NWDG & PMG Visit to Lochaber

The Native Woodland Discussion Group and the Pinewood Managers' Group combined for their Field Visit this year. After a seminar on the first evening we spent the second day on Conaglen Estate. This is part of the group in a deer fenced regeneration area listening to Raymond Henderson, Bidwells.

Another shot of some of the group, with young birch trees showing in the background

Conaglen Estate's main interest is in deer stalking. Here's a shot of three of the keepers, in estate tweed, who took part in our visit. Reaching an appropriate balance between deer and woodland regeneration is always part of our discussion, and it was good to hear different points of view.

Another of the sites we visited was the Glen Loy Pinewood. Peter Quelch has done some research into the management and history of this fascinating site

There are some old and unusual trees in the woodland, including these oak and pine trees. The combination of pine with oak is a one of the attractive features of west coast pinewoods.

Here's a close up of the trunk of one of these old pine trees. The heartwood of pine trees is rich in resin, which burns easily, and was therefore used for "pine candles". There are records that this means of producing light still happened in remoter parts of Scotland until around 100 years ago. On this trunk you can still see the axe marks that were made when these candles were last cut out.

We spent some time looking at Ancient Woodland Indicator species over the weekend, which include some species of slug, such as this one. It's not a threat to your lettuces, as it feeds on fungi, but it does provide evidence, along with the types of lichen in the wood, that the site has been woodland for a long time.

Colin Edwards from Forest Research was on hand to take core samples from some of these trees. This allows us to count the annual growth rings of the trees, and to see whether there are unusual alterations in the growth pattern that might tell us something about the management of the woodland. First estimate is that this tree is around 300 years old, starting life around the time that the "Old Pretender" was fomenting his attempt to restore the Stewart monarchy.

Finally, here's a video from our boat trip down Loch Sheil. The weather was not beautiful, but the woods and the company were good.

Over half of our existing ancient woodland resource has been underplanted with conifers, which prevent light reaching the forest floor and damage the overall ancient woodland ecosystem. Opening up such stands is best done gradually to prevent sudden changes in light and moisture levels which can be equally damaging. In this picture, the stand is gradually being opened up. You can see the light getting through and the native woodland remnants (oak here) that remain.

Closer........

Light hitting the woodland floor.

All fall down.....

Trees are living things and will eventually grow old and die. For the wood as a whole to persevere, young trees must be coming up to replace the older ones. Here in Glen Tilt, many centuries of overgrazing has prevented the establishment of younger trees, the existing trees die off and are not replaced, and the woodland cover gradually disappears. You can see two dead birch trees here, the one in the foreground having broken off more recently, the one further up has been dead many years. The lower part of Glen Tilt has a good woodland cover of native trees, but on the more outlying slopes, this sort of contraction of the woodland area is still occurring.

Closer.....

More old birch trees.....

These trees ae still standing but show all the signs of old age. Over the next 10-15 years they will slowly disintegrate and die as with the previous tree. Any catastrophic event such as a high wind or heavy , wet snow can easily exacerbate the decline.

Closer.......

Volunteer Day - Flisk Wood

Burning the invasive Rhododendron Ponticum after removing it at Flisk Wood.

Scottish Native Woods volunteers go out every month. For details of the next event see the volunteer events section on our website - http://www.scottishnativewoods.org.uk/



How many people does it take to light a fire?

The Colin Burt Reserve on the River Dochart

The Fife Air Cadets Conservation Group (FACCG) do a lot of useful work for Scottish Native Woods, especially in the central lowlands. They are steadily helping develop the Colin Burt Reserve which lies between Killin and Crianlarich beside the River Dochart, and spend a number of weekend camps there during the year. Do stop by if you are ever passing.

At the centre of the Colin Burt Reserve

This pine tree stands on a prominent mound right in the middle of the reserve.

Video- Alook around the Colin Burt Reserve on the Dochart

Bit windy here today. The video is taken from the mound in the middle of the site with the Scots Pine tree on it.

piggy plough

Pigs can be useful where dense ground vegetation is stopping young trees from getting established. This one's not too sure about having her photograph taken, so she's "bristling".

The soil that is stuck to her snout just where the hair starts shows how deeply pigs will rootle around in the soil.

insects in wood

This is a split bit of a birch tree, showing one stage in the life cycle of a wood boring insect. At the top of the picture is the entry (& exit) point of the insect, and below that are the chambers where the youngsters are spending the winter.

