The Wild Heart of the Highlands
by Alan Watson Featherstone
The International Context
We live in a time when the Earth's life carrying capacity is being seriously diminished. All over the planet, natural ecosystems are being fragmented, degraded or completely destroyed at an unprecedented rate, because of the scale, intensity and impact of human activities. The consequences of this affect humans, through processes such as desertification, soil erosion, the effects of acid rain on lakes and forests etc., but the consequences are much more serious for many of our fellow species. Dramatic declines in wildlife populations, from tigers and primates to migratory songbirds and pelagic fish, are now a global phenomena, and many species, most of them unknown, are being pushed over the brink of extinction. Scientists estimate the current rate of species loss at 100 per day, or over 30,000 per year1, with most of this taking place in the tropical rainforests, where the organisms concerned may not even have been known to science.
A recent report by the World Resources Institute concluded that only 20% of the world's native forests still exist in a pristine state2, while research by WWF has shown that only 6% of the world's forests are officially protected, and in many cases that protection is on paper only, with the reality on the ground being different3. With every government on the planet still wedded to the doctrine of unlimited economic growth, this trend is set to continue unabated and the tentacles of our industrial culture are now grasping many of the last of the planet's untouched ecosystems, in such remote places as New Guinea, Siberia, southern Chile and the Zaôre River basin.
Most current environmental campaigns and initiatives are, rightly, focussed on attempting to prevent some of this damage from occurring, but even if they were all to be phenomenally successful and miraculously, all further degradation in the world were to stop, we would still be left with a world in a biologically impoverished and diminished condition. Thus the defensive conservation which forms the mainstay of present day environmental campaigns needs to be complemented, increasingly, by ecological restoration - the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems.
Ecological restoration is a relatively new field of study and practice, but in the last decade or so, projects have sprung up spontaneously in many countries as people respond to the need of the Earth for healing and help. Examples of restoration initiatives include such diverse programmes as the replanting of mangroves in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, to replace those destroyed by the war there4; the restoration of tall grass prairie to areas of abandoned farmland in the Midwest of the USA5; the work of Daniel Janzen and others to restore tropical dry forest in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica6; and the reintroduction of extirpated wildlife species to parts of their former range, such as the return of the sea eagle and red kite to Scotland7, the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho in the USA, and the return of Arabian oryx to the wild in Oman.
Many of these are pioneering projects, as humanity learns to do something completely new - to give back to the rest of nature, and to our fellow species, instead of only taking more and more, like the giant parasite on the planet which our industrial culture has been compared to. As such, they form a good beginning, but ecological restoration needs to become a much more significant activity in the years ahead, if we are to pass on a healthy, biologically diverse world to the generations which follow.
Scotland - a prime candidate for ecological restoration
Scotland provides a particularly potent example of a land in need of ecological restoration. The predominant terrestrial ecosystem there since the last Ice Age was forest, but today 99% of the original forests are gone, and the surviving patches consist mainly of scattered fragments in a poor condition. Gone too are most of our large mammal species - the bear, wolf, moose, lynx, wild boar, beaver, aurochs (or wild cattle) and reindeer have all been extirpated in the last 1,000 years or so. Other, smaller less spectacular species (eg plants, fungi, lichens etc) have undoubtedly also been lost, but we have no records of them, while many other forest-dependent species, ranging from pine martens and crossbills to bluebells and twayblades, must have suffered massive declines with the loss of their native habitats.
Scots pines reflected in a tranquil section of Loch Affric in Glen Affric
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Because most of the deforestation took place centuries, or longer, ago, the plight of the Caledonian Forest was little known until relatively recently. The publication of Steven & Carlisle's book, 'The Native Pinewoods of Scotland' in 19598 was a landmark in drawing attention to the Scots pine-dominated boreal component of the Caledonian Forest, and experimental work to facilitate the regeneration of some of the old forest remnants, for example in Glen Affric, began soon after that.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of factors, including the increase in conservation awareness, changes to government forestry grant schemes and, in some cases, changes in land ownership, resulted in many more forest regeneration schemes being initiated. From Beinn Eighe to Rannoch, and from Strathfarrar to Abernethy, the decline of the ancient pinewoods began to be addressed in many of the best forest remnants.
Beyond the original range of Scots pine, work also began to regenerate the broadleaved components of the Caledonian Forest - for example in the birchwoods of Inverpolly and in some of the oakwoods of Lochaber and Argyll.
This trend has accelerated in the 1990s, as the cause of Scotland's native forests has been taken up by an increasing number of both organisations and landowners, and public awareness, particularly of the pinewoods, is now quite widespread. The Millennium Forest for Scotland project, a lottery-funded initiative put together by a consortium of conservation organisations, is providing a national framework for the restoration of Scotland's native forests, and marks a significant step forward.
