|
Vegetation colonised
the bare land - at first mosses and lichens, then the flowering
plants with bushes and trees. Birch, willow and alder were the first
trees to arrive, followed by Scots pine and oak.
About 6,000
years ago, the warming climate reached an optimum for tree growth,
and forest covered most of Scotland to an altitude of about 600
metres (2,000 feet). Then the decline of the forest began. About
4,000 years ago, the climate became colder and wetter. At the higher
levels, trees could no longer thrive. At all levels peat developed
preventing growth of seedlings to replace the old trees as they
died. Today one can find old tree roots on the hills, above the
present tree line of about 350 metres (1,000 feet), and in the peat
bogs.
On Loch Maree
we can see some of the remnants of this Great Wood of Caledon. On
the north facing slopes is the National Nature Reserve with its
Scots pine. Opposite on the favourable lower south facing slopes
are the oaks. Both are interspersed with birch. On low wet areas
grow willow and alder.
 |
|
Spruce
|
Britain has
a climate which leads to the climax vegetation of the North Temperate
Forest Zone,stretching round the globe. With the flooding of the
land now covered by the North Sea and the English Channel, not all
the trees of this forest zone reached Scotland. Spruce and larch,
both of which grow well and regenerate naturally here, were introduced
by man from Europe. They would have been native but for the sea
barrier.
About the time
the forest reached its climax, man arrived in Britain, migrating
from the continent, both across the English Channel, and up the
western seaboard. At first man subsisted by hunting and gathering
food. Then he learned to grow his own, with crops in the fields,
and animals grazing in the forest. Trees were cleared for farms,
and livestock ate the young seedlings, preventing the replacement
of the old trees.
By Roman times,
perhaps half the forest was no more.
By the seventeenth
century, the ironmasters of Lancashire and Cumbria were looking
for new supplies of charcoal for their furnaces, having exhausted
local supplies. They brought their ore north by sea for smelting,
using charcoal from Highland forests. Thousands of acres were cleared.
In the south too timer was required in ever growing quantities.
Until overseas trade developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries the native forest was to provide what was required. Forests
were reduced to 4% of the total area of Scotland.
It was not all
destruction. In the eighteenth century great estates vied with each
other to plant trees, notably Seafield, Atholl and Argyll. In 1919
the Forestry Commission commenced its operations. Two world wars
set things back. By 1947 only 3% of the land was under trees.
Since 1945 the
State and private owners have at last been planting on a scale to
redress the balance. About 10% of the land of the Highlands is now
covered with trees.
West and south
of Lochcarron are the Commission forests of North and south Strome,
and towards Achnasheen, is
 |
|
Larch
|
Ashnashellach.
To the east of the Smithy is the privately owned forest of New Kelso.
Much of this
new planting was carried out mainly with commercial objectives,
but on bare hills, any forest growth is an advantage. Populations
of animals and birds have increased in both quantity and variety.
Native bushes and trees have been favoured by the shelter of the
spruces and larches. And most foresters are keen to encourage the
native pinewoods within the commercial forest.
Today, encouraging
the extension of native pinewoods is in fashion, work is going on
to extend a remnant of the old pinewoods at Achnashellach, alongside
the continuing production of timber on a commerical scale.
by Stan Forrester
|
