Rewind, rewild

Words by SALLY COFFEY

As the world meets to discuss climate change at COP26 in Glasgow, we look at efforts taking place to restore Scotland to her natural state, so it can be enjoyed by future generations

LEFT: A stag at Alladale Wilderness Reserve THIS IMAGE: At Alladale 800,000 native trees have been replanted within the reserve

You may think of the Scotland as a place of large open landscapes, with hillsides freckled with purple heather and occasionally topped with dense banks of trees, but really, this vision is a creation, rather than what nature intended.

Scotland was once covered in a huge blanket of Caledonian forest that was home to birch, hazel, pine and oak trees, and though native trees can still be found in pockets of the country, they are far from what they were – according to NatureScot, Scotland’s Nature Agency, just 4 per cent of Scotland’s total land area is covered with native woodland.

The changing landscape is due to many factors: the farming practices of early agricultural settlers, the introduction of non-native plantations in the early 19th century, large-scale sheep farming, the popularity of gaming estates in the Victorian era, and, of course, the big industry of forestry.

And it’s not just the trees that have gone – much of Scotland’s native wildlife has departed too, which has upset the natural order of things. Man has hunted Scotland’s big mammals – wolves, bears and lynx – to extinction, leaving no natural predator for the red and roe deer, which eat up the seedlings of new trees almost as quickly as they can be planted.

And it’s not just big mammals: numbers of birds, smaller mammals, and insects have dwindled as their habitats have been eradicated, upsetting the natural diversity. And so, if there is any chance of restoring ecosystems, concerted efforts on a large-scale are required.

In March 2021 the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, a coalition of over 20 organisations, called for the Scottish Government to set in motion plans to rewild 30 per cent of Scotland’s land and sea, as well as some of its towns and cities, by 2030, and urged the government to be brave and declare Scotland a ‘rewilding nation’.

While this may seem overly ambitious, it’s likely that campaigns like this will be bolstered following the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), which is taking

place in Glasgow this autumn. During the conference, leaders will no doubt discuss the global call to action outlined in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 paper, in which it calls the scale up of the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems as a “proven measure” in the fight against climate change.

But what exactly is rewilding and how can it benefit Scotland’s landscapes and ecosystems? While the term

‘rewilding’ may suggest a return to how things were before, this is only partly true. A large part of the ethos is to restore key elements of an ecosystem and then allow the natural processes to take over, making them self-sufficient if you like. Across Scotland, there are many long-term restoration projects currently underway that aim to revive ecosystems, which will hopefully result in the return of native wildlife and fauna. Cairngorms Connect, for example, is a 200-year plan shared by neighbouring land managers within the Cairngorms National Park to improve habitats – including woodland, blanket bogs and water courses – and ecological processes across a huge 60,000-hectare area. It is the biggest project of its kind in the UK. The Glenfeshie Estate, which is part of the program, has already done a huge amount of work to regenerate woodland, which experts say looks like it will be hard to reverse. The estate is now home to a large number of species of plants and wildlife, around 20 per cent of which are ‘nationally rare’ or ‘scarce’, including Scottish wildcats, pine martens, ospreys, black grouse and ptarmigan. Visitors can stay in one of the cottages on the estate and go out with rangers to see first-hand the work that has been done, or join one of the Big Picture Rewilding Retreats with Wilderness Scotland (wildernessscotland.com), which includes a stay in the heart of one of Scotland’s most beautiful glens, which is gradually being returned to her natural beauty. The next planned retreats take place in June or October 2022. Another place where a long-term rewilding programme is underway is Alladale, a vast reserve in the Sutherland interior of the northwest Highlands, about an hour-and-ahalf northwest of Inverness. Set across 23,000 acres of wilderness, the reserve was purchased by philanthropist Paul Lister in 2003. Since then he has been trying to undo some of the damage done to the glens and hillsides in the area over the centuries by replanting native trees – 800,000 and counting – and bringing back red squirrels. Alladale also has a number of places to stay – including Deanich Lodge, which is surely one of the most remote places to stay in Scotland – and you can hike or take a ranger-led tour throughout the reserve, where, bit by bit, the landscape is being returned to how it once would have been. For Paul Lister, one of the members of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, rewilding is a way of showing there are alternatives to the way land has been used and cultivated in Scotland for The Glenfeshie Estate is now home to a huge number centuries, and he considers landscapes like his, of species of plants and wildlife, around 20 per cent where nature is being encouraged, as being in “recovery”. of which are ‘nationally rare’ or ‘scarce’ Lister says: “What Alladale really does is show a different model to the Victorian model

