iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/09/2026

We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/

a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans

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Emma Mitchell @silverpebble2.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

If you’re living with tricky mental health, chronic illness,not good thought pathways caused by others’ behaviour, a trickily wired brain,you’re worried about climate change or you’re just feeling shite today, then hi, me too. This photo’s for your brain-a miniature posy from my garden in a thimble:

A post of tiny flowers from my garden in a thimble

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

It’s fantastic that large nature restoration partnerships are being inspired to work with mountain woodland and that grant funding is available for such projects! Super excited for this work by Loch Abar Mòr! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Project to conserve Scotland's rare 'wee trees' secures funding

The grant means conservationists can go ahead with mapping surviving areas of woodland that grow high up on mountainsides.

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Mark Avery @markavery.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Scotland’s rarest mountain woodlands get £108k grant markavery.info/2026/07/31/s... #rewilding #nevis #corrour #glencoe @n-t-s.bsky.social @johnmuirtrust.bsky.social @treesforlife.bsky.social 📷 @scotlandtbp.bsky.social

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Emma Mitchell @silverpebble2.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

This eve at 8.30 I'll be launching a set of 4 new hr-long pre-recorded video w'shops on neuroscience-backed ways to improve mental health that I use a LOT Each vid will cost just £10 I had a breakdown last yr so signing up to one of my videos would be a 👍 way to support me workshops.emmamitchell.uk

I've been interviewed & been a contributor/writer of segments about mental health in some good places

My tiniest collection in a miniature wooden printers tray

Autumnal botanical embroidery on one of my jumpers

Sunlight shining through beech leaves in a woodland near my house

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Emma Mitchell @silverpebble2.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Colourful botanical dopamine for you today: research shows that if you pause on my photos & look at the floral detail your brain will shift away from fight or flight & into rest & relaxation mode & if you find my 📷s beautiful your 🧠 will release dopamine, lifting mood & motivation #neuroscience 🌿

Violas (small-flowered pansies) from my garden

Garden flowers in June arranged as a rainbow on a black chipped enamel background

The field near Wicken Cambridgeshire where larkspur is grown for London florists & to make natural confetti

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Woodland Trust Scotland @wtscotsocial.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

We're excited for the Mountain Woodland Action Group Conference! 📅 Wed 23 Sep 📍 Birnam Arts Centre, P&K 🕛️ 0900 - 1715 Includes #MountainWoodland project showcases, pioneering action, the latest research, international perspectives & more. Info/tickets 👉️https://buff.ly/Ovm9XLz @sarahwatts.bsky.social

Three people on a steep mountain side conducting a vegetation transect or survey. It is a sunny clear day and you can see the blue/green waters of Loch Torridon in the background - a beautiful scene. Credit WTML.

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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

This looks like a great PhD for someone...

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

📢We're recruiting for an exciting new mountain woodland #PhD on "Mountain birch genetics & recovery in Scotland"! Full funding is guaranteed for this project involving molecular genomics & high-altitude field experiments at #Corrour & Mar Lodge. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Eldest and youngest experiencing the Elephant Hawk-moths and Poplar Hawk-moths caught in our home-made #garden #moth trap 🤩💡

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Very grateful to live super close to the best place in Britain for #mountainflowers, particularly since I’m not able to get out very far due to having a tiny person. Recent finds include Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) & Blue Moor-grass (Sesleria caerulea) which is nationally scarce! #BenLawers

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The Scottish Forestry Trust @forestrytrust.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Delighted to announce that the winner of The Dr Cyril Hart Memorial Award for 2026 is Sarah Watts et al for the article, “Why the present is not the key to past or future: moving beyond restricted relict habitat conditions to improve outcomes in mountain woodland restoration.” #ConforAwards2026

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Woodland Trust Scotland @wtscotsocial.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Congrats to @sarahwatts.bsky.social who won the Dr Cyril Hart Memorial Award from @forestrytrust.bsky.social for her research paper: "Why the present is not the key to past or future: moving beyond restricted relict habitat conditions to improve outcomes in mountain woodland restoration." 🧵 1/3

A smiling woman stands amongst little trees with a sweeping vista of hills and lochs in the background. Pic by Jane Watts

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Personal news: I'm rather quiet on here with work updates because I've been very busy over the last two months with a new addition to the family. 🥰 I'll be finishing off my #PhD later in the year before returning back to work in due course, but for the meantime I'm on #maternityleave! 👶

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Scotland's Nature Student Conference 2026 @scotnsconf.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Not got mush-room, unless you’re a willow! @sarahwatts.bsky.social is unearthing the ectomycorrhizal fungi co-occurring with relict arctic-alpine willows and restoration sites using eDNA

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University of Stirling Biological and Environmental Sciences @uofstirling-bes.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Great work from Sarah, who is so passionate about what she does and whose paper about Montane #woodland restoration has just been published!

