UKH

An article on the BBC website about Glencoe mountain rescue showing some barren landscape. Is it all down to deer stalking? ........and we wonder why nature is depleted. We get what we deserve it makes me think. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66856371

A bit more complicated than that. You can also add sheep farming, grouse shooting, and a wildly unequal land ownership that allows eco-damaging field sports-led land management practises to cover absolutely vast areas: not so much a patchwork of land uses as a monopoly/monoculture. In addition some climate changes have occurred since Scotland was heavily naturally forested (it's wetter and cooler now).

All that said, poorly controlled deer populations are the big one. Only where deer numbers are more sensitively (ie very tightly) managed or deer are fenced out does woodland regeneration stand a chance.

I would say our current tolerance for the excesses of the stalking and grouse shooting industries represents a huge national failure. Scottish Government should have got to grips with it years ago, and if we're serious about increasing biodiversity, restoring degraded habitats and mitigating climate change then it's got to happen.    

In fairness if you massively increased the amount of stalking for a while then we might see a bit of the upland forest regenerate!

One of Dave MacLeod's videos includes a bit with him ruminating about this, because he is one of the few people who finds themself in steep enough landscape to see the bits deer can't get to.

Even the historic upland forest that has survived the clearances and deer was the product of earlier pastural grazing - with cattle especially moved up to shielings in the summer. This style of forest is very low density compared to what we typically think of as forest.

Totally agree with what you say. You only need to compare the likes of the denuded North Chesthill Estate Munros in Glen Lyon with beautiful regenerating Glen Feshie, where deer numbers are aggressively controlled, to see the harm caused by high deer numbers.

I believe that too many deer are a major factor in 'barren' landscapes in the Scottish Highlands.

Basically it's overgrazing in a monoculture system that significantly reduces wildlife diversity.

It's the same in places like the Lakes or Yorkshire Dales with too many sheep.

The John Muir Trust are currently showing a good film across the UK, with a bit of a discussion at the end.

The solution is complicated, but it appears to me that the John Muir Trust is taking a collaborative approach and working with communities to reduce deer numbers.

Clear on Deer

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/clear-on-deer-aberdeen-tickets-680133025187?...

Ineffectual deer management in order to have higher deer numbers for the "Killing things for fun" industry plays a large part.

You get tree growth in narrow defiles that deer seem to dislike, islands that they can't be bothered to swim to and areas with robust deer population control. Fenced off areas are harder to traverse due to a marked upscale in low vegetation and trees.

Probably speaks volumes about continuing influence of those that own vast swathes of Scotland that the Scottish Parliament has been so consistently timid in any dealings with land management.

As you walk up the Miner's track on Snowdon you pass a narrow fenced off area with pipes leading to Cwm Dyli Hydro Electric Power Station. Inside this area there are small trees growing, interesting looking heather and long grasses. Outside of the fenced off area is just short grass as sheep can access everywhere outside of this. Its bonkers, the most natural looking bit of the mountain is the bit fenced off for power generation It actually makes me depressed thinking how beautiful and wildlife friendly large areas of the UK could be if we stopped or greatly reduced upland grazing which doesn't even produce much meat anyway. At least Eyri has some natural feeling woodland unlike the Dales, probably the grimmest most barren thing to ever be designated a national park. I genuinely don't understand why people like it

Back your original point though, some of the really desolate bits in that article may be Rannoch Moor which may naturally be too boggy to support much large flora or fauna, not 100% sure on that though. The sloping bits are so barren due to deer grazing

The tree growth on the islands in the Rannoch Moor islands probably argues against this.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53205424684_3facf3ec71_o_d.png

*lochans

Rannoch Moor would support a massive forest, all you need for it to happen is an absence of deer. It's an oft-uttered trope that places like Caithness, Lewis and Orkney never had trees because of the high winds. It's cobblers, these places were deforested, the process starting in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Wind is a factor in retarding natural reforestation but contemporary land use and the presence of red deer is a bigger one. 

I'll hopefully be around a few decades to see the results of the North Harris Trust's heavy deer management and tree planting near Urgha and Loch Trolamaraig.

There's ambition on the Hebrides to allow regeneration of tree growth.

https://www.north-harris.org/woodland

 Rannoch Moor yes, the flow country not so straight forward, there, from core samples, some trees did start to get a hold after the ice but didn't persist. They had died out before people moved in. 

(The Great Ice Age, climate change and life, R.C.L. Wilson, S.A. Drury and J.L. Chapman. )

Right, thanks. Yes, I'd forgotten about the mires which comprise a pretty special environment and does account for a lot of land.  

I was having a Facebook muse about the treeline yesterday, provoked by being in Colorado and going over a pass at 11,000' and still being below the treeline.

There's much we could do to restore things in the UK, but it would take generations.  That's no reason not to do it, of course.

T.

new altitude record for a birch on the Ben- 1205m..

Just what I was wondering about this summer in the Norwegian fjords. The climate must be quite similar to NW Scotland but the tree line seems to be around 1200 metres.