High aim to bring 'wee trees' back from brink
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A MORAY-BASED conservation charity is launching a bid to help save Scotland’s almost-vanished mountaintop forests and their wildlife.
Findhorn's Trees for Life plans to create what is thought will be the country’s largest planted area of high-altitude woodland in the Highlands.
The charity says centuries of overgrazing by sheep and deer have left most of Scotland stripped of the once common, tough, waist-high "wee trees" such as dwarf birch and downy willow – known as "montane" species because they can grow near mountain summits despite harsh conditions.
In a major expansion of action to reverse the loss of these unique woodlands – home to wildlife such as golden eagle, ring ouzel and mountain hare – Trees for Life is establishing a 700-acre mountaintop woodland of 100,000 trees at its Dundreggan Conservation Estate, in Glenmoriston near Loch Ness.
The site, Carn na Caorach, meaning "sheep cairn", lies at 450-600m above sea level, with sweeping views over Glenmoriston and Glen Affric. It is thought to have been an important place for grazing livestock for hundreds of years.
Doug Gilbert, Trees for Life’s Dundreggan manager, said: "Montane woodlands are a vital part of Scotland’s precious Caledonian Forest, but are often restored over only small areas if at all.
"To bring these special 'wee trees' back from the brink and create habitats for the wildlife that depends on them, we need something bigger and that’s what we’re setting out to achieve at Carn na Caorach."
This month Trees for Life erected its largest-ever exclosure – a fence designed to protect young trees by keeping grazing animals out – at the site.
The charity’s volunteers will begin the first phase of planting next spring, with trees including downy willow and dwarf birch on the higher ground, and Scots pine and juniper on the lower slopes. Further planting will continue over the next few years, and self-seeded saplings will be able to thrive in the grazing-free exclosure.
The initiative will hopefully see the return of plants including wood cranesbill, globeflower and alpine sowthistle, in turn supporting mammals, birds, and pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies.
It will take 50 to 100 years before the high-altitude forest is fully established, if grazing levels are kept low.
