Scotland's Deserts are Turning Green - here's why

Scotland's deserts are indeed turning green again you see Once Upon a Time much of the land throughout Scotland would have been completely covered in these Scots pine trees a beautiful tree native to these soils they have marched through the glands and up the hills forming a light-giving canopy and beneath a thriving understory would have been home to creatures which now seem as good as mythological beasts here on the British Isles I think it's a great shame and it's even more damning that many do not know of this abundant past that we've now lost vast empty open you can walk for Miles seeing very little in Scotland all too often there's nothing but grass down through the Glens naked Banks line the rivers and when you high on the mountains there's little vegetation above your knees when you think about it it's actually really strange to have such huge areas without any any trees at all I visited a place where Native Woodlands were able to hold on and better still they're recovering this is the abany nature reserve nestled within the kores national park but first I want to show you another surviving remnant of this beautiful habitat the black wood of ranok this is one of the remaining fragments of Caledonian Pine Forest proper Caledonian Pine Forest I mean look at this one this one is huge it's a really big Pine I don't think using the word deserts to describe Scotland's Landscapes is an overstatement I think it's you know pretty damn accurate because when you come to a place like this you realize that this is what those vast Open Spaces could look like perhaps should look like sure you know they're not Sandy they're not arid but you know they are ecologically numb Caledonian p Forest like this has declined by more than 99% of its original range we estimate that we've lost 1.5 million hectares over the past 6,000 [Music] years so what has caused this decline of Scotland's Caledonian Pine forests well over time you've got direct exploitation over the centuries over the past last couple few thousand years these Woods would have been harvested for their Timber cuz they're a resource but in more recent history you've got really Three core Industries which I guess contributing the most to this habitat's Decline and they are agriculture forestry and hunting now before I really get into these and really pull them apart not any one of these industries is necessarily bad is the problems occurred because of the extent and and the time in which and the Monopoly that these industries have over Scotland and have over these [Music] habitats so throughout Scotland's history you've had Direct exploitation where these Old Pine forests have been harvested for their Timber but today we're facing a bit of a different problem the Caledonian Pine forests which remain they are protected but we're now seeing issues in how they can regenerate and one of the core issues here is overg grazing and of those three key Industries which I just mentioned it has been Agriculture and it has been hunting which has been the real driver of overgrazing sheep can be found all over Scotland it's an industry that really took off after the clearances the clearances was an ugly and unjustified event in Scotland's history that saw over 100,000 native people forcibly removed and made to abandon a traditional way of life now this isn't the video where I really get into the clearances as that deserves a full video on its own but it's important to understand that this event shaped the way that we see Scotland today the Highland clans were removed so widespread sheep farming could take place as it was SE to be a more profitable way of using the land in a very short amount of time there were tens of thousands more sheep on the land putting Untold pressure to Scotland's native forests and the Regeneration and nearly three centuries later Scotland still has sheep roaming its Hills but it's not just sheep while deer are also contributing to overgrazing in Scotland the countryes Estates have long been valued for their quality of deer hunting so if there's more deer the hunting will be better coinciding with the rise of deer and sheep was the demise of Scotland's natural apex predators who were hunted to Extinction creating a perfect recipe for wild deer numbers to explode it's now estimated that there's over 1 million throughout Scotland and then you've got forestry you've got commercial forestry which really took off after the first world war because so many of Scotland's natural Woodlands have been depleted there was a real need for Timber so you know there was a real widespread uh initiative to get a lot of conifers in and you know we planted non-natives we planted them really close together and you know the result is is that you're introducing a species which grows much faster than Scots pine and you know the way that we've planted these trees it really isn't good for wildlife it's not good for the local ecology in a non-native Conifer Plantation you don't get a nice like open canopy like this it's not like the native Scots Pines if Wildlife is living in a conord plantation then it's it's it's kind of just doing it because it's had to adapt it would always much rather be in a habitat like this and the other thing about the non-natives is they grow really really well here and you know they just have such accelerated growth and you know on frequent trips to Scotland I've seen plenty of native trees which have just been completely crowded out um and then they eventually die and then you know