Introduction
While this website outlines a conflict in opinion as to how Schiehallion should be managed, there is a very obvious solution should people wish to pursue that.
It is obvious from feedback across a range of social media pages that many people in Scotland today make their judgement on our efforts to resolve the climate change and biodiversity crisis we have on our ability to grow woodland. However, other habitats and landscapes are important as well, and in the case of the Fairy Mountain, it is the limestone pavement and calcareous species rich grasslands which are nationally rare and designated.
There is room for trees on Schiehallion as well, it is not a case of “either or”, and on this page, I am making the case that they should be placed at the bottom of the mountain and not the top. This is ecologically much more coherent, in that montane woodland can most effectively get to the top of a mountain by regenerating upwards from below. If we can do that at Schiehallion, then an equivalent area of woodland can be achieved, but in areas where the worst effects of the current proposal can be avoided.
As a woodland advisor, I know that it is not good form to be commentating on the schemes of others, but in this case, I am making an exception for two reasons:
A properly conducted consultation should allow people to put forwards variations and changes to proposals which should ultimately strengthen them, but in this case, no such consultation has ever taken place. For this reason, the current proposal is extremely weak. That reflects the lack of exposure it has been submitted to.
JMT are a campaign group, and relentlessly pass comment on the ability of others to manage their land, so I don’t feel too bad about giving my views on their ideas, even though this is not something that I would normally do.
Our objective here is to stop the current proposals, not by simply blocking them, but by directing JMT energies in a different direction.
The Current Proposal
The current proposal is to plant c 250-300 ha of woodland on the southern side of the mountain, from the bottom of Gleann Mohr right to the summit of the mountain. This requires a fence all the way to the summit on the south side. Because a fence cannot be constructed along the main ridge of the mountain to enclose the south side, a new fence will be required on the north side as well, joining in with an existing roadside stock fence, and effectively enclosing all the JMT side of the mountain, even though only about one third of that will be planted. However, there will be a gap of 1-2 km left open at the top of the mountain, through which animals will still be able to access the area, and this creates a massive risk of failure for everyone associated with this project. That gap creates a risk to the reputation and finances of the John Muir Trust and it is an insane risk for their mystery funder. The fence itself is a risk to both the reputation and finances of whoever tries to build it, it is a welfare risk for both sheep and deer, it is a risk to people coming off the mountain in poor weather conditions, it is a risk for mountain rescue teams, and there is a high probability risk that the ptarmigan population on the mountain will get wiped out with a barrier now being located within their domain. Marking will not avoid that. It will simply make it more expensive, and catch more snow, ice and wind, making maintenance and risk of failure much more significant.
The Alternative
A much better approach, from an ecological, woodland establishment, carbon sequestration, financial and reputational perspective would be to reposition the 250-300 ha of proposed new woodland around the base of the mountain, and the next generation can then have the responsibility of getting it to spread naturally up the slopes. They will require a properly co-ordinated approach to deer and sheep at that time, something which simply does not exist at the moment. This is because of problems with JMT approach, not problems with their neighbours. That has to be resolved.
JMT currently have two planting schemes in place on their property.
One is the enclosure fenced with a conventional deer fence, allowing them to plant trees on the field above the carpark at Braes of Foss, and a wider area of rougher ground. Although this area was slow to get going, it is now beginning to establish well with a range of species, and this will gradually become an important woodland resource for them. My understanding is that much of this was done with volunteers and children, the kind of project that you might expect JMT to be doing.
Outwith this, there is a much larger area enclosed by an electrified deer fence, which runs from this smaller enclosure all the way through to the woodland area in Gleann Mhor, below the lower mountain track. It is about 60-80 ha in size (My estimation). This area is listed as a Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) regeneration contract, dated from 2018. So, it is now about six years old. You can see this area in the screenshot below, taken from the Scottish Forestry map viewer. The regeneration areas are shown in olive green.
You can see from the screen that this is not a continuous woodland area, there is a lot of open space as well. Also, in a regeneration scheme, the target tree density is an average of 400 trees per ha, not the normal 1600 per ha. So, this would be a relatively open, low density native woodland, totally in keeping with what people might want to see on the mountain.