However, despite all the progress which has been made in recent years, most of the forest regeneration schemes to date have been relatively small in scale and uncoordinated from each other. While many of the remnants of the native pinewoods now have regeneration measures underway in them, they are still isolated from each other, and their size will not increase dramatically beyond their present extent.
To restore a true forest, rather than just a few pockets of natural woodland here and there, we need a vision, and action, on a larger, more coherent and coordinated scale. In order for native forests to have a viable future, they need to exist on a substantial scale, much greater than at present, in which all the natural ecological processes such as fire, storm damage, predation and regeneration, can occur freely again. The evolution of our forest ecosystems, and all their constituent species, has been interrupted by their dramatic decline, and this needs to be renewed, not just for the sake of Scotland, but also for the wellbeing and biological health of the planet.
A Vision for The Wild Heart of the Highlands
Because of its low population density and relatively large open spaces, the Highlands provides a number of opportunities for the return of our native forests on a large scale. The RSPB, for example, has highlighted Deeside, Strathspey and the upper Beauly catchment as priorities for restoration of the native pinewoods9.
At Trees for Life we have been envisioning and working for over 10 years now on a project to define one such opportunity, and to return a large contiguous part of the Highlands to a condition of natural forest. We have identified an area north of the Great Glen, encompassing approximately 238,000 hectares (2,238 square kilometres) or 918 square miles, as offering an ideal site for this. Stretching from Glen Moriston and Glen Shiel in the southwest, this area includes Glens Affric, Cannich, Strathfarrar, Orrin, Strathconon and extends to Glen Carron (Map 1). It is defined by the following roads, which enclose it:- the A831 from Drumnadrochit to Cannich and on to Beauly; the A812 and A835 from Beauly to Garve; the A832 from Garve to Achnasheen; the A890 from Achnasheen to where it joins the A87 at Loch Duich, and from there the A87 and A887 to Invermoriston; the A82 from Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit.
The criteria which in our view make this area eminently suitable for the restoration of a large contiguous native forest include the following:
It contains 3 of the best remnants of the native pinewoods of the Caledonian Forest, in Glen Affric, Glen Cannich and Glen Strathfarrar, while there are also smaller areas of native forest in Glen Moriston and at Achnashellach.
There are no roads passing through the area, although some single track roads do penetrate into it.
The area contains a mountain core (including the highest peak in Scotland north of the Great Glen - Carn Eige), as well as various lochs and rivers, and these, together with the surviving forest remnants and other habitats such as peat bogs, mean that it has all the necessary physical components for a wild, natural landscape.
The area is, for the most part, remote.
There are very few people living in the area, although there are a number of villages and towns on the perimeter.
Economic activity within the area is limited, and comprises mainly deer stalking, with sheep farming and commercial forestry in some parts.
The area is large enough to support populations of Scotland's extirpated mammal species (eg beaver, lynx, wolf, moose, bear etc) - their reintroduction is essential for the overall health and wellbeing of the forest ecosystem.
Within this area, we envision a core wilderness of 600 - 700 square miles, where the natural ecosystems (mainly forest) will be restored for their own sake, not for human exploitation, in what we term the 'Wild Heart of the Highlands'.
It is this goal, of restoring a large wild forest, and a true wilderness, which differentiates Trees for Life from other forest conservation groups. Most other forest regeneration initiatives are focussed around reestablishing a 'resource' which will be available for human use, ie extraction, albeit of a more sustainable sort than most of the commercial forestry practised in Scotland today. While we recognise that the sustainable use of native forests is essential for the creation of a viable human culture in Scotland, we believe it is also imperative to have large areas of native forests which are undisturbed in an extractive sense. In a world in which humans are utilising more and more of the Earth and her biological richness for our own ends, natural, wild ecosystems are necessary to provide living space for our fellow species if they are to survive into the future. In addition, wilderness provides a source of spiritual nourishment and inspiration to humanity, and the absence of this has contributed to a cultural impoverishment in our present day society, with all its problems of crime, violence, alienation from nature etc. Finally, if we are going to have sustainable forestry utilising native forests in Scotland, this will only be successful if it is modelled on the functioning of a natural forest ecosystem. Therefore, from a purely utilitarian point of view, we will also require substantial areas of wild natural forest to provide such a model. It is not an either/or situation - there is plenty of space in the Highlands to promote larger scale sustainable use of native forests and to have substantial areas of wild forest - we need both to secure the future wellbeing of people and Nature in Scotland.
