Coille Ruigh na Cuileige: regeneration amidst dead pines

Practical results of our work

Coille Ruigh na Cuileige is a 50 hectare exclosure which was the first significant project we carried out with Forest Enterprise in Glen Affric. The fence was erected in 1990 to exclude grazing red deer. The site had a large number of seedlings, meaning that no planting was required. Since the fence was completed, no further management has been carried out to assist the return of the trees. The area has been left to allow natural regeneration to run its course. It is the only exclosure on Forest Enterprise land in Glen Affric where natural regeneration is the sole method of forest recovery.

Our original Coille Ruigh results page focuses on the regeneration of the champion pine in Coille Ruigh. In another part of the Coille Ruigh na Cuileige exclosure, three standing dead Scots pine snags provide a potent symbol for the historic decline of the forest, and the new generation of trees that the fence is enabling to grow there.

	The dead pines photographed at the time the Coille Ruigh fence was put up in 1990. Because of the grazing pressure from red deer, no young trees were able to grow.
	By September 2000, young Scots pines and birches are visible, regenerating naturally around the skeletons of the dead trees.
	By September 2007, after 17 years of protection, the young trees are well-established and are bringing a whole new generation of life to the area.
	March 2009, and an unusually heavy snow fall blankets the area. It is in conditions like this when unprotected young trees are most vulnerable to grazing by deer, but these trees here are safe, because the Coille Ruigh fence is still in good condition, more than 18 years after it was erected.

Pages about Coille Ruigh on this site

• Coille Ruigh na Cuileige 1990 - 2008 Caledonia Wild! Winter 2008-9
• Coille Ruigh na Cuileige Caledonia Wild! Winter 2007-8
• Coille Ruigh Survey Caledonia Wild! Spring 2002
• Botanical survey of Coille Ruigh na Cuileige Caledonia Wild! Summer 2001
• Plant species list for Coille Ruigh in Glen Affric
• Ten years of regeneration at Coille Ruigh Caledonia Wild! Summer 2000
• The Effects of Fencing on Natural Regeneration of Native Pinewood after Six Years in Coille Ruigh na Cuileige, Glen Affric
• A Survey of the Regeneration within a Native Pinewood, Coille Ruigh na Cuileige, with Particular Reference to Ground Vegetation
• Composition of Regenerating Woodland in Coille Ruigh, Autumn 2001
• Progress of the Champion Pine at Coille Ruigh
• Regrowth amidst snags at Coille Ruigh

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Published: 16 March 2004
Last updated: 25 August 2010