A businessman bought a 23,000-acre Scottish sporting estate and spent two decades rebuilding it; a million native trees later, red squirrels have been reintroduced

An English businessman who bought a traditional 23,000-acre Scottish hunting estate in 2003 has spent more than two decades changing its heavily grazed landscape, planting a million native trees and bringing red squirrels back to the glens.

Paul Lister bought the Alladale estate in Sutherland, about an hour north of Inverness, when it was mainly used for traditional activities such as deer stalking and salmon fishing. Over the past 23 years, the property has been transformed into Alladale Wilderness Reserve, an ecotourism retreat and major ecological restoration project in the Scottish Highlands.When Lister bought the estate, centuries of heavy grazing by large numbers of deer and sheep had eliminated much of its native woodland.

Only around one percent of Scotland’s ancient Caledonian forest remains intact. To help the land recover naturally, reserve managers fenced off large areas to keep out grazing animals and began a major tree-planting program. Working with local environmental groups and forestry teams, the estate has planted one million native trees, including Scots pine, birch, rowan, alder and willow.

As the trees grew, the new forest began to provide the food and shelter needed by the wildlife that had disappeared from the glens.

Red squirrels return to the

As native pine and broadleaf trees became established, Alladale worked with conservation charity Trees for Life to bring red squirrels back to the area. The squirrels were relocated from healthy populations elsewhere in the Highlands and released into the growing forest. Since then, monitoring teams have confirmed that they are reproducing and expanding to new areas. The reserve has also worked on peat bog restoration.

Damaged wetlands are being repaired to store carbon and retain more water in the basin. Alladale is also involved in a national breeding program for the critically endangered Scottish wildcat. It works with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland to keep breeding animals in captivity that could eventually be released into the wild. Conservation work is funded primarily through high-end ecotourism. The reserve has three catered lodges, including the Victorian-era Main Lodge, Eagle’s Crag and Ghillie’s Rest.Guests can take part in guided nature walks, 4×4 safaris and educational tours about the estate’s conservation work and environmental research. “If you fly from London to Istanbul, you will fly over nothing but a manifest landscape where we literally dig, cut and plow,” Lister said in an interview with Rewilding magazine. “And you think: what are the Scottish Highlands used for? For over 100 years they have been used more for sporting activities, to serve a Victorian ideal.

And also sheep farming. “None of which actually increases or improves the biodiversity of the earth, nor provides much in the way of livelihood to the communities in the area.”Lister said moving away from traditional field sports could also create new economic opportunities. “Conservation restoration and rewilding give opportunities to tourism,” Lister told Rewilding magazine. “That practice of field sports, in the United Kingdom, is disappearing.

I’d rather be part of the new growing industry than something that’s on its last legs. Our current landscape is very different from 18 years ago, when I bought Alladale.

“You can see there is clear evidence of a lot of restoration work, and more vegetation and less deer running around.”

Debate about wolves and bears

While the tree planting and red squirrel projects have received praise, Lister’s broader plans for Alladale have sparked debate among local residents, farmers and landowners.

Inspired by the recovery of Yellowstone National Park following the return of top predators, Lister initially proposed placing a high fence around the 23,000-acre estate and bringing back the Eurasian wolves and grizzly bears. The idea was to study whether apex predators could naturally reduce deer numbers and encourage vegetation growth through changes in the food chain.

The plan faced strong opposition from neighboring landowners, farmers concerned about attacks on livestock and outdoor access groups concerned about Scotland’s legal right to roam.

As a result, plans to fence the wolves were put on hold while the reserve focused on restoring habitats, breeding Scottish wildcats and educating visitors.“A common misconception I find is that rebuilding means without humans,” said Pieter-Paul Groenhuijsen, general manager of Alladale Wilderness Reserve, in a report published by Leisure Lab. “It’s actually the opposite. Rewilding is about humans. It starts with us.

It’s a change of mentality. It is about coexistence and reassessing our place among nature, as stewards, as guardians, and our imbalance with nature.

Groenhuijsen said restoration at this scale should be considered over generations rather than short commercial periods. “We would like to see results, but this is a legacy project,” Groenhuijsen told Leisure Lab. “It is for future generations. We don’t see a mature forest here now.

So far we have planted almost a million trees. “We want to see them when they are mature, but it is not for us.”According to information published by Alladale Wilderness Reserve, the farm also plans to expand its educational programs. Each year local school groups are welcome to learn about Highland wildlife, peat bogs and how woodlands develop. The project has turned Alladale from a traditional sporting estate into a long-term experiment in restoring native woodland and wildlife in the Scottish Highlands.