Surrounding the wilderness core in our proposal, near the perimeter roads and villages, we envisage buffer zones of forest, also comprised of native species, where sustainable management for local use would be carried out. This will increase the extent of the natural habitats, while at the same time providing a livelihood and resource for local people. Such a strategy, including core areas of wilderness, surrounded by buffer zones and linked by ecological corridors, is now being developed for various parts of North America, and we believe that there is plenty for scope for its application throughout the Highlands as well10.
The area which Trees for Life is concentrating on is not the only one in the Highlands where native forest can be regenerated on a large scale, but we believe that it offers one of the best opportunities for restoring a true wilderness. For example, in contrast to somewhere like the Cairngorms, there are fewer conflicts in terms of other land uses, while the area contains a larger extent of native forest than other candidate sites such as Knoydart or the far northwest. Ideally, our project will be one of several in future, so that large extents of native forest are restored to various locations throughout the Highlands.
Strategy for the return of the forest on a large scale
Our strategy for returning native forest to this area is guided by a set of principles of ecological restoration (Table 1), which we have developed as our practical work has progressed. These principles are neither exclusive to Trees for Life - other ecological restoration projects elsewhere use similar approaches - nor are they exhaustive; rather, like the return of the forest itself, they are a 'work in progress', which evolve and grow over time. This strategy is based on the premise that 'Nature knows best', in contrast to what has been described as 'the arrogance of humanism' - the misguided belief that humans, with our short history in the world, can manipulate natural ecosystems more advantageously than Nature herself, where evolutionary forces have taken millions of years to develop ecosystems to their present day level of sophisticated interdependence.
Our starting point has been to work outwards from where the native forest is closest to its natural state, so our project has so far been mainly concentrated in Glen Affric, and to a lesser extent Glen Cannich, to extend the native pinewoods there. Our strategy for the return of the forest is threefold, and the first element is to facilitate the natural regeneration and expansion of the existing remnants, by redressing the present imbalance between too few trees and too many grazing animals. By fencing red deer out of areas on the periphery of the old forest, tree seedlings can grow naturally to maturity again without being over-grazed for the first time, in most places, in about 100 - 150 years. This is the simplest and best method of regenerating the forest, as it involves the minimum of intervention and allows nature to do most of the work, which is one of the basic principles of ecological restoration.
Berry-laden rowan trees beside the Allt na Imrich stream in Glen Affric
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However, this only works for locations where there is an existing seed source nearby, which is not the case in the treeless expanses which make up most of the Highlands today.
The second part of our strategy comes into effect in these situations, and it involves planting native trees in barren areas where the forest has disappeared completely. To do this, we collect seed from the nearest surviving trees, to maintain the local genetic variation in the forest. The resulting seedlings are then planted in a random, non-linear pattern inside fenced exclosures, replicating the distribution of tree seedlings from similar locations where they are regenerating naturally.
We are working with all of the native trees from the forest, and are paying particular attention to the pioneer species, such as birch, rowan and aspen, as they have an important role to play in the succession of the forest as it gets reestablished.
The third part of our strategy involves the felling of non-native trees, which in some areas have been planted as a commercial crop amongst the old trees of the Caledonian Forest remnants, thereby preventing their regeneration. These felled exotics are not extracted, but instead are left to decompose in situ, so that the nutrients they contain are retained within the forest ecosystem, instead of being exported and not replaced.
Combining these three strategies, our intention is to reestablish areas, or 'islands', of healthy young forest scattered throughout the barren, deforested glens. As these new trees reach seed-bearing age they will form the nuclei for an expanded natural regeneration in the surrounding area (Map 2 shows this 'island' approach developed for the West Affric Estate, where we are implementing a forest restoration strategy with the estate owners, the National Trust for Scotland). While the trees in these 'islands' are growing, it will be important to reduce the numbers of deer, so that the forest restoration process can become self-sustaining, without the need for further fences. At that stage, we expect that the existing fences can also be dismantled, so that the human intrusion into the landscape can be minimised, and more of a quality of wilderness restored.
As most of the glens in our target area run from southwest to northeast, our goal is to reestablish natural forest in them along the length of the glens, using this 'island' method as a starting point, and then to link the forest patches from glen to glen, wherever there are passes below the natural tree line. This will not be possible in the core of the area, as the mountains there reach well above the tree line of 600 metres (2,000 feet), but the buffer zones which we envisage on the periphery of the wilderness core will also provide a means of linking up the forest from glen to glen.
