Portree Forest Project gets greener with help from Loganair’s GreenSkies

The Uigshader Living Forest Project, a grassroots rewilding initiative founded by a group of friends in 2016, has utilised the £4,185 funding to purchase battery-powered forestry tools, allowing them to carry out low-impact peatland restoration without relying on fossil fuels. Nestled five miles from Portree, the project is restoring a former Sitka spruce plantation by replacing non-native species with native broadleaf trees and managing the land in a way that benefits biodiversity and locks away carbon. With 30,000 trees already planted and the installation of an off-grid solar system – supported by the Isle of Skye Renewables Co-operative – the project is now powering its forestry operations completely from renewable energy. The recent grant from Loganair’s GreenSkies Community Fund is helping take that ethos even further.

We’ve been trying to reduce our operational carbon footprint, and these battery-powered tools allow us to do that,

said Dave Logan, one of the Directors of Uigshader Living Forest.

We can now charge everything from our solar system and completely avoid burning fossil fuels when we’re managing the land.

Loganair, the UK’s leading regional airline, established the GreenSkies Community Fund in 2021 to support local sustainability projects across Scotland and beyond. Through the fund, a portion of each ticket purchased contributes to environmental and community initiatives focused on climate resilience and decarbonisation. Rebecca Borresen, Director of Safety and Sustainability at Loganair said:

GreenSkies is about making a real difference in the communities we serve.

Projects like Uigshader show how climate-conscious choices and community spirit can go hand in hand. By supporting initiatives that reduce emissions and enhance local resilience, we’re not only helping to tackle climate change but also empowering communities to take ownership of a more sustainable future.

The battery-powered tools, including a chainsaw and a winch, are now being used to support a peatland restoration project on the site, where stunted Sitka spruce trees planted decades ago are harming the peat underneath them and releasing carbon. 

It’s a small area of peat, but the impact is massive,

said Dave.

These trees are 50 years old and only a few metres high – totally wrong for the habitat.

Removing them allows the peatland to recover and start storing carbon again. And we’re doing it with battery-powered tools charged by the sun. It just feels like the right way to do it.

Having our own equipment that’s sustainable to run makes everything more resilient. It’s better for the land, better for the planet, and better for the community.

The Uigshader team is also hosting a series of five volunteer days to involve the public in their restoration work, funded by the Community Ecosystem Fund. These events are helping to raise awareness about how small-scale, low-impact land management can make a meaningful contribution to Scotland’s climate goals. 

I think it’s quite groundbreaking,

said Dave. 

Peatland grows slowly – sometimes only one or two millimetres a year. The patch we’re restoring has two metres of peat, so that’s 2,000 years of growth. Doing this work with diesel-powered machines would be a contradiction. This way, we’re doing it right.  

For more about the GreenSkies Community Fund.