Scotlands Lost Forests Are Returning - here's how

foreign [Music] Landscapes are dramatic large open spaces and for some it's considered wild but these Landscapes although vast they're falling short of their potential many areas are lifeless and there's not that many trees due to a number of acute pressures causing real declines to biodiversity so uh what should cover most of Scotland well it's Caledonian Pine Forest and it's an ecosystem found nowhere else on Earth and it's an ecosystem which five thousand years ago covered 1.5 million hectares but today it covers only five percent of that original range however thanks to rewarding efforts it's been making a steady return [Music] Caledonian Pine Forest is dominated by the Scots pine but you'll find other trees there too like Birch Rowan or Aspen supporting ecological communities including lichens mosses fungi flowering plants birds and mammals its ideal habitat for many of the species we associate with Scotland like the pine marten the red squirrel Mountain hairs and many bird species including the golden eagle these forests when left untouched for centuries can provide essential services for the health of our planet storing carbon retaining water and providing us with the oxygen that we breathe something which doesn't get talked about enough is the way these Landscapes make us feel I've never been in a Pine Forest quite like this one and I feel I feel at ease I feel calm it just feels right to be here and that that's something which I don't think we've been able to appreciate here in the UK we've been deprived of it we don't we've never experienced it so we don't know what we're missing yeah and I just think that that needs to be that that needs to be put on the table when we discuss bringing back these landscapes so now we understand why these forests are important let's begin to understand why they've declined so historically Caledonian Pine Forest has been lost to a long history of deforestation for Timber and also land conversion for grazing but in more recent times one of the main pressures has been grazing from large herbivores deer and sheep kept in abnormally High numbers coupled with these forests being filled for Timber has meant that it's been almost impossible for these trees to naturally regenerate and for many of the iconic animals which we associate with Scotland they rely on this habitat and they become marginalized along with it and in the case of creatures like the lynx the wolf and the Bear they're completely extinct and because of the absence of natural Predators humans have had to try and take their place but despite sustained efforts the deer population is out of control and make no mistake Rangers in Scotland are doing brilliant work without them the grazing pressures from an unmanaged deer population would be too much but it's now thought that there's over one million deer across Scotland and that's more than double the population during the 1990s and the pressures to the landscape are showing then when you add livestock grazing to large open unrestricted areas oh and the burning of the landscape for Grouse shooting you can begin to see that young trees just do not stand a chance and why is it like this in Scotland well that is a loaded question and it really needs a dedicated video but to summarize it's about how the land has been valued in the past and it's no surprise is that natural Capital all the good things we know these habitats can bring were in fact bottom of the pile instead valleys have been placed upon an area's capacity to offer good hunting good fishing or some other way to exploit the land and although culturally significant these practices dominate the landscape and so creates a lack of diversity throughout it but hey you know it's not all doom and gloom here on leave cures you know we're not about that here we'd like to focus on the good work that's being done but in order to get to the good work we sometimes need to flesh it out about why this work has been done and I can tell you over the past 20 30 years there's been some there's been some good movements to bring back this lost habitat many different projects have been set up to return Caledonian Pine Forest to Scotland and one day I'll visit them and feature their story on the channel but instead for this video I want to get into the general practical methods that have been used so we've already mentioned the importance of calling deer widespread throughout Scotland but fundamentally any Land Management preventing trees from growing needs to come to a stop and then the area which is to recover it really needs to be dear fenced a two meter higher wire and wooden post system which either protects islands of trees or runs around an enclosed area I visited alidel Wilderness Reserve where these measures are being used foreign this is a place where something very special is happening this is a place where Caledonian Pine Forest is recovering as you can see here we have a mature pine tree and all around it you have these little pine trees sprouted up you have some birds sprouting up and All Along The Hills you can see trees it almost doesn't look right I mean it is right but it just it just shows the potential of what Scotland can be and here grazing pressures have been limited they control the deer quite heavily through culling and all around these Hills they have deer fencing so it's always best that trees naturally regenerate but in depleted areas due to the lack of seed it simply doesn't happen or it can be a very slow process in these areas tree planting offers a jump start to restoring Woodland ecosystems and of course those newly planted trees need to be protected deer fencing isn't cheap nor is it practical to ring fence every Glen in Scotland but it is effective and it really should be used more in the short term to allow Woodlands to escape what struck me while I traveled Scotland was the sheer lack of diversity that's the real problem not sheep grazing not wild deer not forestry not game keeping it's the fact that these land managements have a monopoly over Scotland Scotland is a land with huge amounts of rewilding potential and that fills me with hope [Music] enjoyed this look into Scotland's Caledonian Pine Forest then please support leave curious you can do this by connecting with the video you can like comment and subscribe but you can also join our membership and you can give something over on super thanks because ultimately I'm just a guy who's passionate about rewarding here in the UK and I want to reach as many people with this message as I can so thanks for watching leave curious foreign

Channel: Leave Curious

Views: 68,434

Keywords:

Id: lKm8gX-zydI

Length: 6min 43sec (403 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 21 2022