The Last Ent of Affric (2019)

ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk

47 pointsarethuza2 comments

Great that there's an old, original tree there - it should do well if they use it to grow more trees in the area, as they apparently plan to.

My question is something denuded the hills in Scotland - you can see them in the background behind the tree. What happened?

The natural tree line in Scotland is fairly low - not many trees above 500m. However, the main cause is too many deer - wolves and other predators were killed centuries ago and in most of the Highlands land ended up being used for sporting estates that naturally wanted plenty deer to shoot.

Fortunately rewilding is now a big thing in Scotland - the white tailed sea eagle has been reintroduced, beavers are are increasingly common and people talk about reintroducing lynx and maybe even wolves.

Trees for Life have a nice video about Glen Affric:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyC-w67yz8A

One thing that is a huge shame is that natural forest growth really only happens on islands in lochs or in fenced off areas where the deer are kept out.

https://treesforlife.org.uk/

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