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Part 1 - The North

Wild Land News no 66, Spring 2006

Rewilding our forests

Article

David Jarman

For many years the approach to Ben More's N.E. ridge involved an initial trudge through a conifer plantation with uncertain route-finding. FCS have acknowledged the problems, and although felling has improved matters, the contractors apparently forgot to remove their access prohibition signs when they had finished! Ben More is the highest peak in Scotland's first National Park and the N.E. ridge is arguably the finest direct route to its summit - the approach ought to be attractive and welcoming. Photo:John Digney

part 2 - the south

This was how Part 1 started - and it struck a chord, not only with SWLG members but also with Forestry Commission Scotland. Within weeks, we were invited to a session to replan Glen Doll (one of my six featured 'candidates'). Surely a WLN article can never have born fruit so fast - one for the global warming phenologists ?

The southern half of Scotland has suffered rather more invasion of popular mountain areas by forestry, notably in what is now the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. This is because it is more accessible, the hills are generally lower, and the terrain better suited to timber production (in fact, Argyll is most like the wet west coast of British Columbia where the sitka originates). There is less remote wild land to win back, so the emphasis is more on restoring open access to the hills - making it what we might call 'wild from the roadside', or simply a more natural mountain experience.

Indeed Nick Kempe (a former MCofS Chair and SNH Board Member) responded to Part 1 by telling us of his attempt to run the circuit of Glen Croe, from Ardgartan by Arrochar. This is not quite the 'Tranter round' of Glen Nevis, but still a very interesting proposition - The Brack, Donich, Beinn an Lochain, Ime, The Cobbler. Nick found it a considerably greater challenge than he had bargained for on the map, because (as I know only too well) there is no path at all from Ardgartan up the obvious SE ridge of The Brack. It only 'goes' by jinking and ducking and struggling, with thanks to the deer forcing their way. Then the forestry in Rest-and-be-thankful obstructs the crest of Ben Donich's NE ridge. And the descent of The Cobbler to Ardgartan is a mean and over-steep trod, squeezed by conifer branches to gully brinks.

What is needed here is not just paths up through dense forests, but a 'rewilding' of the whole of these fine noses, with open views and plenty of room to manoeuvre (and zig-zag freely) so that path erosion is less likely. The standard route up The Cobbler is already being freed up, and this must be extended to all the obvious 'desire lines' and prominent landforms. Commercial timber management can continue on the ordinary glen sides, although Glen Croe and others like it would be transformed if there were a shift to mixed native species.

Now for my own candidates for forest rewilding in southern Scotland - with comments from the FCS District Managers :

1. Galloway - here I must confess to almost utter ignorance, apart from one ascent of Corserine, and a wild-goat count on Mullwharchar in thick mist. Glen Trool forest is obviously popular, so my candidate here is the once-grand valley of the Gala Lane, which cuts right through the heart of the hills between Merrick and Corserine. If the conifers and the forest roads were pulled back, this would become truly remote and wild, almost a southern cousin to Feshie-Geldie as an off-road through route from Ayrshire to Galloway. Rob Soutar of FCS comments :

   The open hill land of the Merrick and Corserine is very wild in character and very challenging to the walker. The plantations at the Back Hill of the Bush are being restructured and downsized as a means to supplement the wildlife populations of the open hills (species such as blackgame and merlin benefit from increased forest edge and scrubby habitats). A wide corridor is being established to permanently link the open habitats of Rhinns and the Merrick Range, and considerable areas are being taken out of timber production to create "moorland fringe". Moorland fringe is essentially open semi natural habitat with up to 10% tree cover, ideally of native species but usually comprising mainly natural regeneration of conifers. I would not class this moorland fringe work as rewilding, as it may take interventions to ensure that parts of it are not swamped by spruce regeneration. FCS will also remove forest in the areas linking Lochs Riecawr and Macaterick and create moorland fringe along the Gala Lane floodplain north to Loch Doon. Although this Forest Design Plan will take 25 years to achieve, it is hoped that funding partners may assist in bringing part of this work forward (particularly in the Gala Lane area). We have no plans to decommission forest roads.

   This is encouraging, and will of course take time - but as we said in Part 1, controlling sitka regen and pulling back forest roads are the costly bits, and essential to the rewilding vision.

2. Cowal - well, where do you start, such is the density of forest cover, seemingly fingering into every side bay and through every lower hill pass? Back in the eighties, I made pilgrimage to our south-westernmost Highland Corbett, Beinn Bheula, and traversed across the deep pass occupied by Curra Lochain to take in a few more of the delectable, little visited Lochgoilhead tops. The traverse was notable for the worst black ice I've ever encountered, and for finding that beautiful pass had just been forestry-ploughed. Today, crossing it would be kind of annoying; even following it as a through way from Goil to Eck would be scenically much impaired. Gordon Donaldson of FCS responds:

   The Forest Design Plan for this area has the complete removal of all introduced conifers. It is expected that some areas towards the western end of the young planting will revert to native species following clearfell. Unfortunately due to the age of the trees in this area this work is not targeted to start for a further 15 years and would take some 10 years to complete.