The forest, of course, is much more than just trees - it is an entire community of plants, animals, birds, insects, fungi, micro-organisms etc. - but the return of the trees, and especially the Scots pine, which is a keystone species in the ecosystem, is an essential prerequisite to provide the habitat for the other parts of the forest community. As the trees grow, some of the other woodland species will return by themselves. Seeds will be blown in by the wind or carried in by birds, and flying insects and birds will move in as soon as there is habitat for them. The interconnected web of life which makes up the living community of the forest will thus begin to reestablish itself. Other species will need to be physically reintroduced to the regenerating forest, as and when the habitat can support them - for example, wood ants may need to be translocated into some of the 'islands' of new forest, as they would be unlikely to recolonise them naturally if they are separated from existing mature forest by considerable distances of open ground.
In the longer term, we advocate the reintroduction all the locally-extinct large mammals. Those species, and particularly the predators at the top of the food chain, such as the brown bear, the lynx and the wolf, are essential to maintain the overall health and balance of the forest ecosystem, and there will never be a healthy, natural wild forest without them.
Progress to date
In the 10 years since our project started, considerable progress has been made towards achieving our goal, both by ourselves and by others (who may not necessarily have our larger goal in mind when they carry out forest regeneration work on their own land, but which nonetheless acts as a step along the way to fulfilling our vision!). We began practical work in 1989 when we contacted two landowners in Glen Cannich and carried out some small scale protection measures for naturally-regenerating Scots pine seedlings in forest remnants there - in each case, the landowners subsequently fenced deer out of larger areas there, although Trees for Life was not directly involved in that phase of the work.
Forest regeneration work was begun in Glen Affric in the early 1960s, when the Forestry Commission fenced an area of 800 hectares on the south side of the glen, and there is now a healthy new generation of trees there today. However, by the 1980s their effort had become stalled due to lack of funds and this provided an opportunity for Trees for Life. Beginning a partnership with Forest Enterprise (as it now is) in 1989, we planned and funded (with grant assistance from the Nature Conservancy Council, now Scottish Natural Heritage) a number of exclosures covering 140 hectares for both natural regeneration and planting of native trees, principally Scots pine. Our work to date on Forest Enterprise land in Affric has included the planting of over 140,000 trees, protection of more than 100,000 naturally-regenerating Scots pine seedlings, the felling of thousands of non-native conifers and surveying and mapping the extent of natural forest regeneration and the locations of rare tree species.
We also made proposals for an extensive range of other restoration work on Forest Enterprise land in Affric and, subsequent to the launching of Forest Enterprise's own Caledonian Forest initiative (which covers other Caledonian Forest remnants they own, in addition to Affric), many of these have been, or are being, carried out. With the aid firstly of LIFE funding from the European Union and more recently, lottery funding from the Millennium Forest for Scotland Trust, extensive work on Forest Enterprise land in Affric has resulted in the fencing of 637 hectares for natural regeneration and planting of native trees, and the felling of 807 hectares of introduced non-native conifer plantations for subsequent restoration as native forest. In 1994, Forest Enterprise also declared the entire 9,000 hectares of their landholding in Affric as a Caledonian Forest Reserve, to be managed primarily for conservation.
In 1993 we acted as a catalyst for the purchase of the West Affric Estate, encompassing the almost-treeless headwaters of the Affric River, by the National Trust for Scotland. As outlined above (see map 2), we have developed with NTS a comprehensive scheme for forest regeneration on West Affric, which, when combined some regeneration measures on the Trust's neighbouring Kintail property, will extend the contiguous area of native forest through to the west coast at Loch Duich. We've also made proposals to the owners of the two private landholdings in Affric - the Glen Affric Estate, and Wester Guisachan Estate - and both of them are now carrying out some forest regeneration work on their land. As a result of all this, the entire Affric River watershed should be substantially restored to a condition of natural forest in the next 30-50 years, thereby making it unique in the Highlands, and probably the whole UK.This will also mark a significant milepost in terms of our larger goal of forest restoration, as it will form a continuous corridor of native forest stretching southwest-northeast for over 25 miles.
Meanwhile, private landowners, sometimes in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage, have been carrying out forest regeneration work on some of the native pinewood remnants in Glen Cannich and Strathfarrar, and, to a lesser extent, in other parts of our target area. These two glens, like Affric, offer the opportunity of extending the existing forest along the length of the glens, from the northeast (where the remnants are mostly concentrated) to the southwest. In the south of our target area, Glen Moriston also contains some good forest remnants, but work there to date has been on a smaller scale. However, Trees for Life will be carrying out a native pinewood planting scheme on the Balnacarn Estate there next year, which will help with the establishment of a forest corridor connecting Glen Moriston to Glen Affric, and this will be a key step in linking up the forest areas between the main glens.
