Scotland Trip

Amy & Joe Darcangelo, Mick and I visited the Alladale estate in early March to explore curricular collaboration possibilities as well as internship opportunities for students.

The Scotland Highlands were deforested long ago for various reasons, including the use of wood for fuel, timber industry, and sheep farming.  Currently only about 1% of the Caledonian forest remains.  Along with the deforestation came species extirpations including nearly all large predators.  The loss of predation led to an explosive red deer population that has continually browsed down any seedlings trying to establish themselves.

Most of the landscape is covered by heather and other brushy plants that cover the ground and make the soil inhospitable to seedlings even if you can keep the deer out.  The Alladale staff are attempting to contribute to reforestation using biological measures.  First, they are culling deer - about 400 a year from the estate. 

But removing the deer doesn't break up the blanket bog to create open spaces for seedlings to establish.   One method they are working with is using wild boars in enclosures to try to dig up the ground.  Boars were once a wild and native species in the area and because one of the goals of the Alladale estate is to reestablish some of the extirpated species, they make an ideal candidate.  While they aren't having much success with the boars, Alladale has also imported two moose, which were also once native, and they appear to be eating a lot of the heather and may prove more useful.

Hugh, the estate manager, has many conservation projects planned.  One project involves reforestation around the headwaters feeding into salmon streams.  Paul, the estate owner, is also thinking about sustainability projects like having a greenhouse to supply the estate with produce and they are also building a hydropower plant on the estate.

We toured the estate in Land Rover style and viewed both glens, the enclosures, the bothies, and project plans.

Outside of the estate we visited Croick Church in, which was just down the road.  During the land clearances, Croick Church was a place where evicted tenants fled and scratched their names into the glass.

While Amy & Joe went on to Edinburgh to visit the zoo and do some falconry, Mick and I traveled down to Wales to visit his family.  We took a quick jaunt to the seashore for my sake and also stopped to look at some family garden allotments (just like the one Tom & Barbara have in Good Neighbors).

On the way back up to Scotland, we drove through the Lake District in England and stopped off at a place called Martindale.  Martindale seems far out of the way, but is only about 10 minutes from some tourist traps even though not a single car came by us while we were there.  There is a beautiful little church with a 1300 year old yew tree in the graveyard.  There is also a farm/B&B and of course sheep.  These are hill sheep that aren't handled much.  Shepherds use a series of dry stone walls with open access to the hill tops.  Because there is quite a bit of sheep mingling, the sheep are painted with different colors so shepherds can find their own.  Where else would it be so easy for you to be with a yew and a ewe in a graveyard?