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The life-affirming energy of Dundreggan’s native tree nursery is a major part of the volunteering experience here at Dundreggan. Conservation Week volunteers spend at least some of their time helping to nurture young native trees of many species all the way from seeds to plantable stems. In the process they learn something of what it takes to keep the place going and the importance of the regular maintenance routine of watering, weeding, pricking out and all the other tasks.
Work in the tree nursery never stops, except for the quiet time between December and February while all the trees are sleeping soundly and Dundreggan is often frozen or snowy, or both! Many trees take more than a year to grow and we are constantly looking forward to the next planting season and the one after that, with Jill and Abbey managing the production pipeline to ensure the right trees are ready at the right time for planting out.
As usual then, by March Dundreggan was gearing up for another busy season of tree planting, sowing and propagation with the help of all our volunteers from around the UK and beyond. We had trees ready to go up to the new planting area at Carn na Caorach and trees destined for Forestry and Land Scotland’s continuing native tree project in Glen Affric: around 50,000 trees packed and ready just for those two projects. The nursery team had swelled to five members with seasonal regular Patrick joining horticultural trainee Louise, and Jill, Abbey and Emma. The hectic spring pricking out season from April through May was only a few weeks away, when trees destined for planting in the autumn and the following year needed attention.
And then, it all fell apart. With the Coronavirus pandemic gathering pace, Trees for Life Operations Management Team took the difficult decision to halt Conservation Weeks just as they were starting up, and a few days later the UK Government announced lockdown measures that meant everyone staying home and maintaining physical distancing. The choice became clear for the nursery staff at Dundreggan - go home and stay home, and accept the consequences for the young trees in the nursery and the setback this would mean for the Trees for Life operations for the next few planting seasons; or isolate at Dundreggan for the foreseeable future, removing themselves from partners, family and flat-mates for an extended time and do what they can to keep the tree nursery going. Very quickly, most of the team had decided to stay at Dundreggan and isolate there, continuing to work on the nursery and living in the now vacant Dundreggan Lodge. Because of family commitments, Nursery Manager Jill could not join in, but Abbey, Emma, Patrick and Skills for Rewilding trainees Louise and Catriona, all decided to stay.
So eight weeks in, what is going on and how are the team coping? Because none of the trees destined for spring planting have left the nursery, there is far less space than expected for new young trees so there has been a lot of shuffling around of pallets and crates of trees to make room for fresh stock. All these trees need regular watering so the irrigation system has needed to be re-jigged to make sure it is covering all the trees, though there is still a need for hand-watering of some. The team have “lined out” several beds of montane willow trees where they will spend the next few months growing in preparation for planting out next year. Hazlenuts collected last year which have started to germinate have been potted on in root trainers, precious Rock Whitebeam seeds have also been sown out and are now looking good.
Our experimental aspen tunnel is having a bumper year with several aspen trees flowering and seeding, so the team have been collecting as much of this as possible. So far, we have sown over 40 trays of aspen seed which should produce around 25,000 seedlings. We have also stored 16 grams of seed, which represents between 80-100,000 potential trees. Some of the seed has been sown immediately, which of course means the new young plants emerging need attention straight away.
At the moment, we are in the middle of pricking out seedlings sown last year into individual pots. So far, we have managed to re-pot about 20,000 seedlings. This includes rare mountain willow plants collected from the Cairngorms last year in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland. If this had been delayed, the trees would probably not have survived another year in seed trays and the huge effort that went into collecting the seed and cutting material in the first place would have been wasted. Having just sown a load of seeds, we also know we will be doing more pricking out in a month or so!
Just before the outbreak, we had collected sacksful of Scots pine cones from local trees at Dundreggan. These need work to extract the seed through a sequence of drying and soaking processes, so our office space is littered with trays of cones drying in the warmth. Some of these have already been sown, and so the next generation of pines are on their way, ready for planting next year or the year after.
Amongst all this hard work, there are still plenty of smiles and laughter around the place. We know we are very, very lucky to be weathering this storm in such beautiful surroundings and able to continue to do useful work. Abbey is missing her cat, at home with Simon on the other side of the hill in Cannich. Emma has been crocheting chameleons. Patrick has been foraging for wild foods and showing us his Slackline skills. Louise has been learning a bunch about aspen and entertaining us with firestick juggling while Catriona has been baking delicious meringues and leading spoon carving sessions.
When the Coronavirus crisis has passed the trees now being nurtured at Dundreggan, because of the commitment of our staff, will enable Trees for Life to bounce more quickly and more effectively, back on our mission to Rewild the Scottish Highlands.
Thank you to Arcadia Fund, Baillie Gifford, The Harkness Family Foundation and Brown Forbes Memorial Fund for funding projects on the nursery.