Alder and birch trees beside the Allt na Imrich stream in autumn, Glen Affric
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In Glen Affric, with restoration of the main pinewood areas and regeneration of the forest fragments in the upper reaches of Affric River now well underway, we have expanded our work to include specific components of the forest ecosystem which have received little attention to date. Thus, we have initiated projects to facilitate the regeneration of the montane shrub community at the natural tree line, through the protection of areas of dwarf birch (Betula nana), and for the restoration of forest to the riparian zone along the upper Affric River, where eared willow and alder have been prevented from growing by the excessive grazing pressures.
Other projects include mapping locations where the rarer tree species (aspen, holly, hazel, oak, juniper, etc.) of the forest community occur, and taking steps to secure their regeneration.
With aspen this involves a programme of propagation from root sections from parent stands of aspen, while we have protected individual seedlings of both hazel and oak in Glen Affric. In the case of hazel, we have also collected seed from the mature trees in the glen, and planted the seedlings grown from them just west of some of the last trees, thereby extending hazel's range in Affric in a way which mimics what would be its natural spread.
Another key aspect in achieving our longer term goal of restoring a wild forest to our target area is a reduction in the numbers of deer, so that tree regeneration becomes viable again without the need for further fences. There has been less progress with this in general to date, although there are a few notable exceptions amongst the main landowners, including Forest Enterprise, who are implementing a vigorous cull on their land in Affric. In addition, a deer management subgroup has been set up for Affric, including all the landowners in the glen and those whose land adjoins Affric. One of its stated objectives is to take measures to ensure that forest regeneration becomes possible without fences, but how this will acted upon in practice by some of the more traditional estates in the group remains to be seen. As Trees for Life is not a landowner in the area, we are not represented directly on this group, although our partner organisations, Forest Enterprise and the National Trust for Scotland, are on it and advocate similar objectives to us.
Research is an important component of our work as well, both into the ecology of the Caledonian Forest and the relative effectiveness of different approaches to forest restoration. Compared to natural forests in other parts of the world, such as Scandinavia or the Pacific Northwest of the USA, the Caledonian Forest and the inter-relationships which comprise the ecosystem, are relatively little-studied - this is not surprising perhaps, since there is so little of the original forest left. Evidence for how much remains to be learned about the forest comes from, for example, the beetle study commissioned by the RSPB for their Abernethy Reserve, which resulted in the discovery of a species previously unknown to science, and the discovery in Glen Affric in March 1997, by researchers from the Forestry Commission's Northern Research Station, of a globally-threatened lichen species, forked-hair lichen (Bryoria furcellata), which is only known from a handful of other locations in the country.
We have been successful in establishing links with a number of universities, and undergraduates from Aberdeen, Edinburgh (and this summer, Stirling) are or have been involved in studies covering subjects such as the density of naturally regenerating Scots pine seedlings and their growth rates after protection from grazing; comparison of mycorrhizal fungi populations in naturally-regenerating and planted Scots pine seedlings; the factors determining the relative growth rates of Scots pine seedlings planted in a completely deforested and exposed area; and the volume of dead wood in remnants of mature native pinewood.
Meanwhile, a PhD student from Cambridge University is carrying out a 3 year study into the nitrogen cycling of Scots pines which have been planted since 1990 in Glen Affric, and two PhD. students from Stirling University are carrying out a paleoenvironmental research project to determine the vegetation history of West Affric, and the reasons for the near-total disappearance of the forest there.
Complementing the research into the ecology of the forest, we are also involved in monitoring of the effectiveness of the various regeneration and planting schemes taking place in Glen Affric. We see our work as being very much that of a pilot project, helping to pioneer the techniques of ecological restoration which will need to be applied on a larger scale in future, both in Scotland and elsewhere in the world, so monitoring of the results forms a important part of our overall objectives.
Obstacles and challenges
Despite the progress which has been made, significant challenges remain before our goal can be accomplished. However, because of the scale of the project and the lifespan of the trees themselves, we have to think in terms of 250 years or more, so there is plenty of time to overcome the obstacles!
One of the most important of these is that we have to rely on reaching agreement with landowners in order to be able to carry out forest regeneration work in our target area. While some landowners are quite supportive, and indeed have carried out regeneration measures on their own initiative in some cases, others are still firmly wedded to, and financially dependent upon, the traditional estate management practices of deer stalking, sheep farming etc. and are therefore unwilling to contemplate any active forest restoration measures such as fencing and/or increased levels of deer culling.
