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Make Space For Nature
Make Space For Nature
The Will in the Willows: Restoring Ben Lui’s Rare Mountain Plants
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High on the slopes of Ben Lui in the Southern Highlands, a quiet restoration is underway. In this episode, we join volunteers and NatureScot staff for a day of tree planting on one of Scotland's finest National Nature Reserves.
Peter Kelly, Operations Officer at NatureScot, tells us all about the effort to bring back montane scrub — a rare habitat of dwarf trees and low shrubs that once covered Scotland's uplands but has been pushed to the edge of extinction by centuries of intensive grazing.
From spiky exclosures and GPS-collared cattle to the painstaking work of planting woolly and downy willow on steep crags in all weathers, this episode explores what it really takes to restore a lost piece of Scotland's natural landscape — and why it matters.
Volunteering On Ben Lui
SpeakerWelcome to Make Space for Nature from Nature Scot. I'm Kirstin Guthrie and I've been out on one of my annual volunteering days getting my hands dirty planting trees as part of an inspiring project in the Southern Highlands. I was at Nature Scot's Ben Lui National Nature Reserve, next to one of Scotland's finest Monroe's Ben Lui, where vital conservation work is underway. Hundreds of woolly and downy willow saplings are being planted to restore Montaine Scrub, a zone of dwarf trees and low shrubs that once linked forest and open hillside across Scotland. These plants are now considered vulnerable to extinction in Britain, and without intervention we could lose them altogether.
Montane Scrub: A Lost Treeline
SpeakerPeter Kelly, Operations Officer at Nature Scot, tells us all about it. So hi Peter, welcome to the podcast. For listeners who have never heard of Montane Scrub, can you paint a picture of what Scotland's uplands would have looked like when this habitat was thriving?
Speaker 1Yeah, so I suppose we're we're kind of thinking back to what things may have looked like several thousand years uh ago in the past, towards you know, after the end of the last ice age or thereabouts, when there was a much greater percentage of woodland cover uh all over Scotland. And if you think think of your standard image of a tree, once you get up to a certain altitude, normal trees, it's too exposed, it's too cold, they can't survive. So you get a sort of natural thinning out of the at the tree line, and you move into lower growing, scrubbier uh shrub species, which is what we're working with today. And they're they're species that can survive in much more extreme environments, much more cold and wind, because they have a different kind of habit that they grow, they grow quite low to the ground, they can deal with quite a lot of snow lie over winter, and they can survive and and and grow again in the spring once that all melts. So if you if you were to see it, especially from the distance, you wouldn't think there's a woodland, it's just it's quite bushy, low-growing stuff on generally on quite steep hard to access sites.
unknownOkay.
Grazing And The Shrinking Habitat
SpeakerAnd and how does that compare to what what we're seeing just now, like when when we look out over over the hills?
Speaker 1Yeah, so I mean the situation at the moment across across most of Scotland really is that all of the hills have been grazed quite intensively for hundreds of years, basically, between sheep uh and and deer, and over a long period of time that has reduced the extent of these habitats to the situation where we are now, in a lot of cases, they're just kind of clinging on uh by the fingertips on the the most inaccessible, steepest sites where they can stay away from from grazing animals. Um so they're really kind of at the limit of of where they can survive just now because of that long-term pressure that they've been under.
SpeakerAnd
The Willows And The Geology
Speakeryou know, we're here today and we're we're planting some uh woolly and downy willow, and you know what what makes those plants so special?
Speaker 1So uh woolly and downy willow, uh along with uh the other species of montane willow that we already have growing on site here, they need quite calcareous soils, so the geology is quite important and the impact that that has on the soils, and it's it it's quite restricted in Scotland, it limits where they can grow basically. So they're they're they're quite rare, both because they're restricted through grazing and the type of ground that they can grow on, but also the geology limits where they can grow as well, so they're they're they're quite rare species.
SpeakerAnd you you know you've been up in the mountain, it's been a bit of a climb for us today. It's been a it's a beautiful day today, but you've been up on the mountain preparing the site in in pretty tough conditions. I mean you couldn't have asked for a better day. The sun is blazing, there's not a cloud in the sky just now. So, what does the work involve, you know, and what what are the practical challenges of of working at altitude in in winter?
