“The storms and flooding sweeping the world in these last few months are yet another environmental wake up call”, the shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the Labour party conference in Brighton today.

“This country has huge natural, renewable resources.  And we have an immense heritage of scientific and engineering expertise. Yet this Government has slashed the funding, the renewables industry needs to find its feet.”

He added: “Labour will ensure we become world leaders in decarbonising our economy. With a publicly owned energy supply based on alternative energy sources.

Significantly broaden ownership

“Where the Tories have dithered and delayed, to deliver zero-carbon electricity, we will absolutely commit for example to building projects like the Swansea Tidal Lagoon.”

The shadow chancellor reconfirmed the Labour party’s pledge to nationalise the energy sector, alongside the rail networks and water utility companies. Royal Mail would also be renationalised.

He said: “Ours will only become an economy for the many, if we significantly broaden ownership. That means supporting entrepreneurs, small businesses, the genuinely self-employed and massively expanding worker control and the co-operative sector.”

Taking them back

“Building an economy for the many also means bringing ownership and control of the utilities and key services into the hands of people who use and work in them. Rail, water, energy, Royal Mail: we are taking them back.”

The latest polls from YouGov show that 42 percent of the electorate would vote Labour at a snap election – putting McDonnell in Number 11 as chancellor of the exchequre.

This compares to a 41 percent vote for Theresa May and the Conservatives, and a dysmal seven percent for the Liberal Democrats. A further 10 percent would vote for other parties.

This means there is currently a genuine prospect of Jeremy Corbyn forming the most radical Labour government in history – and delivering on the promises made today by McDonnell to transform the energy industry and make Britain a world leader in reducing carbon emissions. 

This Author

Brendan Montague is Acting Editor of The Ecologist website, and tweets at @EcoMontague.

Sir David Attenborough may be 91, but he is a busy 91. As we set up in his Richmond home, he is upstairs studying footage of orcas and humpback whales on a herring hunt. He has just come back from Edinburgh. And last night he was up late writing the latest programme for his new series: Blue Planet Two.

Sixteen years on from the first Blue Planet series, Attenborough is both delighted and saddened by his return to the oceans.

“It wasn’t until the 50s that I first got put on an aqualung, but when you do – here is the richest, the most diverse, the most beautiful, the most exciting, the least known of all earth’s ecosystems.”

Young being fed

The programme he has been writing is about how the oceans are changing. One change he has noticed is the plastic. Lots of it.

“Plastics are of crucial importance. It’s heart-breaking of course. Which example do you choose as being the most heart-breaking? There are so many of them.”

“The one I would choose because I feel most strongly for them…is the albatross. Such marvellous birds! They form partnerships for 50 years, they circle Antarctica searching for food, they come back to their mates in the same place, but they also feed their young.”

“There’s a shot of the young being fed, and what comes out of the mouth of the beak of the adult? Not sand eels, not fish, not squid…it’s plastic. It’s heart-breaking. Heart-breaking.”

The series, which has been four years in the making, visits every continent and ocean. It promises new filming techniques, from probe cameras that can capture life in miniature to suction cameras that sit on the backs of sharks.

A lion catching a wildebeest

“I’m going to have to say we’ve got new techniques and new technologies and we’re going to places we’ve never been before. It’s true to an extent but it’s not what it’s about. What it’s about is that life underwater is amazing.”

So despite the technological advances, storytelling for the world’s most famous naturalist seems as straightforward as it ever was. (His opening gambit entails extolling the characteristics of the “extraordinary” common slug.) Technology may change, but what interests people does not.

“There are people right now, just right here, around the corner, who have never seen a picture of a lion catching a wildebeest! We’ve been showing that every year, three times a year, for the past fifty. There’s a new audience all the time.”

But while Attenborough is a storyteller, he is also a scientist. You can tell because of the caveats. Yes he has seen climate change, but he is reluctant to pinpoint it. Where has he seen it most powerfully, we ask?

