Springtime hazel

Here's a series of pictures from west coast hazel. The catkins make hazel the stand out tree at this time of the year. The catkins elongate and change colour as they get more mature.


When the sun strikes a hazel full of catkins the result can be a mass of flaming gold or silver, there for a day or two and then gone till next year.



We've just heard that one of our partnership groups, the Atlantic Hazel Action Group, has secured additional funding from EU Leader.

Drizzly day today

firewood

Several Scottish Native Woods staff members use firewood as the main source of heat for their homes and offices. This is some of next winter's supply stored away under cover to dry out during the summer. The wood is beech, and it featured in this blog in February 2009: http://scottishnativewoods.blogspot.com/2009/02/clearing-beech-tree-from-old-track.html

Bridge over the River Tay

The bridge at Logierait......

Oakwoods by the Tay

Dumb Dumpers

Dumping your garden rubbish in the countryside like this risks introducing plants that can spread to woodland habitats and in time might come to dominate the ground flora. The main invasive plant species such as himalayam balsam and Japanese knotweed started as garden escapees, but there are a number of lesser species as well. Although there does not appear to be anything other than cypress and juniper cittings in this pile, you can see below that a garden escapee is already growing at this spot.

The consequences...

This spreading plant is called Lambium, and we see it in and around an increasing number of valuable ancient woodland sites. It spreads surely but slowly, and is a garden escapee. It would be quite simple to spray this off and kill it.

Close-up.....

Remember the autumn?

For those of you fed up with the cold, here is a nice warm picture of some elm leaves by the river Lyon back in the autumn.

Hazel catkins in Glen Lochay

Timber stack in Glenlyon

This pile of timber in Glenlyon is going to be milled by Tom Beels from the Glenlyon Woodfuel Initiative. It is a mixture of native oak and conifers. These odds & sods have been left behind from a bigger felling operation in the Glen, and although they might not lok like much here, they can be turned in to some very impressive furniture, see below.

New desks.......

These desks have been made out of single slabs of Douglas Fir. Native woodland restoration very often means making the best of all timber produced, be that native or exotic, if that is what is required to finance the overall operation. Here, some odd-sized timber that no-one wanted has been turned in to some very simple but useful and stylish furniture. Well done Tom. Very impressive for an afternoon's work.

And again.......

A new table......

Assorted conifer logs......

Big larch butts

The two outside logs here are larch, the one in the middle is an oak. Larch is considered by many forestors to be an "honorary" native.

300 year old oak logs

Looks a long way down

We were given money by Postcode lottery to improve the paths and bridges in Flisk Woods. You can see why here. This bridge has completely fallen in. The main timbers had rotted but our volunteers were able to salvage the planks.

Trying not to break a nail...

Getting the nails out of these planks wasn't easy but it meant that the wood could be used again.

Waste not want not

The supporting timbers for this bridge were from this wood, freshly cut by us. The old planks were nailed into place and it looked good as new.

Is this a native woodland site?

This is Ruth Anderson, ex-trustee of Scottish Native Woods, who is helping us to organize a one-day conference in May looking at restoration of Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS). This site is on Forestry Commission land at Craigvinean, just off the A9 north of Dunkeld. There are no native tree remnants left on this particular site, the only ancient woodland remnants being elements of the ground vegetation. However, when managed as continuous cover forestry, the ground vegetation will be encouraged to develop and this ancient woodland characteristic of the site will be preserved. Over time, it would be hoped that native woodland tree species can also be gradually re-introduced. When was the last time you saw a native woodland advisor standing proudly in a stand of Douglas Fir?

A wider view......

.......looks like a nice stand of Douglas Fir to me!!!!!

And another one.....

This might just look like a stand of conifers, but this is a PAWS site as well, with woodland indicator plants being all the remnants remaining.

Oak in the middle

This is more typical of a PAWS site, an oak tree with conifers all around. This one at least has got some room to breath. Very often, remnants are completely swamped.

Conifers all around

The tree here in th middle is an oak......

Snow still lying in Aberfeldy

Sun shining through.......

The Moness Burn

Red deer in Glen Derry, Mar Lodge Estate

This is an original oil painting by Andrew Welsh.

Scottish Native Woods Sites

Scottish Native Woods currently manage 225 different sites totalling almost exactly 18,000 acres. The following photos give you an idea of the approx site distribution in each area, although these are now a bit out of date.

These black pins represent our Central Lowland area, where the priorities include access provision, and PAWS (Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites) restoration, also a key consideration in all our other areas. In the central lowlands, individual sites tend to be smaller, and we have more off them. Sites in Fife have quickly multiplied recently, with many more than are represented here.

Scottish Native Woods are very nearly a national organization, with only the far north and the Borders being outwith our range. The North Highland Forest Trust and Borders Forest Trust operate in these areas, and we see little point in competing with them in these areas.

West Highlands

The priorities on the west coast include woodland grazing schemes, support to comunity projects, management of farm woodlands and making best use of woodland produce. Our west coast manager is also our Director.

Highland Perthshire

In recent years, the priorities in Highland Perthshire have shifted from individual woodland management responsibility, to providing specific functions over a wider area, often in areas where other people are the primary woodland managers, including in some cases public agencies such as the Forestry Commission. These functions include capercaillie counts, being secretary to the local deer management group, water vole surveys and riparian conservaton programmes along the Tay. Aspen and PAWS restoration are also important themes. We still have 43 sites of our own as well. The big pin here in the middle is our base in Aberfeldy.

North Highland

North Highland sites are situated in and around Inverness and increasingly now on Speyside. Control of invasive species and aspen management are the main focus at present.

The North East

Our North -east sites tend to be quite large with ongoing work opportunities at each. Over the past 6 months or so, we now have a greater number of sites that are represented here, numbers of small RDC planting schemes having either been implemented or are in preparation. Priorities in the north east include small planting schemes for farmers, riparian woodland management, aspen and a wide range of environmental audit work, including recently for the Cairngorms national Park/ Dee District Salmon Fisheries Board.

Loch Earn Today

These two great photos have been forwarded by Mike Williamson, head greenkeeper at Aberfeldy Golf course and Chairman of Aberfeldy Community Council. The photos were taken with a mobile phone, which just goes to show that having a bit of an eye for a photo and being in a position to take them are just as important that the actual technology used.

Well done Mike. Now, away off and do your own blog...!!

The sky reflected in Loch Earn

If this photo was upside down,would you notice the difference....??

Drummond Hill this morning

Going for a walk.....

Oak trees by Wade's bridge.......

These trees have been here a long time......

Bridge over the River Tay

Twa jackdaws in an alder tree

Wade's Bridge in Aberfeldy

Horse's hoof fungus

Here are a couple of pictures of horse's hoof fungus growing on a dead birch tree in Argyll. This bracket fungus is named for its shape, which is reasonably obvious in the first picture, where the fungus is growing on the mainstem of the tree.

In this second picture, higher up the tree, the fungus seems to be taking over, wrapping itself around the thinner branch.