A small miracle on Dundreggan

One day in August 2007, before we had completed the purchase of Dundreggan, I was out walking on the estate with Colin Blyth, a forestry consultant whom we’ve worked with for many years, utilising his skills and experience to complement and support our work. That particular day, we had climbed to the top of Binnilidh Bheag, the small hill that overlooks the buildings on Dundreggan, to enjoy the view over the southern half of the estate. Looking from the top I was delighted to spot a small Scots pine seedling (Pinus sylvestris) amongst the flowering heather (Calluna vulgaris) on the steep slope not far below me.

Scrambling down to it, I took a series of photographs and the one above has gone on to feature in some of the leaflets we’ve produced about Dundreggan, as it symbolises our goal of restoring native forest, and Scots pines, to suitable parts of the estate. At the time, it was one of the few healthy-looking young pine seedlings on the estate, as its relative inaccessibility on the steep slope had kept it safe from overgrazing by the large number of red deer (Cervus elaphus) on Dundreggan then. It also indicated the potential for natural regeneration of the native forest on the estate. If the pressure from the deer could be reduced then naturally-occurring seedlings like this would be free to grow, enabling the forest to cover more of the land again. That was one of the driving forces behind our purchase of the estate, as I could see the opportunity for both natural regeneration like this, and for planting trees in other areas that were too remote from mature pines and birches, and therefore were unlikely to have seedlings germinating there spontaneously.

That day in 2007, Colin and I were scouting out parts of the estate, looking at the potential of the site and the opportunities for forest recovery there. The summit of Binnilidh Bheag provides a great overview of the southern part of Dundreggan, including the area of native woodland on the lower slopes of the hill, and the ground immediately above it, where there were a lot of young downy birch seedlings (Betula pubescens) being held in check by the deer. There’s also an excellent view down to the riparian zone, beside the River Moriston, where Dundreggan has a few hectares of land, between the river and the main road.

Although I’ve been up to the top of Binnilidh Bheag many times since then, particularly after we took ownership of the estate on 1st August 2008, I’d never actually returned to look at that specific pine seedling since that day in 2007. In early September this year, however, I was out walking on Dundreggan with two of my colleagues, Doug Gilbert and Alan McDonnell, and our route took us along the lower slopes of Binnilidh Bheag, as shown in the photograph here on the right. The heather was in full flower, and it reminded me of that day in 2007, and I knew immediately that it was time to revisit the pine seedling.

Although we hadn’t planned on going to the summit of Binnilidh Bheag, and to the area with the pine seedling, Doug and Alan agreed to my suggestion of amending our route to take us that way. It would also be especially useful for Alan, as he hadn’t been up there before and it would provide him with a better perspective of the extent of our land at Dundreggan and of the various elements of our vision for the restoration of the forest and other natural habitats on the estate.

Reaching the steep slope on the south side of Binnilidh Bheag, just below the summit, I spotted a young pine that looked like it was in the place where I’d photographed the seedling back in 2007. Unfortunately I didn’t have a copy of the 2007 photograph with me, so I couldn’t replicate the exact image in the way that a comparison with the original would have allowed me to, but from my memory of that photograph I took as close a picture as I could, in terms of the perspective and angle etc.

The pine had grown considerably since 2007, and could no longer be termed a seedling – it was a young tree with vigorous growth on it, and was taller than any of us in height. In the photograph here though, the height difference between Doug and the pine is deceptive, as he’s standing downslope of the tree, so there wasn’t quite such a height difference as there appears to be in this image. Nevertheless, it was an impressive young tree, obviously flourishing on this well-drained south facing slope, with mineral soil readily accessible to its roots.

As is often the case, while I was photographing the tree I took some time to look at it more closely, to appreciate its vitality and healthy growth. As I did so, I was delighted and astonished to see that it had a cone almost fully ripe on it – this is very unusual for a pine of this size and young age. Scots pines normally begin coning when they are about 15 or 20 years old and 5 metres or more in height, but this tree didn’t meet either of those criteria.

Pines cones take two years to reach maturity, growing from a female flower that is fertilised by pollen blown by the wind from male flowers in May. After one year, the cones are about the size of a person’s smallest fingernail, and in their second summer they grow to full size, with the seeds ripening inside and being released when the cones open while still on the tree in the warmer days of the next spring, two years after pollination took place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was only the one cone at this stage of development on the young pine, but when I looked at the tips of this year’s growth on the tree, I spotted several smaller cones that had grown from flowers fertilised in the spring of this year.

Two of these young cones were at the tip of one branch, growing next to the resin-covered buds that will burst and unfold as the new growth on the tree next spring and summer. By contrast, the larger cone, which would have been at the tip of last year’s growth and adjacent to the buds then, was now at the base of the tree’s leader shoot, and next to the base of the side shoots that had grown this year from the lateral buds that had surrounded the terminal, or leader shoot, bud.

These young cones, and several others at the top of some other branches, showed that the older cone was not a fluke or an anomaly for the age of the tree, but instead is the harbinger of the reproductive potential of this pine at an earlier than usual age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My heart leapt as I saw these cones, because they were a clear sign that the regeneration of the forest at Dundreggan is developing apace, and it seemed like a little miracle that this tree was beginning the reproductive phase of its life at an earlier stage than normal. I’ve long believed that the natural process of forest recovery, or ecological restoration (which humans are preventing in most parts of the Highlands), can be accelerated by the care and love we bring to our work and to the land. This precocious young pine felt to me like a living testament to that.

While I was photographing the cones on the young pine, Doug spotted another, much younger pine seedling amongst the heather a few metres to the east. It looked like it had germinated in the spring of 2014, so was just over a year old now, with its second summer of growth on it. As such, it looked to be a year younger than the first pine when I had photographed it in 2007. As I looked at it though, I wondered if in another 8 years’ time, it too would be bearing its first cones, and would be another precocious young pine, playing a role in the further natural regeneration of the forest?

When I got back home and compared the photos of the young pine with the cones on it that I’d taken this day with the photo from 2007, I realised that in fact it wasn’t the same tree after all, as the surrounding topography, and the position of some rocks, was very slightly different to that in the earlier photo. Although the tree I’d seen this year was in a very similar position, it was in fact two different pines I’d photographed those 8 years apart, but this doesn’t diminish the impact of what I experienced in any way. The underlying story and what it symbolises is still the same – namely that forest recovery is underway at Dundreggan, and that seemingly miraculous events are occurring. When we work in tandem and harmony with nature’s inherent desire to restore diversity and abundance to a landscape, we create a dynamic synergy with nature that speeds up the process.