In this episode of Smart Forests Radio, we speak with Gordon Gray Stephens, Saving Scotland’s Rainforest advisor and director of the Native Woods Co-op, about the growing movement for restoring temperate rainforests on the west coast of
Scotland
. Gordon reflects on how the Alliance for Scotland’s
Rainforest
coalesced around a single shared term, “rainforest,” and why that shift in language has made a material difference in conversations with policymakers, funders, landowners, and communities. He discusses the role of
digital technologies
in this
restoration
work, from
mapping
the spread of invasive rhododendron across the
landscape
to using thermal
drones
for deer counting. He also makes a case for keeping these tools in the hands of people working locally, rather than allowing them to merely feed decision-making processes from afar.
Interviewers: Jennifer Gabrys and Phoebe Hamilton Jones
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Listen on Apple and Spotify
This radio episode was produced by the Smart Forests project funded by the European Research Council. Smart Forests is led by Professor Jennifer Gabrys and is based in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
Header image: Craignish, Scotland. Photography by Gordon Gray Stephens, from https://savingscotlandsrainforest.org.uk/in-development/craignish.
Smart Forests Atlas materials are free to use for non-commercial purposes (with attribution) under a
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
To cite this radio episode:
Stephens, Gordon Gray, Jennifer Gabrys, and Phoebe Hamilton Jones, "Gordon Gray Stephens: Visualising and Saving Scotland’s Rainforest," Smart Forests Atlas (2026), https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio/gordon-gray-stephens.