Planting In Winter And Exclosures
Speaker 1Well, yeah, we're we're really spoiled today, it's beautiful weather, but we've uh we've been up sort of doing preparatory works for for today and uh for planting the trees for the last six months. Really, we came out um in autumn last year to scope out planting sites in really torrential rain for a couple of days. It was it was pretty hard going, and then later on in the winter, late November, early December, we built some small exclosures that we're planting within today, and that was uh that was in quite harsh conditions. There was a lot of snow on the ground. Uh one of the days in particular, it was really, really cold, so it was quite tough going, but uh we had a good team of folk helping us out, and uh we got we got through it in in reasonably good spirits for the most part.
SpeakerIt's certainly been hard work on a beautiful day, so I can only imagine what it was like on a on a wintry day. So but yeah, and then you know the project as you said, it uses a combination of fenced, you call them exclosures, not enclosures, um, and unprotected planting. Can you explain the thinking behind that approach? You know, what kind of what you're hoping to learn from that?
Speaker 1Yeah, so we're still we're still kind of on this side anyway, we're still in very early days of trying to figure out how we can best help bolster the populations of montane willows that are here at the moment. So we're wanting to try as many different approaches as we can, really. So we've built some small exclosures to to keep sheep and deer away from the plants that we're going to plant. We've also put some exclosures right in against the base of the cliffs to try and encourage plants that are currently growing above to spread down into more accessible ground to give them a bit of protection, and then we're also planting on bits of uh crag that we can safely access on foot, which the guys are are doing just now. Yeah, so we're we're also planting on on accessible parts of the crags to see if we can get them places that are difficult enough for sheep and deer to get to that they won't bother trying to graze. But you know, we'll monitor this annually over the next few years and we'll try and learn as much as we can from what's worked and and what hasn't, and uh and just take that that forward into the future if we try and expand the project.
SpeakerGreat, and you and you call it an exclusure. What what is what does that mean, exclusure rather than inclusure?
Speaker 1Yeah, so what we're trying to do with the with the fencing uh basically is is to exclude grazing animals, so sheep and deer, and they're they're very small, they're only a few square metres each, and they're only about a metre, just over a metre high. So they're not kind of big, big uh robust things, they're they're just to kind of discourage uh sheep and deer from coming coming close to the to the plants that we've planted within them.
SpeakerYeah, okay, and they're quite spiky, aren't they?
Speaker 1They are very spiky, yeah. As as anybody who's handled them will will be uh would be only keep too keen to tell. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SpeakerNow we've all had gloves on and we've been very safe about it all, but yeah, they are pretty spiky. And you know,
Genetics, Reintroductions, And Wildlife
SpeakerBen Lui, where we are, it you know, it's already got six species of montane willow recorded at the site, so so why does it still need intervention and help?
Speaker 1Yeah, so I mean there is there's a really high diversity of of montane willows already on this part of the site, which is why we're kind of focusing our efforts here. But that you know they're they're in quite a degraded state, I suppose, if you look at it on a kind of long historical basis. They're very isolated, the populations that are up there, and they've been isolated for hundreds of years, really. They're not easily within range of other populations on other hills where pollen could grow across and they could produce uh new plants. So the thinking is to just bolster the the populations that are here, increase the genetic diversity a little bit, so you increase the chances of uh viable seed being produced, and try and bridge the gaps between isolated populations so that you can try and try and give it a wee helping hand, I suppose, in in terms of recovery.
SpeakerAnd and woolly willow, it it's not actually recorded at the site at all. So, what's the evidence that it actually belongs here?
Speaker 1Yeah, so we don't actually have any records of woolly willow uh growing on this site. The records uh that we've looked at kind of stretch back over a hundred years, um back to the kind of late 1800s, and woolly willow has never been recorded. But that's not to say that it hasn't been here at some point. The uh the ground conditions and the geology is really quite suitable for it. It woolly willow wants kind of highly calcareous soils, which is what we've got here, and it's also one of the most it's probably the most palatable montane willow species. So with you know grazing pressure over the years, it's it was probably if it was here, it was probably the first species to disappear, and that could easily have happened before kind of regular uh detailed recording of the plants on the hill started. So um again it's an experimental thing. We're we're introducing it to the site to see how it gets on. If it takes, then then brilliant. But um we you know we know we're kind of we're gonna keep a note that it has been introduced rather than kind of colonising naturally, so it'll be easy to distinguish it and we know where we've planted it um and how many. So it should be easy to distinguish from any if a natural population does pop up at some point, we'll be able to know um that it's come in on it on its own.