However, as time goes by we see that there is a shift taking place, with even some of the more reluctant landowners recognising that it is in the interests of the deer, and therefore themselves, to have more forest on their land again. Additionally, because of the heightened public awareness of the Caledonian Forest, new owners of land (and the 3 privately-held estates in Glen Affric, for example, have all changed hands since 1991) are, in general, more open and willing to implement forest regeneration measures. We expect this movement to continue as the benefits of native forest restoration become apparent in the years ahead.
Another obstacle to the full implementation of our vision concerns conflicting land use interests. What will happen, we are sometimes asked, to the people who currently make their livelihood out of deer stalking, sheep farming etc.? The deer stalking question is a simple one, because deer will need to be culled, and indeed at an increased level, well into the foreseeable future, even after a wolf reintroduction takes place. Any reintroduced wolves will be small in numbers, and will make little dent in the reduction of red deer numbers from 300,000 to 200,000 which is advocated by organisations such as Scottish Natural Heritage and the Red Deer Commission.
The issue of sheep farming is not so clear cut, and it may well be that some small scale sheep husbandry will always continue in the buffer zones surrounding our proposed core wilderness area. However, sheep farming in the remoter core is only possible at present because of subsidies from the government and the European Union. In reality, this amounts to the subsidy of the ongoing depletion of the soil and vegetation, as the sheep eat the nutrients of the land and their carcasses are exported to the surrounding towns, or further south, thereby representing a permanent additional loss to our already impoverished land. We believe it would be much better to use the same subsidies to support the rehabilitation of the land, through restoration of the native forest community, and if the necessary funding is redirected to this, it could provide employment opportunities to replace some of those lost by a decline in sheep farming.
The proposed reintroduction, or more correctly reinstatement, of extirpated fauna, such as the beaver, lynx, wolf and brown bear, is a controversial issue, which is seen by many as an obstacle to our larger vision being fulfilled. The wolf and the beaver are the two species most often quoted in this regard, but the goal of reestablishing populations of these and other missing species is not just wishful thinking on the part of Trees for Life and other conservation groups11. Under Article 22 of the EC Habitats and Species Directive (EC92/43), the government is required to consider reintroducing species which have become extinct in the UK, and Scottish Natural Heritage is currently carrying out an investigation into the possible return of the beaver12.
Along with 20 other people representing a variety of interests, from conservation to forestry and fishing, I took part in a study tour to visit a beaver reintroduction site in Brittany, France in February 1996. Based on the experience there, and that in Norway, where ecological conditions more closely resemble Scotland, the general consensus amongst the participants on the tour was that the return of beavers to Scotland is feasible, and can be achieved without unduly affecting the interests of other groups such as anglers etc. The outcome of the Scottish Natural Heritage feasibility study still remains to be seen, but I would expect that a beaver reintroduction will take place within the next 10 years, at which time Scotland will finally catch up with the other 13 European countries which have reintroduced beavers since the 1920s.
Recent research by the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute indicated that out of 1,000 people questioned, 66% of the general public were in favour of a beaver reintroduction, as were 60% of those local to the Glen Affric area, and a large number were prepared to contribute something financially towards the cost of the reintroduction13. The same survey found that only 36% of the general public and 17% of people local to the Glen Affric area favoured the return of the wolf. This is unsurprising, given the generally negative public image of the wolf, and the concerns of sheep farmers for the safety of their livestock.
What the beaver and wolf have in common is that, ecologically at least, both species could be reintroduced to selected parts of the Highlands without the restoration of any more native forest. Adequate riparian forest habitat already exists for beavers in some locations, while the wolf, as a highly adaptable mammal (second only to humans) can thrive in the complete absence of trees (as it does in the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada and Russia) as long as it has sufficient prey, which it does in the Highlands in the form of red deer. The problems with the return of the wolf therefore are not ecological ones, but are instead cultural, social and economic issues.
While some of the cultural and social issues around the wolf, such as its purported drooling fangs and propensity for eating children, are products of its image in our fairy tales and werewolf legends, which are not borne out in reality, the concerns of sheep farmers on the other hand are legitimate and will need to be addressed fairly and squarely before any wolf reintroduction can be seriously considered. However, given the likely withdrawal or reduction in sheep farming subsidies, potential wolf-sheep conflicts may be reduced in future. There is also much to be learned from other European countries, such as Italy, Spain and Portugal where wolves and farmers co-exist. We believe that solutions can be found, if there is a desire to do so, and that the main work for wolf advocates in the years ahead is educational, to inform the general public and farmers alike about the true nature of wolves and their role in the Caledonian Forest ecosystem.
