Forestry Nerd Tangent

Since our trip up to Oban on the lovely West Highland Line railway route, I've noticed that Scotland seems to have a very active forest industry - so I'm not certain what kind of vegetation would grow natively.  Of course Scotland is known for peat, which requires wet grasslands, but to me the Highlands look like they should be covered with mixed (coniferous and deciduous) forest.  They have some mixed forest, but the tops of most hills are entirely devoid of trees and only feature grass - and they are not alpine.  Many valleys feature huge tracts of 1 or 2 species of confier only, all about the same age - clearly planted by man, especially when you see such a tract juxtaposed along a knife-edge border with mixed forest or grassland.

Not the best photo, but you get the idea

We saw a huge number of blown-down confiers. It seems that the species of tree planted put out roots in the soft, peaty topsoil, but can't penetrate deeply (rock underneath).  So when they hit a certain mass they just topple in the wind.  It appears they try to harvest these trees before they reach blow-down age, but they are pretty young and small (by BC standards) when harvested.  We saw many logging trucks, but no mills/processing facilities.

My guess is that the grassy areas in the hills (except for maybe the very highest peaks in Scotland) would be naturally forested with a mix of trees if there was no human intervention.  But centuries of harvesting trees without replanting, followed up by ubiquitous sheep grazing that would mow down any fledgling trees, might have favoured the development of grasslands in these areas. Just guessing.

(Forests all over Europe are incredibly "managed," from what I've seen.  They can't seem to let a tree fall over and decay naturally - particularly in Germany, trees are cut and removed at the first sign of weakness, even if it's just for firewood.  It makes for some very storybook forest walks, but... they often don't feel "real".  Scotland is better than average, I'd say.)

Now back to our irregularly scheduled blog...