Staff Meeting at Dalguise Wood 20/2/09

This was an afternoon visit to a PAWS (Plantations on Ancient Woodland Site) wood at Dalguise to discuss our protocol for assessing such sites.

VC

Video- Scottish Native Woods Staff meet

Scottish Native Woods staff wait for their photo at staff meeting at Dalguise Wood last Friday......

Alison in a tree house

This is our admin manager Alison Mitchell in the base of the Birnam oak tree........

Red Squirrel Signs

These cones have been eaten by red squirrels, the tell-tale sign being that they leave part of them uneaten (the bit they hold the cone up by). Wasteful little things are'nt they?

tea for a red squirrel?

Here's a short guide to identifying whether a spruce cone has been eaten by a red squirrel or by a mouse: the red squirrel needs a handle!

Mapping Aspen

During our survey of Glenlyon in 2008, we located 59 stands of aspen, 55 of which where not in the national database for the species. Aspen is becoming a particularly strong theme for our work at Scottish Native Woods. Tayside, Deeside and especially Speyside are the strongholds for the species. Expect to be hearing a lot more about aspen in future months........!!

You can see more detail by clicking on the image and expanding it to full screen size.

Close-up of Glenlyon Aspen Map

This is a closer view of the map above. The figures in brackets relate to the age of the stand on a 1-7 scale, the number outside is the number of trees, and, in some cases, the diameter at breast height, dbh, is given.

Our native Scots Pine

Other than juniper and yew, the Scots Pine is our only native conifer, with very extensive stands in the north and east of the country. Scots Pine is also commonly planted as a plantation species in those areas, for it's timber as well as for its' amenity and conservation value. The capercaillie, crossbills and red squirrels are all heavily dependant on Scots Pine.

Here you can see the distinctive red colour of the bark of Scots Pine. In these photos, the red colour is exaggerated slightly because the sun is reflecting off the snow and enhancing the red colour. This stand has been thinned out. These trees might either be planted or have arisen from natural regeneration.

Closer........

Further back.......

The same trees closer to the ground........

Characteristic Scots Pine Bark

Scots Pine bark, as well as having the red tinge, is also very flakey. platey in texture

Granny Scots Pine

These trees have grown in a more open situation, and have developed a shorter, more rounded habit of growth. Firther down the slope, you can see the trees that are growing more densely are taller and straigher.......

Closer.......

Rounded granny pines........

Mature Scots Pine Stand

Having grown up in a forest situation, these trees are straighter and taller. You can see the amount of light that penetrates to the forest floor however, unlike north-American conifers that tend to block out all light.

Landscape Value

Trees like this Scots Pine (centre right) are very valuable in local landscapes. This is upper Deeside.

Mature Scots Pine Plantation

This mature Scots Pine plantation near Potarch Bridge on the Dee has been well thinned and has a lot of birch growing through it. The amenity value of this type of wood is very high.

Volunteer work day

The branches of the conifers were removed to allow in more light for native trees. The branches (brash) may be piled up into "habitat piles" providing shelter to wildlife. In this case so much brash had built up that some of it was burnt...being careful to make sure nothing was living inside of course!

Volunteer work day

There's nothing like a real fire

Icicles

We seem to have had a lot of winter. The last few days I've had to duck under the icicles to get to my office.

Forwarder

A handy machine for extracting timber over rough ground

A stack of sycamore

Sycamore is widely naturalised in Scottish woods, but not a native. We are removing it from Urquhart Bay Woods SSSI.

...such as this holly.

Volunteer work day

We have volunteer events every month in various parts of Fife, (see our website http://www.scottishnativewoods.org.uk/ if you'd like to help).

Here we are taking down the fast growing birch, to allow more light into the woodland, giving a chance for other trees to grow...

Clearing beech tree from an old track

This picture shows a multi stemmed beech tree that has been growing out of the stone wall that holds up the old track to the left of the tree. The tree has started to move in the wind, and several of the stones have been dislodged this winter. The track would be severely damaged if the tree blew over, so one historical feature has had to be felled to protect the other historical feature. Several stems have already been felled, leaving the biggest till last.

Once this has been felled, you can see that the single stem shown in the first picture was actually four stems that had completely grown together over time.

Here's the weather in Argyll. It was a nice sunny day. This light is pouring in where beech tree was creating shade a minute before, & it will give a chance for some more plants and native trees to grow: just neeed to make sure that the trees are not growing out of the track this time.

PAWS Surveying in Argyll

We're working with Woodland Trust to get a Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS) restoration project underway in Argyll. The first stage is to talk to the woodland owners and managers about PAWS so that we can work out what is possible. Looking at woods is important too, and this picture shows an oak tree picked out on a visit. The sitka spruce behind the tree is crowding the oak, but the biggest threat is the young spruce that is growing up through the canopy of the oak: this young growth will be bad news for the middle aged oak.