across the Scottish Highlands, Ancient Woods are falling apart following centuries of heavy browsing pressure. this thread provides a case study, and tries to make sense of why this ecological and cultural crisis is still widely ignored #wildtrees our case study area is ~60km2 of open mountain and glen near Fort William. deer stalking is the main land use, and sheep are grazed in the southern glen (Glen Loy). no one lives here, and the area appears to be almost completely devoid of tree cover from above

this individual wild pine is, incredibly, shown on a map from the 1870s. i tracked it down and found lots of old pine stumps around it, indicating that its the sole survivor of a 2nd ancient pinewood in Glen Loyne. some thoughts... (thread) the context the stumps provide is critically important - this isn't just a random tree, its the remains of something much greater. because of this, some of the other wildlife from the preceding wood may still survive here (eg. lichens, mosses, fungi & inverts growing on/in it)

Cam Dhoire (the crooked wood), an Ancient Woodland in Glen Mallie, Lochaber

like so many now remote woods in the Highlands, this place has almost been erased - culturally by the expulsion of people from the Glen during the clearances, and physically by centuries of overbrowsing the 2 are of course interrelated: much of the Highlands was cleared of people to make way for large scale sheep ranching, made possible by the extermination of wolves. without wolves or effective mgmt, deer now perpetuate ecological impacts of ranching even after sheep removal

this shoulder of woodland may be one the richest sites for rare plants in Co. Derry. although a 'Site of Local Nature Conservation Importance', it is imminently threatened by quarrying - which is able to take place without ecological safeguards due to a planning loophole (thread) why is this wood so rich? the trees here have grown up amongst giant boulders, which have likely provided protection from grazing livestock for centuries. as a result, many of the species here are absent from woods in the surrounding landscape

within 12 years, Scotland plans to create around 10 Glasgows-worth of new 'woodland', primarily through tree planting.

what if i told you that this could not only be done, but done better, *without* planting a single tree?

thread: firstly, trees have managed to successfully plant themselves for at least 385 million years. they're actually really good at it! if they weren't, they'd not have made it back to Scotland after the last ice age.

we call trees planting themselves 'natural regeneration'

1) for the last 60 years, we've been funding a campaign to exterminate Europe's wildlife. through the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), hundreds of billions of euros of public money have been funnelled into destroying wildlife-rich meadows, woods, wetlands and rivers 2) while the precise formula has varied over the years, CAP essentially requires farmers to wreck nature in order to receive larger subsidies. agricultural intensification - responsible for so much pollution and wildlife loss - is one of CAP's core aims

in 2010 this was a lawn since then, its been allowed to grow all spring and summer, followed by cutting and removing clippings in autumn/winter

*we didn't resow* - most of the plants you can see spread naturally when released from frequent mowing

large herbivores, trees and flowers: an Irish and Scottish perspective 🐂🌳🌼(thread, a bit detailed).

outside of cities, our surroundings are massively shaped by the actions of large herbivores - cattle, horses, sheep and deer - alongside our efforts to manage or exploit them in the lowlands, our efforts to exploit cattle primarily determines how the landscape looks (intensively managed grass fields), except in surviving woods, wetlands and meadows.

in the uplands the actions of the herbivores themselves are more important (the focus of this thread)

western Ireland and Britain are among a handful of places on Earth where temperate rainforest can form. this thread is a mini guide to some of the things you can find there: 1) trees drenched in mosses and ferns. hyperhumid conditions mean that plants don't need to rely on soil for moisture, releasing them to carpet leaning tree trunks and snakey branches

enough is enough: Ireland is NOT planting trees to combat climate change @HuffPost. 70% of trees planted will be non-native commercial conifers destined for clearfell. they threaten wildlife and will not reduce atmospheric carbon in the long run (thread)

huffpost.com/entry/ireland-… Sitka spruce from the pacific NW is the main forestry tree in Ireland. it is densely planted and usually harvested after 40 years. i've done some carbon calculations to test lobbyist claims that new spruce plantations will act as carbon sinks...

in Ireland, the extinction crisis is green:

1) green fields are sterile and simple. each was created through the destruction of a complex wood, bog or meadow that came before. their simplicity is maintained with herbicide and by overloading the soil with nitrates and phosphates 2) they exist for animal agriculture, mainly dairy and beef. the idea is to maximise grass production, which in turn maximises milk or beef production. this model has been pushed for decades, and now most of our countryside looks like this: