A new project from Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland aims to discover
Scotland’s ‘lost’ native pinewoods – home to wild Scots pines with an ancestry
that can be traced back to the end of the last ice age – so they can be saved
and restored before it’s too late. Caledonian pinewoods are globally unique and
support rare wildlife including red squirrels, capercaillie and crossbills. Yet
less than 2% of the Caledonian forest, which once covered much of the Highlands,
survives. Just 84 individual Caledonian pinewoods are now officially recognised,
having been last documented more than a quarter of a century ago. But Woodland
Trust Scotland and Trees for Life have become aware of other lost wild
pinewoods, and from historical documents and anecdotal reports, more are thought
to exist. The charities have teamed up to identify and save these forgotten
pinewoods through the Wild Pine Project, beginning with the western Highlands,
where Scots pines form part of Scotland’s rare temperate rainforest.
Crosspost from @[email protected] , and TIL so little left of the caledonian forest