SpeakerYeah, yeah. I mean we we're walking around here and we've seen so many species so far, we've seen frogs and and lizards and and all sorts. You know, is there any other species that are kind of notable for the area?
Speaker 1Um yeah, well, well, so I mean, as well as the botanical interest, which the site is is most famous for really, and a lot of that is concentrated on on Ben Louie itself. There's also kind of significant uh eagle interest. There's a there's a real concentration of breeding golden eagles around this area, uh which is something we're having to consider when we're doing this work as well, so we're not kind of causing any disturbance to to eagles that might be nesting in the area. We've also seen white-tailed sea eagles today, so we know they're present in the area too. So, you know, there's there's a real potential to with a bit of a helping hand for things to really improve further here and to get a really vibrant uh ecosystem going again.
SpeakerThat's great. Um
Working With Landowners And Funders
Speakeryou know it's been so exciting to see some of the things today, and you know, you're working with a lot of like local land managers to to reduce the grazing pressures, you know. How do those conversations go and and how important is that relationship, I suppose, to the to the long-term success of such a project?
Speaker 1Yeah, we're we're really lucky in that we have really good relationships with a lot of the landowners uh around us here. Uh, we work very closely with a couple of them, in particular a neighbour and farmer who, in the last couple of years, has been bringing his his cattle onto site uh with GPS collars to control the grazing and to to graze areas of the site that we would never have been able to graze with cattle in the past because there's no fences up here. But with the the GPS technology, we can we can put them on bits of the hill where they seem to be doing really really well uh through the summer, but wouldn't have been possible in the past. And it's great having that relationship with the farmer. He's he seems to have really taken to the technology as well. It's it's it's great. And we also have a really good uh relationship with one of the neighbouring estates who help us with our deer control as well, and um and it's it's great having that coordinated relationship, so you know we know what they're what they're doing and what they're trying to achieve, and we have regular conversations with them about what we're trying to do over here as well. So it really feels like we're on the same kind of page with everybody. Yeah. And uh, you know, it's it's quite it's it's really good to be in that position.
SpeakerYeah, absolutely makes life easier for for everybody involved, really. Um and when you talked about the cattle and and the GPS, that the collars are it's to kind of keep them in a certain area, isn't it? It's almost like they get a little kind of warning if they're if they're going beyond a a kind of a virtual boundary, I suppose. So it does it saves on fencing, doesn't it?
Speaker 1Yeah, well I mean you couldn't realistically, you couldn't fence up here. It's it's too it's too remote, it's too inaccessible, and the weather conditions are too extreme to be able to maintain a fence. So having that technology opens up all of these kind of grounds where you know you can bring cattle in and they they graze in a very different way to to how sheep and deer graze, so they'll do a very different job in terms of restructuring the vegetation, opening up the ground a wee bit and uh making space for uh for different species to seed into and grow. Mm-hmm.
SpeakerAnd you know, today we've got a lot of um oh we've got a lot of partners uh working here today as well, volunteer volunteering uh on the site uh from Loch Lomond and Trossach s National Park. So and the planting itself, it's it's part of the Wild Strathfillan project run by the Loch Lomand and Trosssachs Countryside Trust and and it's also funded by the Scottish Government's Nature Restoration Fund. So, you know, how does a partnership like that come together in in practice? And obviously that's there's a a lot of public organisations and private organisations, you know, coming together to the table. So, you know, what what do they all bring to the table that others they couldn't do it alone?
