Autumn Hazel

Forest Research training day in Dumfries

Birch trees before the rain

Glen Lyon pine tree

Another scary tree......

Ghoulish Trees

With Halloween approaching I thought I would share with you a few unusual trees which, if you look hard enough, have a ghoulish form. Not very sinister, infact they made me smile when I came across them in the woods!

My favourite of the year.

Boats, history and communities

The NWDG's woodland history conference this year will include a talk on the ways in which community groups relate to woodland history. One of the themes that I will explore will be the way in which groups such as Galgael have developed and used links with historical boat building.

This picture shows the work of another group, Big Green Tarbert. These Loch Fyne skiffs formed the backbone of the 19th century herring fishing fleet which made Tarbert prosperous. The one at the back, "Wee Dooker" was built by local children under the supervision of AGWA's Adam Way. Wee Dooker has a keel and ribs made from Argyll oak.

The conference is in Perth on the 10th November: more details at http://www.nwdg.org.uk/conference_14.html

Wood Ants

The nests of wood ants are characteristic of Caledonian Pinewoods. There are three species present in Scotland, all are recognised as of conservation importance with their own Species Action Plans as part of the UK Biodiversity process.

This impressive rounded mound of pine needles has been carefully constructed by the worker ants to maintain a specific temperature and humidity in the nest. The south side of the nest is less steep to maximise solar gain. Underground is a series of chambers where the eggs and pupae develop.

As I approached this nest, the tracks of the worker ants foraging in the surrounding trees for needles and invertebrates was very clear amongst the carpet of blaeberry.

Birch Regeneration

Here is an ex- conifer plantation that was felled 8 years ago and which has now sprung up to be a carpet of birch trees.

Getting scientific with hazelnuts

Here's some pictures of the school hazel project we have been working on with Atlantic Hazel Action Group member Sandy Coppins. The children are helping with a wee experiment to see if hazel nuts might have colonised Scotland after the last ice age by sea: floating across from Ireland. Having collected the nuts on a damp autumnal day, the children set about sorting their haul
Some of the nuts have been put in salt water to see if they will still germinate after immersion in salt water

Others were planted immediately as a control: that meant dirty hands for some of the helpers!

Questions, Questions

Coming across a couple of aspen seedlings in a gully in the Cairngorms poses a number of interesting questions. Located hundred of metres from any mature aspen how did these seedlings establish themselves here?

Aspen rarely produces seed in Scotland, spreading mainly by suckers from the tree roots. Looking around in the heather I found no evidence of stumps of older aspen trees which could have produced these as suckers. Perhaps any stumps have decayed but the roots remained, fed by small suckers hidden in the heather?

Or can we conclude that they have established from seed, blown on the wind over the heather moorland to germinate and establish in the damp mossy layer of this gully?

Scientific analysis of the genetic print of the seedlings and comparing it with genetic print of neighbouring aspen trees would help answer these questions.