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Woodland Trust Scotland @wtscotsocial.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Congrats @sarahwatts.bsky.social @stir.ac.uk for completing this important study buff.ly/rksat4z looking at the impact of deer management on montane woodland (sadly increasingly rare in Scotland). Data revealed that if deer densities are reduced, dwarf birch can survive across multiple habitats.1/2

buff.ly

Lowering deer densities can help restore Scotland's lost Highland mountain woodlands, new research shows

A six-year long Stirling-led study looked at the impact of deer management on mountain woodland

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Excited to be speaking at #BES2025 next week on my PhD research also just ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION: "Thinking outside the bog: planting Dwarf Birch for mountain woodland restoration beyond habitat refugia constrained by overgrazing" Implications for practice, policy & deer management. @stir.ac.uk

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BSBI Scotland @bsbiscotland.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Book your #ScotBotanistsConf place now! Its going to be a fantastic day @thebotanics.bsky.social, with brilliant talks on restoring montane woodland, Tufted Saxifrage, urban flora and much much more! @sarahwatts.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social @botsocscot.bsky.social @naturescot.bsky.social

A small, tight clump of Tufted Saxifrage rosettes just catching the morning sunlight on a steep rock wall, high in the Grey Corries. There are three flowerheads, with the last tiny white petals hanging on as they go to seed. Behind, a pattern of brown-green bryophytes and ledges form a mosaic in the vertiginous, pale grey quartzite, with the rock spires reaching towards a bright blue sky in the far corner of the photo.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

My best botanical day of the year! While hillwalking in the #Cairngorms we discovered a new, unrecorded population of the ultra rare Marsh Saxifrage (Saxifraga hirculus). This beautiful upland plant is a protected species & only found at a few sites in Scotland. #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Making the most of flower power! This week at #Corrour we have been repeat #monitoring to determine if our tall herbs and upland calcareous grasslands are continuing to recover after a reduction in deer densities on the estate. It's wonderful to study these lovely plants in a dynamic landscape!

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Trees for Life @treesforlife.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Volunteers from our Tree Seed Collection Project recently visited Ben Lawers NNR for their annual trip to learn more about montane tree species. Montane scrub is a rare and fragmented #habitat found in mountainous regions, where dwarfed #trees and shrubs dominate. 🌿 Learn more 👉 bit.ly/3IfJ2wq

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

An interesting early morning start joining #forestry #PhD researcher Ben Wilson from @stir.ac.uk recording the #moths found in light traps set up at Loch Ossian woods on #Corrour. My favourite find of the day couldn't help but be the large & very charismatic Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)!

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Here's the delighted face of someone who has just said "This looks exactly like Carex rariflora habitat"...moments before finding Carex rariflora (Mountain Bog-sedge)! We've got our eye in on this Nationally Rare high-altitude plant & the special places it occurs. #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Lovely time botanising in the #Cairngorms finding Alpine Speedwell (Veronica alpina), Alpine Cat's-tail (Phleum alpinum), Alpine Foxtail (Alopecurus magellanicus), & a new record of Scottish Pearlwort (Sagina x normaniana) last recorded at this site 24 years ago! #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

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Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Want to see a map of where mega-rare Alpine Catchfly grows in Britain? Check out its #PlantAtlas2020 page: plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9... Our online Plant Atlas has pages for 3,495 plants with maps, info on conservation status & trends plus galleries of photos: all free for you to use & enjoy!

plantatlas2020.org

PlantAtlas

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

How many #montane #scrub enthusiasts can you fit around a relict montane willow? We found out on a #Mountain #Woodland Action Group field trip to #Dalnacardoch Estate last week, while discussing exciting potential options for #regeneration & #restoration alongside landscape-scale deer management.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

The ultra-mega-rare #Alpine Catchfly (Silene suecica) is only found in two sites in Britain! We were absolutely delighted to see it in full flower today while botanising in the #Cairngorms; growing on a very unusual high-altitude serpentine rock rich in magnesium. #mountainflowers #wildflowerhour

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Here's a plant that only occurs at one single place in the ENTIRE WORLD!! How special to see the #endemic Scottish Mouse-ear (Cerastium fontanum subsp. scoticum) in the #Cairngorms showing off its lovely long petals today, also alongside Cyphel (Cherleria sedoides). #mountainflowers #wildflowerhour

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Delighted to have completed Phase 3 of our multi-year #peatland #restoration project at #Corrour with Peatland ACTION! The 245ha at Loch na Lap brings our total for this particular project to 648ha, & our overall peatland restoration area on the estate up to 870ha. Works by Barker and Bland.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

How wonderful to receive these photos from the @treesforlife.bsky.social Dundreggan tree nursery who have been growing montane willows for us. These precious plants are to become our future seed stand for Whortle-leaved Willow on #Corrour; a high-altitude specialist listed as Endangered in Britain.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

One of my very favourite jobs of the year: #monitoring our #montane #willows at #Corrour! These Downy Willow saplings were planted two years ago & they're flourishing, all on the open hill without the use of fencing. I'm looking forward to surveying some of our other planting sites next week. 🤗 🤩

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

I had a fantastic #fieldwork day this week planting Downy Willow (Salix lapponum) saplings for an experiment designed by PhD student Rory Abernethy @stir.ac.uk. Their growth & survival will be assessed as part of #research on Sitka Spruce colonisation at the treeline in Scotland.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

I had a very interesting, unique & fun day of sunny #fieldwork this week on Ben Ledi with our University of Stirling 1st year PhD student Rory Abernethy who is studying Sitka Spruce colonisation at the treeline in Scotland. We were tagging trees for a planned experiment @stir.ac.uk.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

I had a very productive & enjoyable day of #fieldwork last week promoting #montane #willow #conservation! Great to join a team from @hutton.ac.uk & Catkin Ecology working in Glen Lochay to collect cuttings for creating new local provenance seed stands from five threatened willow species!