Woodland Walk at Falls of Foyers

Here is a great little woodland walk at the Falls of Foyers in Invernessshire. The waterfall is well worth a look, and the path passes through a nice open Scots Pine wood.

On a slope........

Many of our best Scots Pine woods are on steep slopes. Because this makes them difficult to access, some of our most iconic wildlife, such as capecaillie, are found on such sites, because disturbance from people is not as frequent, if at all.

Uplifted.......

You can see that the root plates of these trees have been lifted up a bit by the wind, but not enough to topple the trees.

Scots Pine trunks

A paler shade of pine

This tree was growing directly out off a rock and is a lot paler in colour than the other trees round about.

phoenix trees

"Phoenix Tree" is the name used to describe a tree that regrows after it has been blown over.

This is a good example: you can see the moss covered original stem of the tree lying flat, with a mini woodland of new trunks growing up.

This elm limb is also a bit of a phoenix. It cracked and started to break away from the main trunk, however it hit the ground before it was completely severed from the main trunk. Over time the limb has grown new roots where it is touching the ground (it's the same thing that happens when you layer garden plants). The rest of the main trunk snapped off in a gale, so this limb is now the mainstay of the tree.

elder budburst & primrose appear

Spring seems to be happening in a far more condensed way in recent years. This elder is in a sheltered sunny spot and is usually the first tree in leaf in this wood. In contrast to the alder and the elm it produces leaves early in the season, while it's one of the last trees to produce flowers.

Primroses, the first roses of Spring, are also appearing in sheltered spots.

wych elm flowers

At pretty much the same time as the alders, the first tree flowers that rely on insect pollination appear. Dutch elm disease has not reached much of the highlands of Scotland, so we still get to see wych elm in flower.

The flowers are pretty discrete, but make a bit more of an impact when seen as part of the characteristic branching of the elm canopy.

alder in spring

Alder catkins are less well known than the hazel, however they are just as attractive

As with hazel, the catkins produce the pollen, which is carried by spring breezes to the flowers, shown here. It's too early in the year for the tree to rely upon insects to act as pollinators

This alder is still carrying a few cones from last year. Successfully polinated flowers develop into these seed bearing cones during the summer, and the small and light seeds are distributed by wind and water during the late autumn.

Forestry Commission Headquarters

Part of our role is to ensure that the importance of native woodlands is recognised by Government and its agencies. This often involves meetings in Silvan House which houses the headquarters of Forestry Commission Scotland, as well as being the HQ of Forestry Commission Great Britain. I was at a meeting of a sub group of the Customer Representative Group, which is looking at the space between trees that we should leave when we plant a new native woodland. This open space is important for many of the animals and plants that live in woods.

Forestry Commission lease their building, so probably do not have control over this small stand of trees at the entrance. However it's crying out for a bit of silvicultural love and attention, and I sometimes wonder when one of the foresters who work there will take a bit of direct action!

Promoting Public Access

Many native woods are interesting and enjoyable places for people to walk and exercise, and Scottish Native Woods often get asked to help with access provision. Grants are available for managing access, and the Forestry Commission in particular are very helpful in providing signage that directs people in an appropriate manner and confirms to them that it is perfectly OK for them to be there!! The signs shown here were obtained free of charge for schemes where FCS provided grant assistance for bigger works.

Another variation......

And another one.....

Rhododendron Ponticum originated in Victorian gardens and is now rampant in woodlands. It shades out the native plants on the ground and nothing will grow underneath it.

Volunteer Work Day - Flisk Wood

Flisk wood is a picturesque site overlooking the Tay coast in Fife, and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The view of the Tay is blocked by the invasive Rhododendron Ponticum.

Hazel catkins

Hazel catkins in Argyll are fully developed now, and releasing pollen when the wind blows.

hazel flower

The red hazel flower is far less obvious than the male catkins, and is easily missed. If wind blown pollen from the catkins successfully reaches the flower, then a nut will start to form

nitrogen nodules on alder roots

Here's a section of alder root, showing the nodules formed by the nitrogen fixing actinobacterium Frankia. This ability to "fix" nitrogen helps alder to grow in wet and nutrient poor soils where other trees would struggle to survive.

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........