CLOCKWISE, FROM THIS

IMAGE: A ptarmigan at Alladale Wilderness Reserve; Eagle’s Crag Cottage at Alladale; part of the Glenfeshie Estate; a pine marten at Alladale

At Alladale, wild ponies roam, Highland cattle drink from pure streams, and the hills, lochs and rivers seem to sing nature’s song

BELOW: Slackbrae self-catering cottage on the Brucefield Estate that was established 150 years ago that is nowadays quite frankly not very productive. The model of hunting, shooting and fishing on our land of the last 150 years is not the model that is going to see us through the next 150 years.”

Instead, Lister hopes to provide a place where those curious about rewilding can come and hole up for a week or so and enjoy seeing nature thrive.

I visited Alladale in 2020 and found it to be an incredibly beautiful place, where wild ponies roam, Highland cattle drink from streams, and the hills, and lochs sing nature’s song.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

■ Alladale Wilderness Reserve has four private lodges to choose from: all are set within incredible scenery, while only one is self-catered. alladale.com ■ There are two self-catering cottages and a mountain lodge, which sleeps up to 12 people, available to book on the Glenfeshie Estate. glenfeshie.scot ■ From luxury yurts and glamping huts to the main house, the Bamff Estate offers several options. bamff.co.uk ■ Groups of up to four can stay on the Brucefield Estate at Slackbrae cottage, which has been fully renovated to withstand the harshest of winters. brucefieldestate.scot

Among its many conservation projects, Alladale has been active in the recovery of the threatened Scottish wildcat by joining a captive breeding project in partnership with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Saving Wildcats (see page 36). Lister also hopes one day to return wolves to the reserve, though he says it will be as part of a much larger fenced reserve.

One rewilding project that has been going on a little longer than most is at Bamff, in northeast Perthshire, where a reintroduction of beavers programme – they were considered extinct in the UK by the 16th century – has been so successful since launching in 2002, that it contributed to the animal being reclassed as a native British species in 2016. Visitors can stay on the estate, and as well as see the creatures themselves, you can learn about the impact the animals have had on the local ditches, which the beavers have converted into ponds using a series of dams that in turn have benefited otters, water voles, herons, ducks, and much more wildlife. Buoyed on by the project, the Ramsay family who run the estate now plan to rewild a further 450 acres of fields and woods on the estate. At the Brucefield Estate, meanwhile, they’re not rewilding so much as regenerating and protecting what they have. Brucefield is a largely untouched country estate with a rich landscape of architectural history and unique ancestry dating back 700 years. Since returning home in 2012, owner and biologist Victoria Bruce-Winkler, 9th Lady Balfour of Burleigh, has been passionate about regenerating the 420-hectare family estate.

Having instigated a 10-year wildlife plan that includes monitoring and managing the estate’s rich habitats, including woodlands with ancient Scots pine, meadows and a lowland heath, which is a Natural Scotland site of special scientific interest, Bruce-Winkler is now ready to welcome guests onto the estate with a stay at Slackbrae, a former forester’s cottage, which has been sustainably restored to provide low-energy self-catering stays.

Victoria says: “We have been working tirelessly with ecologists and conservationists for the last 10 years to preserve the unique heritage of the estate. Our vision is to create an estate where people can come and relax, explore the heritage of the estate and surround themselves with nature.” S