He folds his arms, looks down and takes several breaths. “You’ve got to get a timescale to talk about change, you’ve got to know somewhere intimately over a period and see what the changes are. And I’m too much of a flibbertigibbet, I go from here to there and I don’t go to the same place every time.”

People embrace one another

“It’s very dangerous to just point a finger at that place on the map and say “There you are, that’s what’s happening”. You have to be a generalist and you have to take a survey. That’s what science is about.”

What then, does the scientist, broadcaster and ex-BBC controller make of the political events of the last year? What do “alternative facts” and climate denial mean for truth-telling about climate change?

Attenborough clearly wants to shy away from anything political – as he told Louis Theroux, it is easy to be a national treasure if you keep any controversial views to yourself. But when we come onto the subject of Brexit, he can’t quite help himself.

“I’m not an economist, I certainly don’t understand the political and economic implications of Brexit…but philosophically I would rather the people embrace one another than spat in one another’s face.”

He stares and there is a long pause. It’s hard to know what to say after that. Later when we return to the topic, he is more specific.

A free world

“The decision to call a referendum was an abrogation of parliamentary democracy in my view because we didn’t know the facts. We weren’t presented with the facts. I still don’t know the facts really!

“In any case it was only within a few percentage one way or the other – and if the ref had been two thirds against one third, that would have been bad enough. But it wasn’t even that!”

Finally, he catches himself. He looks around, shifts in his seat and folds his arms. “Why am I going on about this? I’m not a political chap; I know about bugs!” (He doesn’t know what Brexit means for bugs, if you were wondering).

But when Attenborough considers the rise of fake news as a journalist, he is much more sure footed.

“It’s a free world and we aren’t thought dictators. All we have to do is go along declaring the facts as we see the facts and producing the evidence whenever we can. The trouble is there are a lot of vested interests and a lot of people who it suits to deny it.”

Crying in the wilderness

“It’s what happened in the smoking debates in the fifties. I think there were evil men, I certainly think that – I think there were people who really knew and denied it – but there were quite a lot who didn’t.

“And i think there are probably plenty of people now who think ‘Well it’s not really true about carbon dioxide’. But all we can do, all anybody can do is go on stacking up the evidence from every quarter.”

And yet, he has hope – although it’s decidedly cautious hope. “My hope is that the world is coming to its senses…I’m so old i remember a time when…we didn’t talk about climate change, we talked about animals and species extermination.

“For the first time I’m beginning to think there is actually a groundswell, there is a change in the public view. I feel many more people are more concerned and more aware of what the problems are. Young people – people who’ve got fifty years of their life ahead of them – they are thinking they ought to be doing something about this – that’s a huge change.”

“Thirty years ago people concerned with atmospheric pollution were voices crying in the wilderness. We aren’t voices crying in the wilderness now.”

This Author

This article was originally published by the Unearthed investigations team at Greenpeace, and was produced by Damian Kahya, Georgie Johnson and Emma Howard. 

A new reserve that creates new saltmarsh habitat and also ensures stronger sea defences by a process known as ‘managed realignment’ was opened yesterday. The £6 million scheme at Hesketh, in Lancashire, is a partnership project between the RSPB, Natural England and the Environment Agency.

The RSPB’s Hesketh Out Marsh Reserve and Natural England’s Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve (NNR), near Southport, are a real world demonstration of the joint strategy for NNRs.

The Environment Agency has breached the banks at Hesketh Outmarsh East (HOME) and Natural England are now launching the joint strategy. This important work has been made possible by almost £2million funding from Landfill Communities Fund monies from FCC Environment through WREN, and by £3.7million Government funding to reduce flood risk.

On completion, the full RSPB Hesketh Out Marsh Reserve will include 340 hectares of saltmarsh and will be the largest site of its kind in the north of England. The Reserve will be designated as part of the existing Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve later in 2017, and the RSPB and Natural England will jointly manage both sites as effectively one large reserve, alongside the Lytham and District Wildfowlers Association who support the management of the north side of the NNR. The Ribble Estuary NNR is already England’s third largest National Nature Reserve, and the most important single estuary site in the country for birds.

