The Scottish Highlands are being rewilded thanks to the work of charity Trees for Life, which has so far planted nearly two million native trees at its Dundreggan estate in Inverness and elsewhere.
All the trees are planted from Scottish seeds, which are being helped to thrive by stepping up deer culling – a controversial practice that is nonetheless necessary in order to allow recovery of the land previously left barren by populations of hungry deer.
The charity points out that the Highlands’ largely treeless landscapes came about due to commercial deer hunting for sport, and therefore the cull and reforestation are required to return the area to its natural habitat. With fewer deer, less planting will be required by volunteers because the seeds produced by established trees will be allowed to grow into mature specimens.
As well as the carbon benefit of planting trees, the ecological knock-on effect is seeing the return of wildlife such as certain species of moth, grouse and red deer (it is the non-native roe deer that are the problem), showing how human intervention can undo the damage caused by previous generations’ land management.
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The Scottish Highlands are being rewilded thanks to the work of charity Trees for Life, which has so far planted nearly two million native trees at its Dundreggan estate in Inverness and elsewhere.
All the trees are planted from Scottish seeds, which are being helped to thrive by stepping up deer culling – a controversial practice that is nonetheless necessary in order to allow recovery of the land previously left barren by populations of hungry deer.
The charity points out that the Highlands’ largely treeless landscapes came about due to commercial deer hunting for sport, and therefore the cull and reforestation are required to return the area to its natural habitat. With fewer deer, less planting will be required by volunteers because the seeds produced by established trees will be allowed to grow into mature specimens.
As well as the carbon benefit of planting trees, the ecological knock-on effect is seeing the return of wildlife such as certain species of moth, grouse and red deer (it is the non-native roe deer that are the problem), showing how human intervention can undo the damage caused by previous generations’ land management.