Caledonian Pinewood Partnership
Caledonian pinewoods are a globally unique habitat that once covered large areas of Scotland. Today, less than 2% remains. 84 fragments are officially recognised as part of the Caledonian Pinewood Inventory, and our Wild Pine Project is working to discover and document even more sites. Many remnants are in danger of being lost forever, often because grazing pressure is preventing young trees from establishing, and many of the ageing granny pines are coming to the end of their natural lives.
Our Caledonian Pinewoods Recovery Project revealed just how serious the situation is for many of the remnants. Following a national conference about pinewoods last year, thirty different organisations have agreed to form the Caledonian Pinewood Partnership to bring urgency and direction to pinewood restoration and expansion.
Thanks to funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, we are now in a position to appoint a Project Manager who can take this work further, and support the different organisations to work together on pinewood restoration. The founding partners include government agencies, other nature restoration and conservation organisations, landowners and their representatives, and a community group. There is strong consensus about what needs to be done and the Project Manager will be essential in driving the restoration forward.
Measures include emergency fencing of pinewoods that are in serious danger of being lost. We have already identified eleven pinewoods that urgently require protection through fencing, and there are many more that would benefit from it too. The fencing helps to prevent animals like deer grazing on the seedlings, enabling the young trees to establish around the granny pines. A new generation of trees will be able to flourish, continuing the legacy of the older trees.
We’ve already undertaken emergency fencing projects to help protect pinewood remnants. One great example of this is the Glen Loyne pinewood, home to Scotland’s oldest wild Scots pine tree. Artist Dan Llywelyn Hall unveiled a painting of the Glen Loyne pine at an exhibition to mark 800 years since the issuing of both the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest. The charter is widely regarded to be the first environmental legislation passed anywhere in the UK, and it predates the Glen Loyne pine by about 200 years.
Another serious problem is the spread of invasive non-native species, such as sitka spruce and rhododendron, into Caledonian pinewoods. These plants smother the natural vegetation and sitka spruce usually grows much faster than pines, outcompeting them. The removal of non-native plants in and around remnants could save several of the pinewood sites.
But this isn’t enough. If we just try to save the existing remnants, we will not be able to protect them from climate change or achieve our shared aim to double the area of Caledonian pinewoods by 2055. To achieve this we must work at landscape scale, reducing grazing pressure to a level where trees can establish. In doing so, we can enable woodland fragments to join up and create much larger wooded areas. The Caledonian Pinewood Partnership will be instrumental in making this happen, and essential to this is the collaboration and full involvement of landowners and partners.
We estimate that over £4 million is needed to really make a difference for Scotland’s Caledonian pinewoods. Another vital role of the partnership will be to influence the government and other funders to provide the support required so that Caledonian pinewoods can recover and expand, instead of being lost, one-by-one.
Scotland’s Caledonian pinewoods have been shaped and valued by people for centuries, and are home to iconic Scottish wildlife such as red squirrel, golden eagle, capercaillie and wildcat. The collective passion and drive to protect our pinewoods and the wildlife that depends on them cannot be overstated. We’re thrilled to be embarking on this hopeful chapter for our pinewoods.
The Caledonian Pinewood Partnership has been made possible thanks to funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