Work at Hesketh Out Marsh East (HOME) has involved strengthening and raising the height of 2km of flood banks. This has reduced the flood risk to more than 140 properties and 300 hectares of prime farmland nearby.

Natural England Chair, Andrew Sells said: “England’s National Nature Reserves are the most special places for nature and geodiversity, and improve the wellbeing of over 17m annual visitors. The launch of the new joint NNR Strategy will demonstrate latest approaches for creating landscapes that deliver more public benefits such as people’s health and wellbeing, and enabling wildlife to spill over and enrich the surrounding countryside.”

“By working in partnership across the environmental sector we are able to deliver more wildlife and more places for people to engage with it, along with other benefits such as natural flood alleviation, such as here on the Ribble”

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency, said: “Hesketh is a win, win scenario – a fantastic scheme which not only works with nature to reduce flood risk but also brings benefits the wider environment and local communities. Through partnership working we can achieve more and Hesketh proves that.”

Robin Horner, RSPB Area Manager said: “We’re delighted to be celebrating this partnership work and all that has been achieved through this project. These improved coastal defences, fronted by saltmarsh, deliver much needed local climate change adaptation and provide invaluable new wildlife habitat close to Britain’s most important single river estuary for birds.” 

Elinor Ostrom became the first and, so far, the only woman to win a Nobel Prize for Economics in 2009. The pedantic remind me that there isn’t really a Nobel in economics; to be exact, she won the Swedish National Bank’s Prize for economics in memory of Alfred Nobel.  

In fact, while economics was in the title, perhaps it might be better to think of her winning a prize in Ecology. Elinor, an American from California who died in 2012, was a dedicated ecologist, driven by a passion to protect and conserve our beautiful planet.

Elinor won the prize for her work on commons and sustainability.  A commons is a collectively owned area of property such as grazing land for cattle or sheep, or a forest or fishery.

Collective ownership

In 1968 the biologist Garrett Hardin published his famous essay ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’.  He argued that resources and land owned as commons would inevitably be wrecked. For example, over grazing by cattle would lead to soil erosion and the land would be destroyed.

Elinor, who met Garrett Hardin when he lectured at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University where she worked, had different ideas. She knew that far from being tragic, commons often worked well.

She dedicated her life to studying real world commons and looking at how to conserve them. Hardin, whom she had around for dinner and fed hamburgers, argued that unless the commons were taken over by the government or privatised, they would be destroyed. She instead argued that local people collectively owning a resource tend to conserve it.

Those people know that unless they cooperate, for example by agreeing to ration out how many cattle each commoner could graze, they would not have a sustainable future.

Elinor found that local communities were often more knowledgeable about ecology than government officials. She also felt that privatising resources might fail too, with short term profit being more important than long term sustainability. She believed that local knowledge wasn’t everything: letting local people know about the most up to date research from scientific ecologists was vital too.

A meaningful life

She was a member of the Ecological Society of America, arguing that economists had to be aware of ecological science to promote real prosperity.  She was a true green, long before the term was used or Green parties or groups like Friends of the Earth had been created.

For example, she argued that to conserve the environment, we need to consume less and rethink our lifestyles. She was proud that as a child in the 1930s and 40s she helped her mother grow food and can peaches, to get through the economic depression and war years.

She noted: “We need to get people away from the notion that you have to have a fancy car and a huge house. Some of the homes that have been built in the last 10 years just appall me. Why do humans need huge homes? I was born poor and I didn’t know you bought clothes at anything but the Goodwill until I went to college.

“Some of our mentality about what it means to have a good life is, I think, not going to help us in the next 50 years. We have to think through how to choose a meaningful life where we’re helping one another in ways that really help the Earth.”

She also argued that politics tended to be too short term, and was an advocate of the Seven Generation Rule, noting that indigenous peoples in North America promoted the idea of thinking of future generations.

