Springwatch comes to Bute Community Forest

As you may have already seen, this May our Community Forest featured on the one and only Springwatch! We welcomed Megan McCubbin and her team out to the forest where they came to you live highlighting both the Red Squirrels and the Scottish Wood Ants. We’ve talked quite a bit before about the Red Squirrels that call the forest home but it was great to see the wood ants getting highlighted. Although not for everyone, ants are incredibly important to the woodland and are classified as “ecosystem engineers”. This means that, despite being just over 5mm long, this species is able to impact the whole forest and how the habitat looks by both moving seeds around and helping keep the plants pest-free. Don’t worry if you missed this episode, you can still catch it on BBC iPlayer (episode 2). And we weren’t the only Bute wildlife to feature on Springwatch with our island's lochs (episode 1), coastline (episode 3) and harbour (episode 4) all showcasing their wildlife!