One of the main arguments advocated for reintroducing wolves is their potential role in reducing the red deer population. While they would undoubtedly have some effect in this regard, it is likely, as mentioned above, to be minimal compared to the overall reduction which is required. However, there are a number of other contributions which wolves would make to the wellbeing of the forest ecosystem which are likely to be much more significant. For instance, rather than the quantity of their kills making a major impact, it will be the quality which is important, for by taking the weak, the old and sick deer, wolves, like all predators, will actively improve the health of their prey population. This is something, which despite statements to the contrary, cannot easily be duplicated by stalkers - ones I have spoken to have professed an inability to identify individual hinds in a herd, so they have no means of distinguishing the most suitable animals to cull.
In addition, wolves, in common with other large predators, are only successful in a small proportion of their attempted kills. In the unsuccessful attempts all the deer escape, and in doing so their fitness is enhanced, and they are flushed out of areas where they have been grazing. This will be particularly significant in winter, when deer shelter in the forest, and most of the damage is done to young trees - every attempted kill will flush the deer out of the trees and thereby provide an enhanced opportunity for seedling regeneration to be successful.
One other important benefit of a wolf reintroduction for the forest concerns the closed loop nutrient cycle within natural ecosystems, whereby nutrients are cycled around and around. One of the ways in which humanity has divorced itself from the rest of Nature is by breaking these cycles, and an example of this in the Highlands at present is deer stalking and the 'extraction' of the resultant carcasses. As in the case of sheep farming referred to above, this extraction represents a permanent net loss of nutrients to our already impoverished ecosystems. While an individual deer carcass may not make much difference in this regard, the cumulative effect of thousands of deer each year for the 150 years or so since the rise of sporting estates has contributed to the ongoing decline of the land in the Highlands, and continues to do so. Natural predation by wolves on the other hand would not only retain the nutrients within the ecosystem itself, but would also avoid the environmental problems (eg damage to ground vegetation, pollution from engine exhausts and noise) which are created by the all terrain vehicles used in much of the current commercial stalking.
For a wolf reintroduction to be ultimately successful, however, the area which we envision being restored to wilderness would not, by itself, be adequate. It could not support a genetically viable population of a large mammal such as the wolf, or indeed other extirpated species such as the lynx, brown bear and the moose, which require large areas of habitat in which to live. Thus, there is a need to establish other large tracts of native forest ecosystems, which would be linked by 'biological corridors' of natural habitat, thereby providing a much greater total area within which genetically viable populations of these large mammals could be sustained. Possible areas which could link up in this way with our project include Beinn Eighe/Torridon and Knoydart, both of which currently have some forest restoration work proceeding in them.
The final challenge to the fulfilment of our larger vision which I would like to address concerns the cultural changes which will be necessary for wilderness restoration to be achieved on a large scale, both here in Scotland and elsewhere in the world. The underlying trend of our western consumer culture is towards the utilisation of the entire planet for human material gain - this is what is leading to the exploitation of the last untouched forests in the world, and to the extinction of so many species each year. Although conservation groups and initiatives have been successful in getting some areas protected from 'development', in most cases those fall into the category of 'rocks and ice' - the parts of the planet which cannot be exploited commercially on an extractive basis, and which our industrial culture, with its insatiable appetite for raw materials etc, can afford to 'give up'.
In contrast to this, for wilderness, and wilderness restoration, to have a future on the Earth, we need as a culture to be willing to step back from using everything on the planet for our own material gain, and to 'give some of the planet back', so to speak, to our fellow species and the habitats they need to live in. This, of course, is anathema to many people, who vigorously oppose conservationist attempts to 'lock up their land' and prevent them from making a living off it. This attitude is quite prevalent in the Highlands today, and is one of the main reasons why Scotland is still one of the very few countries in the world which has no national parks, and why the Cairngorms have still not been declared a World Heritage Site. We do not underestimate the scale of the task here in overcoming this attitude to allow the establishment of a true wilderness on the scale which we envision.
The implications of this shift, of course, affect many aspects of our lives, for we each will need to live more simply, and demand less of Nature and the Earth in our daily lives, to make it happen. Becoming vegetarian or vegan, for example, would free up large areas of land, both here and abroad, which currently are used to convert vegetable protein to animal protein at an efficiency of 10% or less. Choosing not to eat meat or animal products means that each person needs one tenth of the land area to provide their protein requirements, and the land which is freed up by this could be used for the restoration of natural forests14.
To return our target area to a true condition of wilderness will also require radical steps such as the removal of roads, dams, power lines etc, and subjects such as these don't appear on many people's agendas at present. However, in other countries these sorts of issues are openly discussed and groups are quite public about advocating them - in the USA for example there are conservation groups specifically dedicated to the removal of roads15, while in Tasmania there is a grass-roots movement working for the dismantling of the dam which flooded Lake Pedder in the World Heritage area in the southwest of the state16.