Wisdom of local people

However, her radical green commitments were based not merely on good sentiments, but on sound science. She was concerned with local environments, but also global issues such as climate change and air pollution.

She argued that to solve such problems we need to take notice of both social and natural sciences. Her work on the commons and economics was based on the economics of cooperation. She noted that human beings are neither intrinsically selfish nor intrinsically sharing. Instead, if the right rules and practices were put in place, cooperation and conservation could be encouraged.

Her vision was to use detailed research to try and help us make the best of ourselves. Her research involved listening and learning from the grassroots, finding out the wisdom of local people.

Despite her commitment to science and research, she was passionately committed to environmental issues, practical peace making and grassroots democracy.  But her values were based not on slogans and utopian wishes, but dogged practical work. On the day she died of pancreatic cancer, on 12th June, 2012, she was still helping her students and promoting her ecological solutions.

It is difficult to sum up all her contributions, her approach was both far reaching and radical, but her Nobel win is a reminder that perhaps we need an Ecology prize and that other economists might learn a greener approach from Elinor’s philosophy.

This Author

Derek Wall is International Coordinator of the Green Party of England and Wales (job sharing with Jessica Northey) and a parish councillor in Berkshire. His new book, Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals is due to be published by Pluto this October.

Forest fires in Southeast Asia during the El Niño droughts of 2015 caused considerable disruption to the biodiversity of the region due to the smoke-induced ‘haze’ they created, according to new research led by Benjamin Lee at the University of Kent and the National Parks Board in Singapore.

In the first study of its kind Benjamin, who completed his PhD at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at Kent, monitored wildlife acoustic activity in Singapore before, during and after the major forest fires that hit the region in 2015.

The data showed there was a dramatic drop in acoustic activity by as much as 37.5% during the haze as animals were affected by the pollution. It took a further 16 weeks after the haze had dissipated before acoustic levels showed even a partial recovery.

The worst on record

Furthermore, the researchers said it is highly likely the damage to wildlife was even greater in locations closer to the fires, where air pollution levels were 15-times higher than those in Singapore.

Tropical Asia experiences fires and haze annually, which cause significant human health problems and economic damage across the region. The 2015 event was one of the worst on record.

The findings indicate that large-scale air pollution events, such as those caused by forest or peatland fires, have a far greater impact on biodiversity that previously thought and that preventing such events occurring is paramount.

Benjamin was assisted in his research by Dr Matthew Struebig and Dr Zoe Davies from DICE. The paper, Smoke pollution disrupted biodiversity during the 2015 El Niño fires in Southeast Asia, has been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

This Author

Brendan Montague is Acting Editor of The Ecologist and can be found on twitter at @EcoMontague. 

The charity Trees for Life has launched an initiative to save ancient Scots pines across the Highlands of Scotland from becoming the last generation in a lineage of trees dating back to the last ice age.

Through its Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project, the conservationists wants to help restore 50 areas of remnant and neglected pinewoods – mainly made up of lone, ancient ‘Granny’ pines which are over 200 years old but dying as they stand, with no young trees to succeed them.

The fragments – scattered over a large area – face growing threats from overgrazing by deer, tree diseases and climate change, and are at risk of disappearing forever over the next few years. If they are allowed to die, the extraordinary wildlife dependent on them – such as crossbills and capercaillie – will be lost too.

Scotland’s national tree

Thanks to support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Trees for Life has already raised £150,000 for the ambitious project. It now needs to raise at least £20,000 from the public to be able to start the work.

“The Scots pine is Scotland’s national tree and symbolises the Caledonian Forest – but the last fragments of these ancient pinewoods are dying. Without action, the chance to bring back the wild forest could slip away forever, with only the skeletons of these special trees revealing where a rich woodland once grew,” said Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s chief executive.

“We are determined to ensure these trees are not the last generation of Scots pine in these places. This project is one of our biggest and most crucial initiatives ever, and every donation will help save these precious fragments of our natural heritage.”

