Hundreds of trees to be planted high on popular Highland Munro
NatureScot staff have already been up the mountain in snow and ice to prepare the ground for planting.
Hundreds of saplings will be planted high up one of Scotland’s popular Munros.
Efforts are underway to plant woolly and downy willow saplings at Ben Lui Nature Reserve near Tyndrum in the southern Highlands.
The project is being led by NatureScot, which owns the 953-hectare reserve.
Staff said the hardy native willows are specially adapted to survive at higher altitudes and once would have been widespread as part of the habitat known as montane scrub.
Conservationists have argued historical grazing pressure means that these low shrubs have been declining for decades and are now largely limited to the hardest to reach trees on inaccessible crags and steep burns.
The nature agency said both species are considered to be vulnerable to extinction in Britain and now often exist as small, isolated populations which may not have enough diversity to reproduce and survive in the long term.
Staff have already been up the mountain battling snow and ice to prepare an area of cliff and crag for planting, ready to receive the saplings in the spring.
They said six species of montane willow have been recorded at the site since the 1990s which makes it suitable to trial using a combination of small fenced exclosures and unprotected planting on accessible areas of crags.
Peter Kelly, NatureScot’s operations officer, said: “Scotland would once have had a rich habitat of montane woodland, a zone of dwarf trees and low shrubs linking forest and open hillside and supporting many species. That has now almost vanished due to historical browsing by sheep and deer.
“We’re working closely with local land managers to reduce grazing pressure in this area, but the willow scrub is still struggling. The plants rely on a very low or absent grazing pressure to thrive, and the populations are small and are not reproducing successfully.
“The aim of the project is to give these plants a helping hand at a critical time, before we lose this population altogether. Our hope is to restore a viable montane woodland habitat that can take hold and spread naturally in future.”
The planting is part of the Wild Strathfillan project which is run by the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs Countryside Trust and funded by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund (NRF).
Ellie Mayhew, Nature Restoration advisor for Loch Lomond and The Trossachs Countryside Trust, said: “We are excited to be working with NatureScot to trial a novel approach to protecting rare montane willows at Ben Lui.
“If successful, these exclosures could offer a cheap and simple way to protect fragments of montane scrub habitat. We look forward to sharing the results with the conservation practitioner community.”
The nature reserve is part of the wider Ben Lui Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which contains four Munro peaks, with the 1,130m Ben Lui often regarded as among the finest mountains in the southern Highlands. Together with Ben Oss, Beinn Dubhchraig and Beinn a’ Chleibh, the area is renowned for its exceptionally rich and varied upland flora.
NatureScot said the project involves small, discrete areas of planting which aim to compliment and reinforce existing populations of montane willows in the area. The agency said the exclosures are located in a remote area at the base of crags on the north-east of Meall nan Tighearn at a height of between 500-650m, so will have no visual or access impact on walkers accessing the popular Munro summits.
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