Speaker 1Well, yeah, it's about uh first of all, maybe just to say that I mean without the support of the Wild Strath fillan project and the Countryside Trust, we wouldn't have been able to do any of this. They've been brilliant at getting this project up and running and helping us all along the way, every kind of step of the way, uh, in terms of getting to where we are today. So we've been working with them on this project, but also they've been working with landowners all across this area for the last couple of years. I think their real success has been being able to provide that kind of extra resource to to the landowners in terms of planning and managing projects that a lot of estates and landowners they just don't have the time to do. They want to do these these kinds of works, they want to see biodiversity improve on their their land holdings, but it's having the time and the resources to be able to manage that. So having that extra resource from from Wildstrathville and I think has been really useful. And you know, I know there's been struggles in terms of getting things delivered on time. It's hard when you're when you've got a short term funding window to to get things completed and and done, but yeah, I think they've they've done a really good job, especially here. We've we found it really useful. They've also been helping with the cattle collars, that was that was with their support that we were able to do that too. So it's uh it's been really positive, I think.
SpeakerThat's lovely to hear everybody's working working together so
Success, Wider Momentum, And Home Actions
Speakerwell. And you know, if this approach works that that that we're you know, this project, what does success look like in you know five, ten, twenty twenty years' time even?
Speaker 1Yeah, so I mean this is really kind of playing a long game with this stuff. These plants are incredibly slow growing. So, you know, in in five years' time, if we have a reasonable success rate, even if like a quarter of the plants are still sort of have established and are surviving, then then I think that will be successful. And then over you know, the next few decades after that, if we can start to see them spread uh and seed successfully and get into a stage where we maybe don't need the fenced exclosures anymore and they can grow in in more accessible areas because there's enough of them that even though there's some grazing pressure, because you're never going to get rid of all grazing pressure, and we don't want to get rid of all grazing pressure either, but that there's enough kind of material growing that it can't be kind of all grazed out in in one season. So I think long term looking for a s a sort of self-sustaining uh ecosystem to establish itself.
SpeakerYeah, brilliant. I mean I think quite a few of us that have been here today will would like to come back and and see our trees, you know, again. But um I think we've named them all as well. So, and you know, and and are we seeing similar projects or or you know, kind of wider interest in in this in this type of habitat or the revival of this kind of habitat across Scotland?
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean there's been really good work going on all around Scotland really for the last kind of 10 or 20 years in in in certain areas, but it feels like it's it's really starting to pick up uh in the last few years. More and more estates and landowners are getting interested um in native woodland creation or restoration, and as part of that looking kind of beyond the tree line and at this sort of missing habitat that would have been present in a lot of parts of Scotland and looking at what they can do in terms of montane scrub restoration as well. So it's it's really good to see. Um, and if we can get as much of that as possible and help kind of bridge these gaps from mountain to mountain, we end up with a much more uh robust and sustainable ecosystem in place, then hopefully.
SpeakerYeah, yeah, absolutely, and and you know, fingers crossed ever you know that this all works out. It's it's certainly a really exciting project to be involved in here. And you know, and finally, for you really this is a question for you, a personal one. You know, if there was one simple thing you would maybe want our listeners to do to make space for nature in their lives, you know, what what what would that be?
Speaker 1Um that's true, that's tricky. Am I allowed to say two? Yes, okay. Well, I always think um I I've I've dug a pond in my own garden a couple of years ago, and uh I'm amazed at how quickly that's kind of been colonised by frogs and dragonflies and stuff just within the space of a year, and that creates a whole different habitat in your little garden space, which is just I think it's amazing to be able to make just a couple of square metres of a space and you get a whole new world developing in it, really. And the other thing I found really useful as well was just kind of adapting how you cut your grass and leaving wee strips even that you cut you know in in rotation around your garden instead of mowing it all in one go, you don't want to leave the whole thing go wild over winter, but or over summer rather. But uh just kind of giving more space for for things like bees and and and butterflies to to be able to feed over the summer, I think, is is really it's really nice, and it's really nice to see more wildlife in your garden as well. It's quite rewarding.
SpeakerYeah, absolutely. No, that's great. Listen, Peter, thank you so much. It's been great to take time out there, five ten minutes out of our our hard work, um, just to hear about you know the project and what's going on here. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1Thanks very much for coming out.
SpeakerAnd personally,
Closing Reflection
Speakertoday's reminded me that getting outside genuinely matters. I mean it's not just for the trees and the wildlife, but for us. There's a real difference in how you feel after time outdoors. Moving, breathing, being somewhere that doesn't involve a screen. It doesn't have to be a Scottish mountain. A lunchtime walk does the job. Whatever it is, make space for it. Thanks for listening. For more ways to connect with and help protect Scotland's natural world, go to nature.