It is difficult for me to judge as I have only seen parts of the site, but there appears to be very few trees in there just now. There are regenerated trees and others which have obviously been planted, but I would say that for Year 6, the outcome to date is poor, and JMT need to plant the areas that are not regenerating to achieve the objective envisaged in the scheme. Allowing that some areas will be regenerating and there will be no expense now on those areas, there should be enough money in the contract to allow JMT to plant out the rest and deliver on their vision for a woodland area here. The timeline is entirely normal for reviewing such a scheme at the moment, and changing tack a bit if required, and waiting to see what regeneration arrives by itself has been the right thing to do up to this point.
There is no reason why this electrified fence cannot be moved significantly up the mountain, and around in to the lower and middle slopes of Gleann Mhor, creating a much larger planting area on the lower slopes.
I imagine that JMT probably did not enclose more ground in the past because fences on the mountain might have been seen as contentious to their members. However, it seems that such qualms no longer exist, and the public agencies don’t seem too concerned either. With that in mind, take this woodland planting up the hill, not to the top, but to a height where things are still practical, and without impinging too much into the actual wildland area.
At that point, there are arguably two existing fences which could then be removed, and the gates needed to access the mountain could be reduced from three (at present) to two.
We know from our FOI responses that the public agencies seem fairly happy to bend the rules a bit to help JMT on Schiehallion. With this in mind, I think that JMT should investigate putting in an additional planting area on the northern side of the mountain, linking up the woodland area at Braes of Foss with the conifer block in Strath Fionan. That conifer block looks totally out of place in a wild land area, and should be felled and planted or regenerated with native species as part of a new woodland corridor linking through to the existing planted areas. The problem here of course is that all the open ground in that area is designated, and can not be planted. However, the point has been made by several people responding to this website that woodland growing here would become valuable in its own right, and even with the limestone interest, create a more interesting habitat overall. So, my instinct now would be to test the rules and seriously look at putting low density woodland planting within the lower parts of the SSSI through in to Strath Fionan. Even if this is not possible, there is still scope for significant planting elsewhere.
The rest of the mountain
If JMT can be persuaded to focus their energy on the lower and middle slopes, then there is no need for fences on the upper mountain within the wild land area. Deer and sheep can then graze across the whole area, maintaining the current condition of the limestone pavement up there, and continuing to provide carrion for eagles and suchlike. Deer numbers are best agreed in conjunction with their neighbours, and that is most effective for everyone. Managed in this way, then there is no longer any perceived conflict in objectives, and this is important to understand. As a campaigning organization, JMT must not be allowed to create conflict for the sake of having it. We need the confrontational, aggressive and dismissive management approach towards other people to end.
The sheep, ditto. Animals should not be grazing half a mountain. There needs to be some understanding across the whole, and if that can be achieved, then everyone will benefit.
Private Funding
We don’t know who is funding this, and it does not really matter, but one significant advantage of private funding is that your woodland planting design does not require to be so prescriptive as the Forestry Grant Scheme would insist on. Low density woodland incorporating lots of open space suddenly becomes much more feasible, and it is this type of woodland that is likely to be best suited to Schiehallion in terms of maintaining landscape and increasing biological diversity. Lower densities mean that hand planting can be considered, and the cost per hectare is less. Individual trees get more space to express themselves, and this will help them in their ability to produce seed in the future. So, a private funder can bring all sorts of advantages to a woodland scheme that would not be possible under public funding.
We just do not want them spending their money and risking their reputation on these totally insane fences up to 3000 ft.
VIDEOS
What is being proposed here is most easily envisaged by looking at Schiehallion from Dun Coillich, owned and managed by the Highland Perthshire Community Land Trust (HPCLT). The woodland there is now almost 20 years old, and could easily be replicated, albeit at lower density, on the Schiehallion side. If a small community group like HPCLT can do this, then so can a large NGO like JMT. Indeed, you do wonder, if JMT had worked with HPCLT 20 years ago, much of the vision being outlined here could have been reality on the ground today, and they would be 20 years further forward.
Why they did not do this, I have no idea.
VIDEO 6
The sound quality on this video comes and goes, but hopefully, you can hear enough and see enough from the visuals to understand the point being made.
VIDEO 7
There is a discussion here about relative growth rates of trees at different altitudes, and that if carbon is important to your thinking, then you need trees that grow quickly, not slowly.
VIDEO 8
A closer look at the woodland strip in Gleann Mhor, and how that might link through to Dun Coiliich. The final photograph shows this woodland strip, a key feature on the property, from higher up on the mountainside of being able to do so. An electrified deer fence constrains their ability to do this. You might imagine that JMT members above all people would understand this point.
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