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Fantastic weather this weekend for a round of the epic "Fisherfield 6" in the North-West Highlands, featuring plenty of sunshine, wind, deer, mountains, ridges, scrambling, bog, big river crossings, & some very remote Scots Pine indeed. 🔭🤩🥰💪🏔️☀️

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

We've begun a #riverwoods #restoration trial at #Corrour through the Loch Abar Mòr partnership. These small unfenced seed islands are intended to provide cover & nutrients along the river where seed sources are currently lacking. I'll be #monitoring their progress! #naturerichLochaber

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Rainy day roadside botanical safari staring the stunning arctic-alpine Purple #Saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) this weekend at Ben Lawers! #WildflowerHour #NTSBenLawers #botany #

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

We've planted more trees in our bespoke #montane #willow seed stand at #Corrour! These arctic-alpine Downy Willow are cuttings from wild plants on the estate. The stand has clones from 92 individuals to upscale seed production for the local area. It's the largest stand for this species in Britain!

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

It was fun to take part in the panel discussion on nature restoration at #SNSC2025 this week with Professor Colin Galbraith, Nikki Yoxall, Ashleigh Kitchiner & Clive Mitchell. My advice to my early career peers to "embrace nerdiness, as much as possible" certainly got quite the reaction! 💪🤓

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

It was fantastic to be invited as a #keynote speaker at Scotland's Nature Student Conference #SNSC2025 this week & share my enthusiasm for mountain woodland #restoration! I really enjoyed hearing about lots of exciting ongoing research & joining the afternoon panel discussion @scotnsconf.bsky.social

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BSBI Scotland @bsbiscotland.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Two key messages from #SNSC2025: we have a big problem, but we can do something about it. @scottishgov.bsky.social CSA Mat Williams laying out reality - 47% native plants in decline, 1 in 9 Scottish species threatened with extinction, & @sarahwatts.bsky.social sharing hope for mountain woodlands

Prof Mat Williams, Chief Scientific Advisor for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture to Scottish Government, laying out some harsh truths about the state of nature in Scotland right now: 15% average decrease in Scottish wildlife since 1994; 47% of our flowering plants have decreased in distribution since 1970; 11% (1 in 9) of Scottish species are threatened with extinction; 49% decline in Scotland's seabirds between 1986 and 2019.
Find out more about Mat and his role here: https://www.gov.scot/about/how-government-is-run/directorates/environment-and-forestry/chief-scientific-adviser-environment-nat-resources-agriculture/

Sarah Watts, PhD student at University of Stirling, Conservation Manager at Corrour Estate, BSBI Committee for Scotland member and all round force of (and for) nature, speaking about the fantastic work she is doing to understand and restore Scotland's highly threatened arctic-alpine mountain woodland. A fantastic demonstration of research and conservation action coming together for the betterment of Scotland's wildlife and habitats and opening the door for nature-based solutions to environmental problems such as flooding and erosion

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Sarah Woods @sarahelizwoods.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Great to get along to @scotnsconf.bsky.social this week - two great days at RBGE talking to student naturalists about wild plants and their interests. We talked skill levels, training, data, recording, Sticky Catchfly and arctic alpines (obviously inspired by @sarahwatts.bsky.social!)

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Scotland's Nature Student Conference 2026 @scotnsconf.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Time for our exciting panel discussion on “Nature Restoration and the role of people” in both Scotland and globally! #SNSC2025 @naturescot.bsky.social

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Scotland's Nature Student Conference 2026 @scotnsconf.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Tree are the champions! - Ben Wilson with a poster titled: Tree-mendous change: exploring the effects of implementing alternative forest management in Scotland #SNSC2025

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Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Yay, great to see the fabulous @sarahwatts.bsky.social at #SNSC2025 spreading the word about restoration of Scotland's montane woodlands. My colleagues @bsbiscotland.bsky.social & @sarahelizwoods.bsky.social are at the Conference again today. Do catch up with Matt & the Sarahs for a plantbased chat!

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Scotland's Nature Student Conference 2026 @scotnsconf.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

No fake plastic trees on these mountains! - Our first student keynote of the conference is @sarahwatts.bsky.social who is blending both research and practice to highlight how and why we can successfully restore mountain woodlands in Scotland #SNSC2025

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Chantal Lyons @chantallyons.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

The hour draws near... GROUNDBREAKERS is out in paperback on 13 March! (With a little makeover) Pre-order at www.bloomsbury.com/uk/groundbre... 1/2

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