In total, only some 42,000 acres of the original Caledonian pinewoods remain in 84 fragments, spread across a wide area from Loch Lomond, northwards to near Ullapool, and eastwards to Glen Ferrick near Aberdeen.

Regenerate the forest

Some of these have been largely restored, but – based on a review of previous studies by Forestry Commission Scotland and the UK Government – Trees for Life believes that at least 50 are declining and could disappear within a generation. Where seeds manage to germinate, the resulting saplings are grazed and killed by deer.

The forest fragments are also isolated from each other, which is bad news for wildlife. Red squirrels can’t reach and colonise restored woodlands from where they have been lost, while the rare capercaillie is rapidly declining in Scotland as there is too little connected forest to enable these birds to reach a stable population.

Funds will enable Trees for Life to produce detailed plans on how to save each remnant so that a new generation of Scots pine can grow, and to establish where pinewoods need to expand to survive changes caused by climate change. The charity also wants to develop innovative ways to regenerate the forest, including through mutually beneficial discussions with landowners.

Action will help ensure that young Scots pine trees are soon growing among the Granny pines. This will provide a renewed forest that is more resilient to threats, with pinewood fragments successfully joined up – making them large enough to provide a good home for the unique wildlife only they can support.

This Author

Brendan Montague is Acting Editor of The Ecologist website, and tweets at @EcoMontague.

To support the project, visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/appeal or call 01309 691292.

The charity Trees for Life has launched an initiative to save ancient Scots pines across the Highlands of Scotland from becoming the last generation in a lineage of trees dating back to the last ice age.

Through its Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project, the conservationists wants to help restore 50 areas of remnant and neglected pinewoods – mainly made up of lone, ancient ‘Granny’ pines which are over 200 years old but dying as they stand, with no young trees to succeed them.

The fragments – scattered over a large area – face growing threats from overgrazing by deer, tree diseases and climate change, and are at risk of disappearing forever over the next few years. If they are allowed to die, the extraordinary wildlife dependent on them – such as crossbills and capercaillie – will be lost too.

Scotland’s national tree

Thanks to support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Trees for Life has already raised £150,000 for the ambitious project. It now needs to raise at least £20,000 from the public to be able to start the work.

“The Scots pine is Scotland’s national tree and symbolises the Caledonian Forest – but the last fragments of these ancient pinewoods are dying. Without action, the chance to bring back the wild forest could slip away forever, with only the skeletons of these special trees revealing where a rich woodland once grew,” said Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s chief executive.

“We are determined to ensure these trees are not the last generation of Scots pine in these places. This project is one of our biggest and most crucial initiatives ever, and every donation will help save these precious fragments of our natural heritage.”

In total, only some 42,000 acres of the original Caledonian pinewoods remain in 84 fragments, spread across a wide area from Loch Lomond, northwards to near Ullapool, and eastwards to Glen Ferrick near Aberdeen.

Regenerate the forest

Some of these have been largely restored, but – based on a review of previous studies by Forestry Commission Scotland and the UK Government – Trees for Life believes that at least 50 are declining and could disappear within a generation. Where seeds manage to germinate, the resulting saplings are grazed and killed by deer.

The forest fragments are also isolated from each other, which is bad news for wildlife. Red squirrels can’t reach and colonise restored woodlands from where they have been lost, while the rare capercaillie is rapidly declining in Scotland as there is too little connected forest to enable these birds to reach a stable population.

Funds will enable Trees for Life to produce detailed plans on how to save each remnant so that a new generation of Scots pine can grow, and to establish where pinewoods need to expand to survive changes caused by climate change. The charity also wants to develop innovative ways to regenerate the forest, including through mutually beneficial discussions with landowners.

Action will help ensure that young Scots pine trees are soon growing among the Granny pines. This will provide a renewed forest that is more resilient to threats, with pinewood fragments successfully joined up – making them large enough to provide a good home for the unique wildlife only they can support.

This Author

Brendan Montague is Acting Editor of The Ecologist website, and tweets at @EcoMontague.

To support the project, visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/appeal or call 01309 691292.

