Death, destruction, decay. Wait, what? This is a good thing? In this video, we're heading into the Misty Highlands of Scotland to discover a new and unexpected
way of restoring nature. It involves killing thousands of trees, but eventually we'll turn this into this. Forget everything you
know about reforestation. We are Planet Wild, welcome to Mission 12. The Scottish Highlands are one of Europe's most iconic landscapes, but few people know that
they used to be covered by old growth forest,
some 5,000 years ago. Stretching from coast to coast and hosting wolves,
bears, and wild horses. This ancient forest inspired a whole canon of tales and legends. But this mystical vision
we have of the highlands is sadly not our reality today because centuries of human exploitation have wiped out most of its biodiversity. But can the Scottish Highlands be restored to the former lush and bio diverse glory? A problem of this scale requires thinking way outside the box, and
that is exactly our jam. So we sent Cameron from Planet Wild to the Abernathy Reserve
in Northern Scotland, where we teamed up with a
team of renegade foresters that have found a surprising
way to breathe life back into this once magical place. - This is probably what
most of us have in mind when we imagine going for
a beautiful walk in nature. Tall trees everywhere, spongy
green moss on the ground and the sounds of birds singing and squirrels playing
in the trees above me. It might feel like a magical forest, but in reality it's not a forest at all. It's a plantation. The trees around me are all identical. The same species,
planted at the same time, only to be later harvested for timber. This is known as a monoculture. These trees are planted
way too close together at around 3000 trees per hectare. This overcrowding means
that hardly any light can get down here to the forest floor, making it impossible for
most creatures to survive. So this nice squishy green moss is actually the only plant
that can live down here. The trees race upwards in
competition for the light, but they grow so fast
that up in the canopy, the trunks and branches
are incredibly thin, meaning that they can't support
birds and squirrels nesting. So those lovely foresty
sounds you're hearing, we added them in for effect. It's actually dead to quiet here. - This scenario is not unique to Scotland. Exploiting the land as we
have done in many countries means that humans have created these so-called green deserts everywhere. - The tragic fact is
that we've gotten used to this image of nature. So once you realize where you are, walking through this
ordered, lifeless place isn't magical at all, but
actually, pretty creepy. - And for the sake of all of the creatures that have been pushed out
of their natural habitats, it's clear that something
drastic needs to be done. And this is where something quite unique is happening in Scotland and
it has the power to transform this ghost town of a forest back into- - This. In the Abernathy Reserve, they also have one of the few remaining pieces of ancient Caledonian pine forest. Only 1% of this precious
habitat is still standing and here, I'm meeting Fraser. Fraser is a warden at the UK's largest land
regeneration project and we are going for a walk back in time to find out what a
forest really looks like. - Forest I guess, is better for nature just because it's so much more diverse. We've got so many more different species. Like here, we've got a juniper
and we've got birch trees, we've got different age classes of tree. - Essentially it's chaos. Birds and young mammals
exploring the canopy of old growth trees and
understory rich in shrubs, flowering plants and young, growing trees and a forest floor that
acts as a base layer feeding the entire ecosystem. It's down here that you
might occasionally hear a very special sound. The Capercaillie. Also known as the cock of the woods, this curious creature with
its iconic mating behavior is so rare that forest
wanderers are warned not to go looking for them because they have just a
few pockets of forests left. In Scotland, their numbers have fallen by an astonishing 97%
in the last 50 years, and recently they were estimated
at only 542 individuals. - Fraser and his team have an action plan that can bring back the Capercaillie, as well as countless other animals by transforming Scotland's green deserts into the lively bio diverse
ecosystems they used to be. But for this plan to work, one unexpected ingredient
is absolutely essential. Death. - What we need here is some disorder. We need to shake it up. We need a big storm to come
through and create some chaos, but these monoculture
plantations would stay like this for hundreds of years. So in order to disrupt this unnatural, organized human structure, we need to give nature a bit of a push or a pull. In the case you're wondering who we are, Planet Wild is a growing
community which anyone can join to help give back to nature through monthly missions like this one. So if you want to help restore nature, consider joining Planet Wild as a backer. There's a link in the description and more information at the end. Now back to the video. - Winching. (tree crackling) - During the cold winters
here at Abernathy, a revolutionary and controversial scheme of restructuring is underway. The team here are literally pulling down or winching, thousands
of trees every year. Uprooting them just like
a violent storm would. In fact, they're recreating storm paths through the plantation and
leaving a trail of deadwood in their wake. This is not destroying
a natural landscape, but sparking a new, wild forest
where nature can take over. All this deadwood is essential
to feed that new forest. So this restructuring project will give all living organisms
here room to breathe. - This approach to rewilding
certainly seemed radical and it did in fact stir
controversy at first. After all, aren't we
supposed to plant trees rather than felling them? But once you understand that Fraser's team is simply mimicking the natural process, it becomes clear that they're providing exactly what this landscape
needs to bounce back. - It's a break from the norm. A lot of people have grown
up seeing plantations and seeing what they think
a forest should look like. So us creating dead trees
is not normal for people. 'cause for me it was
against the norm, as well and then slowly but
surely, I got educated. I began to learn and see how a lot of life can start from this dead
wood that we're creating. - In nature, death brings life. When a tree like this
falls, it clears vital space for other organisms to inhabit and light can break through the canopy, meaning that tree
saplings and other plants can start to grow. But more than that, a dead
tree actually hosts more life than a living one. It becomes a home for millions
of microorganisms, fungi, and insects who kickstart
the entire food chain in a beautiful hodgepodge
of emergent life. - And so over time,
with just a little push, this will turn into this
and eventually into this. And of course, we wanted to help as well. That's why the Planet Wild
community is financing the rewilding of 30 hectares
of forest in Abernathy to turn even more monocultures
into wild habitats. The beauty of this work
is that the first effects will already be felt
within a few short months. As soon as spring and
then summer comes around, all these trunks will
start teaming with life, taking over this new
patchwork of microbit habitats with the diversity that
we all want to see. And you can now be part of
this transformation as well because we will sponsor one
extra square meter of forest to be restructured for every
comment we get on this video before the end of March. So go hit the comment
section and let's rewild even more forest together. And it starts right here. - Okay, to be honest,
it does not feel good to be uprooting and killing this tree, but just have to remember what it's for. Winching (tree cracking) With every fallen tree, a
process is being set into motion that will have an effect
far into the future. - Some things don't happen
tomorrow, or in my lifetime. It'll maybe happen in
my children's lifetime or even in my grandchildren's lifetime. They'll be the ones to see that
forest acting more naturally and being beautiful and not just being a really boring plantation. It's creating change which
gives an opportunity for nature to breathe and to grow and to flourish. - The vision of Fraser and his team is an amazing example, not
only of long-term thinking, but also of radically challenging
our approach to nature and finding new solutions to protect it. - You too can make our
planet a little wilder by joining Planet Wild as a backer. Together we can protect
endangered species, clean up our oceans and
rewild entire landscapes. As a member, you get to vote
on how we spend the money, connect with me and others on our Discord and see your own impact
in the Planet Wild App. So make sure to sign up today, there's a link in the description. And of course a big thank you goes out to all our existing Planet Wild members for making any of this possible. And you just unlocked your
new mission badge in the app. If you want to watch some more, go check out our two previous missions over here or down here. Alright, that's it from my side. See you all again next month. Over and out. (gentle music)
