Gleneagles Hotel Managing Director, Bernard Murphy, was presented with the 1,000^th tree to be planted as part of the Perthshire Conifer Conservation Programme (PCCP), reconfirming the hotel’s commitment to supporting the environment.  

 

The tree was grown from a seed collected from a 1,000 year old Japanese Cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) growing at the Gokurakuji temple above Hiroshima city in Japan by the PCCP in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

While Japanese Cedar is not currently listed as a threatened species, the numbers of wild trees is unknown and, due to the growing threat of new and emerging plant diseases around the world, the species could quickly become threatened in the next 5-10 years.

Doug Flint, PCCP Project Officer, said:

“It is only fitting that our 1,000^th tree comes from a 1,000 year-old one.  We are also delighted that the 1,000^th PCCP tree will be planted close to the first PCCP tree planted in 2008 at Gleneagles when we launched the programme.”

As part of the PCCP, Gleneagles Hotel helped found a network of landowners providing safe havens for threatened trees in the historic gardens and estates of Perthshire. In addition to contributing to a global effort to save some of the world’s most threatened trees, the 1,000 trees planted by PCCP are helping to restore Perthshire’s world-renowned historic tree collections, many of which date from the 1800s.

The trees planted are primarily threatened species from across the globe, including coast redwood from the USA, Atlas cedar from North Africa and the monkey puzzle from Chile. This equates to more than 110 endangered trees planted a year, or about one every three days.

Bernard Murphy, Gleneagles’ Managing Director, said:

“Having provided sanctuary in our estate for the first tree on this important conservation programme, we’re delighted to commemorate the success of the scheme by accepting the 1000th tree.”

He added:

“We’re proud of our partnership with the Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust – which has allowed us to make a significant contribution to the important activities of the PCCP and other conservation initiatives in the region, and provided the opportunity for us to play our small part in safeguarding the world’s vital natural assets for future generations.”

Since 2008, Gleneagles guests have also donated over £230,000 to support the work of the Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust, which manages the PCCP. Together with support from the Forestry Commission Scotland, this has enabled Perthshire to take a leading role in the care of historic tree collections through conservation.

PCCP trees are accessible to the public across 23 forests, gardens and designed landscapes in Perthshire including hotels like Gleneagles, Perth & Kinross Council greenspaces, and publicly owned land managed by Forest Enterprise Scotland, and privately owned estates like Scone Palace, Blair Castle and Bonskeid.