Our vision is to restore a wild forest, which is there for its own sake, as a home for wildlife and to fulfil the ecological functions necessary for the wellbeing of the land itself. We are not aiming to regenerate a forest which will be utilised sustainably as an extractive resource for people, although we recognise the need for this in Scotland. We endorse the efforts of other organisations in seeking to establish a new, ecologically-sustainable system of forestry, but we strongly believe that this utilitarian approach must be complemented by the restoration of large areas of wild forest. Trees for Life is unique in being the only organisation working specifically towards this end. Scotland is a prime candidate for ecological restoration work, as it is one of the countries which has suffered most from environmental degradation in the past. The Highlands in particular have been described as a 'wet desert

<p style="margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><img style="float: right;" src="tiny_mce/plugins/moxiemanager/data/files/Ekopia Wind.jpg" alt="" width="250" />The wind park project has enabled us to produce all our electricity needs and become a net exporter to the grid.</p> <p style="margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">The Community operated a Wind Park division, incorporating a 75kW windmill, from 1989 to 2006. It traded successfully and this turbine generated nearly 1.5M units of electricity, and saved 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions.</p> <p style="margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">The next stage for this project was the 2002 creation of a new company called Findhorn Wind Park Ltd. This raised &pound;600,000 and erected three additional turbines, and the project now has a total installed capacity of 750KW. These new turbines came into operation in March 2006 and were a major step toward self-sufficiency in renewable energy for the Ecovillage.</p> <p style="margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">We hope this will pave the way for innovative future developments such as hydrogen or electric powered vehicles.</p>