Rewilding, Scotland, A Very Moorish Idyl

BY CALUM CAMPBELL

There is a particular strain of environmentalist for whom the Scottish Highlands represent nothing less than a crime scene. They gaze upon the heather-clad hills and see a “devastated countryside” — a forest felled by human wickedness, kept treeless only by the tyranny of deer and sheep.

There is only one problem. They are talking rot.
Dr James Fenton, a retired ecologist, has had the audacity to say so in print. His peer-reviewed paper argues that much of the Highland landscape is naturally open — because young trees, in the presence of large herbivores, need protection the Highlands largely do not provide (thorny scrub, winter snow cover, or exceptionally rich soils). The moorland, he concludes, is not a wound but a climax.

The response from the Rewilding Scotland brigade on Facebook has been instructive. Not because it offers any substantive rebuttal — one searches in vain for engagement with Fenton’s trophic-level calculations or his analysis of the Roy Military Maps (which show 96% of the Highlands already treeless by 1750). But because it reveals the intellectual poverty of those who have elevated tree-planting to a secular religion.

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For more detailed I formation on that situation watch Tom Opre's film The Last Keeper. Much of that land they speak of never, ever had trees. It can't grow them due to a layer of impenetrable clay (I think). The rewilders are drilling through it and putting trees where they never belonged in the first place. But they are crazy.

It is right that Scotland looked similar as it does today several hundred years ago, but not a few thousand years ago. The current landscape is the result of human intervention, but this process began as early as the end of the last Ice Age. To try to cover all of Scotland with the Caledonian Forest of the past is non-sense, but re-wilding some areas, why not?

The Highlands as they are today is an iconic place.
The land speaks of the toughness and tenacity of the Scottish people.
It is a place that has witnessed the struggle of the Scottish people.
A place that once you see it, you realize how truly unique it is.

Except that, during the time when the Scottish people, thanks his toughness and tenacity, has establishing itself as a nation, it was in very many places still covered by forests.

Anyone from Scotland going to comment?

Unfortunatly rewilding is the latest envromental fad in the UK. Alot to do with carbon credits and bio diversity offsets and government grants and tax relief And if you market it right the general population will turn up and volenteer to plant the trees and donate the money to buy them.
Pat themselves on the back for a job well done and all the trees will be dead in two years and off they go again

I think, maybe wrong but the rewilding fad is driven by the Scottish government and not the UK government. I live in England.

Cranhill said:

Anyone from Scotland going to comment?

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The whole rewilding thing here is hugely political.

It is mainly driven by left wing politics and a lot of foreign (mainly Scandinavian) money. The government and some of the locals (who are mainly English retirees - the best US comparison is probably Californian s moving to the Rockies) support it because it is an alternative to traditional sporting estates, which they do not approve of - what is known here as laird bashing.

We have family and friends farming in the Highlands and it has changed dramatically over the past 15 years. There has been a big movement away from estates supported by money from the south and run at a loss, because the owners are prepared to support this for grouse shooting, fishing and stalking and where a lot of people are employed and a huge amount of traditional conservation work undertaken (preditor control, heather burning etc) to a new system where there are very few permanent employees and the focus is on keeping deer numbers as low as possible but not controlling preditors in any way at all. It is politically acceptable to remove deer and ignore red grouse but not to control foxes or crows.

I think things are changing a bit now as the heat seems to have gone out of the carbon market, which funded a lot of this but it strikes me as completely ignoring centuries of management to impose central belt (Edinburgh and Glasgow) ideals on the Highlands and to punish traditional landowners. The Scottish Government has made it absolutely clear that they do not see a place for aristocratic landowners who are running large estates at a loss but have absolutely no issues with foreign buisness people owning much larger areas, particularly as many of them are more supportive of Scottish independence.

However, one should have thought of this a bit sooner, after all we have been reforesting in our countries since the 17th century. This explains why we still have extensive forests, even more in some areas than in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, not always with native tree species, but that is a different topic.

Sadly, everything to do with the management of sporting estates and hunting here in Britain has become very politicised and attacking them is a easy vote winner for an urban public.

We have three devolved legislatures, all led by left wing nationalist / separative parties and a UK Government under another left of centre party, all of which rely heavily on urban votes.

The other issue is that many landowners have failed to properly manage deer numbers in the past, although I think this was a much bigger issue in the 1980s and we still have a major issue in this area of Lowland Scotland with several (probably most) landowners either focusing on maximum income by letting stalking rights to the highest bidder, rather than the best manager or by not allowing stalking as their wife doesn't like the idea of Bambi being shot.

The UK is farqued. It has been for a long time. Until Nigel Farrad's group gets in power, and can export several million problems. It will always be.

Muskox said:

The UK is farqued. It has been for a long time. Until Nigel Farrad's group gets in power, and can export several million problems. It will always be.

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Apologises, what does "Farqued" mean?

Cranhill said:

Apologises, what does "Farqued" mean?

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Say it out loud. I doun't think I will be allowed to type the word.

Up a certain creek without a certain instrument

Thanks