that means that you lose that mature tree which then could be giving seed to Future generations of of forests and since we're here you know this is the Blackwood of Rano I thought we just have a little look around and just appreciate some of these Old Pine Tre I mean this one over here this one is just absolutely huge and what's special about the Blackwood of Rano is you know this really is a remnant of the trees which would have colonized after the last ice age and I believe in certain parts maybe where I am there's been no planting so you're seeing trees which are naturally regenerating so you know people hang me up on the way on on the way I use the terms natural and Native but this is a native forest and I think it's almost as natural as it can get here you know if I really let my mind wand I can I can almost like put myself back maybe like a thousand years maybe 1,500 years and just imagine that in these Woods there's going to be links there's probably one watching me right now um you know this is this is the kind of habitat where you would expect to find them if we've lost 99 % of this habitat's original range it means that there's just 1% left or less than 1% meaning that right now the work that we do to restore has never been more important and I couldn't make a video about Caledonian Pine Forest without mentioning trees for life as they've done significant research and work towards the restoration of this habitat Afric Highlands is a bold landscape rewinding project led by trees for life that's building on 30 years of exist existing restoration they've also mapped all of the remaining fragments and assessed their health and resilience along with barriers to recovery and the research found that one of the core pressures to Regeneration is grazing from Wild deer so there's three measures for mitigating deer pressure which I'm going to talk about now and the last one I think is actually like it's pretty interesting but we'll get on to that in a minute it's something we haven't seen here in Scotland yet defensing has been effective at allowing young Pines to establish so some of the country's oldest Scots pine can be found at Glen loin a remote Glenn that's nearly lost all of its Pine Woods due to grazing pressure trees for life and reing Europe have recently built a fence here to provide some protection and ensure that this habitat can regenerate in the short term this will work but fencing isn't a long-term solution over time the deer fences ultimately fa they they they deteriorate and the deer just you know they end up getting back in not to mention they're really expensive I mean if you really wanted to do large scale Caledonian Pine Forest restoration I mean you're going to need a lot of fencing and really it's it's more of a Band-Aid over the problem it's not it's not addressing the issue at its core but one method of really getting to the heart of the deer problem is deer coloring it's humans going out stalking and shooting the deer and actively Bringing Down the numbers and this works a place where we've seen this work is the aany nature reserve here dear numbers have been kept so low that Scots pine can naturally regenerate meaning the seed from the mature trees around them are able to take Route and establish and when it comes to the management of deer when it comes to the culling of deer you know there are some mixed opinions on it what do you think about it do you feel like it's for the greater good do you feel as though that it shouldn't happen do you think natural Predators should be reintroduced do you think that humans should just altogether stop meddling with the landscape and the way things are please just let me know your thoughts the third way to manage deer is a method not yet tried in Scotland and that's the reintroduction of apex predators I'm not saying that we should reintroduce the bear the brown bear I'm not saying we should reintroduce the wolf just yet but the links the Eurasian links could be a really good start and that's because the links is secretive it's small and not a threat to us we don't know its impact for sure but it is unlikely to cause a huge trophic Cascade and fix the deer problem but that's not the goal not yet a successful links for introduction will warm us round to the idea of living with large carnivals again it's a privilege which we've lost here in Britain rewarding is a journey of recovery and the links returning to Scotland is a necessary step while on my work with Mossy Earth I was recently filming and learning about their temperate rainforest restoration project the project is focused on sensitively removing non-native conifers so that the native Woodlands can flourish again I get to see Mossy Earth projects firsthand seeing the work and meeting the people behind them I can tell you it's a really great way to contribute to seeing nature return they run a monthly membership subscription that anyone can be a part of so if you're interested I'll leave a link to this in the description you'll also find links to trees for life in there too and all the ways you can support and connect with leave curious if you've got this far in the video please do consider subscribing here at leave curious we tell stories about nature restoration big or small and the more people that subscribe the more people we can reach but in the meantime thanks for watching leave [Music] curious

Channel: Leave Curious

Views: 419,113

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Id: W5_yNzZ-1gk

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 17 2024