Most importantly of all, however, the success of wilderness restoration on a large scale will be predicated on a renewed respect or reverence for Nature. When we once again recognise the sacred in the natural world around us, instead of mere 'resources' to be exploited, we will begin to live the principles of deep ecology; providing space for our fellow species to once again live freely in wild landscapes will become an important part of our culture.
Conclusion
I believe that there is a profound change taking place within the conservation movement as we approach the end of the century. Instead of just being reactive, and opposing the destruction of the natural world, many individuals and organisations are developing a proactive, positive approach to envision and help create a future in which humanity once again lives in harmony with Nature. Trees for Life was declared the UK Conservation Project of the Year in 1991, and I believe that a major reason for this was because of the positive vision we hold, and are implementing, of a return of the Caledonian Forest on a large scale. Ranging from the proponents of Deep Ecology to the advocates of renewable energy systems and from the Voluntary Simplicity movement to the proliferation of environmental groups all around the world, the beginnings of a truly viable human culture, based on renewed respect for and conscious interdependence with nature, are taking shape.
I believe that ecological restoration has an essential and central role to play in this, and at Trees for Life we see our work, and that of similar restoration initiatives elsewhere, as pioneering the techniques and skills which will be utilised on a much greater scale in the years ahead. Indeed, I expect that the healing of the Earth will become the major focus for humanity, and the shared task for the world community of nations, in the next century. Once we've matured beyond our culture's present fixation on material wealth, as we surely must in the near future if we and the planet are to survive, then we will recognise that our true wellbeing depends on a healthy planet, with intact ecosystems. At that stage I anticipate that major resources, including substantial government funding and indeed military personnel, will be redirected to assist in ecological restoration projects worldwide. I hope that our work here in Scotland will help to ensure that we're ready when that time comes.
Alan Watson Featherstone, Founder and Executive Director of Trees for Life
References
1. Raven, Paul 1987 We're Killing Our World: The Global Ecosystem in Crisis Occasional Paper. Chicago: MacArthur Foundation.
2. Bryant , Dirk; Nielsen, Daniel; Tangley, Laura 1997 Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge World Resources Institute
3. WWF News Release 1997 94 per cent of world's forests unprotected World Wide Fund for Nature
4. Collins, Mark ed. 1990 The Last Rainforests Mitchell Beazley, London
5. Berger, John J. 1979 Restoring the Earth Alfred A. Knopf Inc. Wolf, Edward C. 1987 On the Brink of Extinction: Conserving the Diversity of Life. Worldwatch Paper 78. Worldwatch Institute
6. Cherfas, Jeremy 1986 'How to grow a tropical forest' New Scientist, October 23, 1986 Maslow, Jonathan. 1987 'Doctor Dry-forest' BBC Wildlife, December Vol. 5 No. 12 McGhie, Juliet A. 1987 'Reclaiming a Natural Legacy' The Ecologist, Vol. 17 No. 4/5
7. Lawson, Trevor 1995. 'Nought to 190 in just six years' BBC Wildlife, June 1995
8. Steven H. M. & Carlisle A. 1959.
The Native Pinewoods of Scotland Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh.
9. RSPB 1993 Time for Pine: A future for Caledonian pinewoods Sandy
10. Noss, Reed 1993 'The Wildlands Project: Land Conservation Strategy' Wild Earth Special issue - The Wildlands Project
11. Macdonald D.W., Tattersall F.H., Brown E.D., & Balharry, D 1995. 'Reintroducing the European beaver to Britain: Nostalgic meddling or restoring biodiversity?' Mammal Review 25: 161-200
12. Cooper, Mairi 1996 Reintroducing European beavers to Scotland Scottish Natural Heritage Information and Advisory Note No. 55
13. Macmillan, Douglas C. 1996 Reintroducing the beaver and wolf to Scotland: A survey of the general public Macaulay Land Use Research Institute
14. Janaway, Kathleen 1991 Abundant living in the coming age of the tree Movement for Compassionate Living Leatherhead
15. Scarborough, K and Klungeness, K. 1994 Developing Roads Scholars Wild Earth, Vol. 4 No. 2 Havlick D. and Walder, B. 1996 Road RIPort #5 Wild Earth, Vol. 6 No. 3
16. Gee, H. 1994 Pulling the plug on Pedder Habitat (Australia), Vol. 22 No. 2
This article originally appeared in ECOS, the quarterly journal of the British Association of Nature Conservationists, volume 18, number 2, and we are grateful to ECOS for their permission to reproduce it here.
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Published: April 2001
Last updated: 26 January 2010