The charity Trees for Life has launched an initiative to save ancient Scots pines across the Highlands of Scotland from becoming the last generation in a lineage of trees dating back to the last ice age.

Through its Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project, the conservationists wants to help restore 50 areas of remnant and neglected pinewoods – mainly made up of lone, ancient ‘Granny’ pines which are over 200 years old but dying as they stand, with no young trees to succeed them.

The fragments – scattered over a large area – face growing threats from overgrazing by deer, tree diseases and climate change, and are at risk of disappearing forever over the next few years. If they are allowed to die, the extraordinary wildlife dependent on them – such as crossbills and capercaillie – will be lost too.

Scotland’s national tree

Thanks to support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Trees for Life has already raised £150,000 for the ambitious project. It now needs to raise at least £20,000 from the public to be able to start the work.

“The Scots pine is Scotland’s national tree and symbolises the Caledonian Forest – but the last fragments of these ancient pinewoods are dying. Without action, the chance to bring back the wild forest could slip away forever, with only the skeletons of these special trees revealing where a rich woodland once grew,” said Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s chief executive.

“We are determined to ensure these trees are not the last generation of Scots pine in these places. This project is one of our biggest and most crucial initiatives ever, and every donation will help save these precious fragments of our natural heritage.”

In total, only some 42,000 acres of the original Caledonian pinewoods remain in 84 fragments, spread across a wide area from Loch Lomond, northwards to near Ullapool, and eastwards to Glen Ferrick near Aberdeen.

Regenerate the forest

Some of these have been largely restored, but – based on a review of previous studies by Forestry Commission Scotland and the UK Government – Trees for Life believes that at least 50 are declining and could disappear within a generation. Where seeds manage to germinate, the resulting saplings are grazed and killed by deer.

The forest fragments are also isolated from each other, which is bad news for wildlife. Red squirrels can’t reach and colonise restored woodlands from where they have been lost, while the rare capercaillie is rapidly declining in Scotland as there is too little connected forest to enable these birds to reach a stable population.

Funds will enable Trees for Life to produce detailed plans on how to save each remnant so that a new generation of Scots pine can grow, and to establish where pinewoods need to expand to survive changes caused by climate change. The charity also wants to develop innovative ways to regenerate the forest, including through mutually beneficial discussions with landowners.

Action will help ensure that young Scots pine trees are soon growing among the Granny pines. This will provide a renewed forest that is more resilient to threats, with pinewood fragments successfully joined up – making them large enough to provide a good home for the unique wildlife only they can support.

This Author

Brendan Montague is Acting Editor of The Ecologist website, and tweets at @EcoMontague.

To support the project, visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/appeal or call 01309 691292.

The charity Trees for Life has launched an initiative to save ancient Scots pines across the Highlands of Scotland from becoming the last generation in a lineage of trees dating back to the last ice age.

Through its Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project, the conservationists wants to help restore 50 areas of remnant and neglected pinewoods – mainly made up of lone, ancient ‘Granny’ pines which are over 200 years old but dying as they stand, with no young trees to succeed them.

The fragments – scattered over a large area – face growing threats from overgrazing by deer, tree diseases and climate change, and are at risk of disappearing forever over the next few years. If they are allowed to die, the extraordinary wildlife dependent on them – such as crossbills and capercaillie – will be lost too.

Scotland’s national tree

Thanks to support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Trees for Life has already raised £150,000 for the ambitious project. It now needs to raise at least £20,000 from the public to be able to start the work.

“The Scots pine is Scotland’s national tree and symbolises the Caledonian Forest – but the last fragments of these ancient pinewoods are dying. Without action, the chance to bring back the wild forest could slip away forever, with only the skeletons of these special trees revealing where a rich woodland once grew,” said Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s chief executive.

“We are determined to ensure these trees are not the last generation of Scots pine in these places. This project is one of our biggest and most crucial initiatives ever, and every donation will help save these precious fragments of our natural heritage.”

