Finding David Douglas film premiere for Pitlochry

A Perthshire adventurer comes home to Pitlochry on celluloid - a Big Tree man for the Big Tree Country. You’ve heard of the Douglas Fir?

Finding David Douglas is an hour-long documentary on the Perthshire lad whose exploration of the New World changed the face of horticulture and forestry in Europe.

David Douglas (1799-1834) – often referred to as the ‘Founder of Forestry’ in Western North America – introduced over 200 new plant species to European botany, forestry and horticulture, including the Douglas fir tree, Sitka spruce and Radiata (or Monterey) pine trees.

Featuring outstanding scenery in locations as far afield as Hudson’s Bay, the Canadian Rockies, British Columbia, Hawaii and Oregon’s Blue Mountains, the film also features some spectacular shots from Perthshire. These include the Explorers Garden by the theatre – as well as the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and its outlier at Dawyck near Peebles.

Environment Minister, Roseanna Cunningham, will visit Pitlochry Festival Theatre later this month, on Thursday 29th October, for the premiere of a film celebrating the life and work of this man, one of Scotland’s great adventurers and plant collectors.

Screened as part of Year of Homecoming 2009, the film was put together by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, and has been backed by Forestry Commission Scotland, the Scottish Forest Trust, and supported by the US Forest Service and Parks Canada.

Oregon is sending over to PItlochry for the premiere,  Lois Leonard,the film’s producer and its film editor, Kate Schoninger, along with David Milholland (President) and Charlotte Rubin (Treasurer) of Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission.

Also attending will be Mike Russell, Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, and representatives of the US and Canadian Governments as well as Provost John Hulbert from Perth & Kinross Council who are jointly hosting the event with Forestry Commission Scotland.

Roseanna  Cunningham says: ‘The film is a tremendous show-case for one of Scotland’s most intrepid adventurers who, arguably more than any other, has helped shape Scotland’s landscape as well shaping the gardens of Europe. If you walk round any suburban garden or stroll through any forest in Scotland you’ll see plenty of evidence of Douglas’s abundant plant introductions, such as lupins and the ubiquitous flowering currant in gardens – and Douglas fir and sitka spruce in the forests.

“This film is another great tribute to this remarkable man and to the international appeal of Perthshire’s exceptional woodland landscape, including some of Douglas’s original Douglas fir trees grown from seed collected by him in the 1820’s, in the heart of Big Tree Country’.

Tickets for the premiere, which will start at 7.45pm, cost £7.50 and are available from Pitlochry Festival Theatre

• by email at:  www.pitlochry.org.uk
• by phone at: 01796 484 626

The documentary will be made available free for educational purposes and is intended to help both at school and adult audiences gain an insight into the history of the Pacific Northwest, famous Scots and botanical exploration.