and volunteer as it is for the land.”

• The Nature of Scotland Awards shines a light on the great work being done to help Scotland’s species and habitats.