   Another fine wee hill in this range (worth visiting for its dramatic rockslides) is Mullach Coir' a' Chuir. The way in from the foot of Hell's Glen is through conifer forest now being clear-felled, but still completely blocking the mouth of the hanging valley. Gordon comments :

   At the entrance to the forest there is a significant area of remnant native [oak] woodland, and it is hoped to allow this to develop over much of the area being felled. Further west some restocking will take place but this will be a much smaller area and at a much lower tree line. Indeed the coupe due to be felled in about 10 years, which has the highest tree line, will not be restocked in any way.

   More generally, he recognises our concerns and says : with regard to Forest Design Plans in this area, most if not all are indicating the reduction of non-native woodland and certainly a lowering of the planting line significantly downhill. Given that even the new National Park Plan more or less accepts blanket conifer as the established land use in Cowal, this is really quite radical. We can move on from establishing the principle to campaigning for priority and resources for FCS to do a thorough job. Here, our meeting with Rhona Brankin was helpful - she evidently sees the turn-around in what we want from our forests as one beacon of hope in our threatened landscape.

3. Crianlarich - seared onto my hard drive is the recollection of my first encounter with Bob Aitken, after a SCAC event at Bridge of Orchy. His philosophy of allowing no pause between road and summit was put to a stern test by the implacable barrier of sitka on the nose of the Cruach Ardrain circuit, but his will-to-power-up prevailed. I haven't been back to see if it has been made any easier, but forestry certainly impedes access to the classic ridge circuit of Ben More-Stobinian-Meall na Dige from the NE. There is a gate at the forest edge into the splendid hanging valley, but you have to be an Indian tracker to find the way to it, which includes quagmire-paths and fall-line chutes. In 'wild land' terms, this means that even though a large proportion of the range is open country, the existence of the forest (both visually as an artificial element in the mountainscape, and as an obstacle to be wrestled with at each end of the day) heavily overshadows the experience. It certainly took the edge off a camp-in with my sons to see the midsummer sunrise, not least when I got lost on the way out and we went round in a long circle. And when I remonstrated with FCS, their attitude then was that they were improving the forest walks, but couldn't comprehend the mad idea that anyone might actually want to get out of the forest onto the hill... Now, Donald McNeill comments :

   At Crianlarich we are about to update the two forest design plans that lie between Glen Dochart and the Cruach Ardrain/Ben More hills. One of the main things we will be looking at is how to improve access to the hills above the forest area and improve the landscaping of the forest to fit more sympathetically with the landscape in general. We will look at the main hill access books to help in identifying areas of the forest where hill access improvements are most needed. New forest roads in the Ben More block may be helping though they may cause some confusion when allied with older hill route books and the routes through the forest are not very well waymarked at present. Any feedback you can give us to help with the design plan would be much appreciated.

4. Ballachulish - this is Cowal writ large, with forestry filling many of the corries and side glens, and lapping over some of the cols and onto intermediate skylines. The various possible circuits of Beinn a' Bheithir have long been thus bedevilled; I would recommend the traverse of Fraochaidh over to Duror as particularly fine were it not for the forestry blots and obstacles in that glen. Again there are signs of hope - Donald comments :

   In the Ballachulish to Glen Duror area we are working on two mountain access routes which should do much to improve access onto the Horseshoe Ridge. The main forest design plan here is also due for an update next year, so we have another opportunity to take a more positive look at future hill access and landscape accordingly. It is likely that native species will become much more prominent in future plantings and that top edges will be drawn down to reflect better top edge shaping and concentrate timber production on the most suitable ground.

These are all public forests run by FE. I have also raised the issue of private forests, where one problem is that restocking to commercial standards is a condition of the whole grant-aid process. With timber prices low, some owners would be glad to abandon their forests as uneconomic, but they can't be seen to be getting away with it. Surely the solution here, where forestry pull-back and rewilding are desirable, is to ensure that the costs of doing it well are roughly equivalent to the costs of refencing and restocking.

One example is in lower Glen Etive, where private forestry is a considerable visual intrusion, and obstructs access to the Bidean and Beinn Fhionnlaidh ranges. Syd House at Perth advises that FCS and SNH are in discussion about reducing the extent of forest cover here.

Again, dear readers, your own prime candidates for rewilding and more open access are welcome - and if you can liaise for us with your local Forest District on their Design Plans, even better.

We have really put forestry under the spotlight in recent issues (and in our last couple of AGM field visits), so we will leave it fallow for a while, apart from reporting any specific progress. Such as - I attended a consultation in Dundee last month on the new Scottish Forestry Strategy, and am now working with its encouragingly-enlightened author Hugh Clayden on some 'rewilding' clauses (he has been known to climb above the forest edge, and indeed has first-hand awareness of Nick's near-impasse on The Brack). And while in Dundee I was able to brief an MCofS colleague, Dougal Roy, to input these ideas for us at the Glen Doll group. Policy and practice all in one day, can't be bad - watch those spaces.