In total, only some 42,000 acres of the original Caledonian pinewoods remain in 84 fragments, spread across a wide area from Loch Lomond, northwards to near Ullapool, and eastwards to Glen Ferrick near Aberdeen.

Regenerate the forest

Some of these have been largely restored, but – based on a review of previous studies by Forestry Commission Scotland and the UK Government – Trees for Life believes that at least 50 are declining and could disappear within a generation. Where seeds manage to germinate, the resulting saplings are grazed and killed by deer.

The forest fragments are also isolated from each other, which is bad news for wildlife. Red squirrels can’t reach and colonise restored woodlands from where they have been lost, while the rare capercaillie is rapidly declining in Scotland as there is too little connected forest to enable these birds to reach a stable population.

Funds will enable Trees for Life to produce detailed plans on how to save each remnant so that a new generation of Scots pine can grow, and to establish where pinewoods need to expand to survive changes caused by climate change. The charity also wants to develop innovative ways to regenerate the forest, including through mutually beneficial discussions with landowners.

Action will help ensure that young Scots pine trees are soon growing among the Granny pines. This will provide a renewed forest that is more resilient to threats, with pinewood fragments successfully joined up – making them large enough to provide a good home for the unique wildlife only they can support.

This Author

Brendan Montague is Acting Editor of The Ecologist website, and tweets at @EcoMontague.

To support the project, visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/appeal or call 01309 691292.

The charity Trees for Life has launched an initiative to save ancient Scots pines across the Highlands of Scotland from becoming the last generation in a lineage of trees dating back to the last ice age.

Through its Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project, the conservationists wants to help restore 50 areas of remnant and neglected pinewoods – mainly made up of lone, ancient ‘Granny’ pines which are over 200 years old but dying as they stand, with no young trees to succeed them.

The fragments – scattered over a large area – face growing threats from overgrazing by deer, tree diseases and climate change, and are at risk of disappearing forever over the next few years. If they are allowed to die, the extraordinary wildlife dependent on them – such as crossbills and capercaillie – will be lost too.

Scotland’s national tree

Thanks to support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Trees for Life has already raised £150,000 for the ambitious project. It now needs to raise at least £20,000 from the public to be able to start the work.

“The Scots pine is Scotland’s national tree and symbolises the Caledonian Forest – but the last fragments of these ancient pinewoods are dying. Without action, the chance to bring back the wild forest could slip away forever, with only the skeletons of these special trees revealing where a rich woodland once grew,” said Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s chief executive.

“We are determined to ensure these trees are not the last generation of Scots pine in these places. This project is one of our biggest and most crucial initiatives ever, and every donation will help save these precious fragments of our natural heritage.”

In total, only some 42,000 acres of the original Caledonian pinewoods remain in 84 fragments, spread across a wide area from Loch Lomond, northwards to near Ullapool, and eastwards to Glen Ferrick near Aberdeen.

Regenerate the forest

Some of these have been largely restored, but – based on a review of previous studies by Forestry Commission Scotland and the UK Government – Trees for Life believes that at least 50 are declining and could disappear within a generation. Where seeds manage to germinate, the resulting saplings are grazed and killed by deer.

The forest fragments are also isolated from each other, which is bad news for wildlife. Red squirrels can’t reach and colonise restored woodlands from where they have been lost, while the rare capercaillie is rapidly declining in Scotland as there is too little connected forest to enable these birds to reach a stable population.

Funds will enable Trees for Life to produce detailed plans on how to save each remnant so that a new generation of Scots pine can grow, and to establish where pinewoods need to expand to survive changes caused by climate change. The charity also wants to develop innovative ways to regenerate the forest, including through mutually beneficial discussions with landowners.

Action will help ensure that young Scots pine trees are soon growing among the Granny pines. This will provide a renewed forest that is more resilient to threats, with pinewood fragments successfully joined up – making them large enough to provide a good home for the unique wildlife only they can support.

This Author

Brendan Montague is Acting Editor of The Ecologist website, and tweets at @EcoMontague.

To support the project, visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/appeal or call 01309 691292.