After my visit to the Barrach Wood at Cougie near Glen Affric in late November last year, I was keen to return and explore more of this special area so in early January I made it the destination for my first trip of the new year. The small remnant of the Caledonian Forest there straddles the burn called Allt Riabhach, and whereas in November I’d been on the south of the watercourse, this time I went to the north side, where the bulk of the woodland is situated.
Arriving at the woodland, I parked my car on the forest track nearby, and immediately noticed that there are numerous non-native trees regenerating spontaneously on the edge of this native pinewood. The area had previously been surrounded by plantations of non-native conifers such as lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), and although most of those have been removed now, their seeds remain in the soil and still germinate, producing young trees.
Trees for Life volunteers have done some work in this area over the years, felling these non-natives before they grow too large and begin to impinge on the ancient pinewood, but I could see there’s more to do in this respect. It will be an ongoing issue for a number of years yet, until the seed bank from the non-native trees in the soil is exhausted, and until the last of the larger exotic conifers (which are still producing seed) are removed as well.
Stepping into the pinewood itself, under the canopy of the mature pines, was like entering a different world, and I was glad to note there weren’t any non-natives within the woodland itself. There were a few patches of snow remaining from a recent snowfall though, and when I went to have a look at one of those I immediately noticed a visually pleasing combination of reindeer lichen (Cladonia arbuscula) and pine needles amongst the crystalline shapes of the snow on a hummock.
There are in fact several different species of lichens that go under the general common name of ‘reindeer lichen’, and I photographed a number of these, which I was able to get identified by John Douglass, a lichenologist who helps me with this. I’m slowly learning to identify more lichens myself, but I still need assistance in many cases, such as with the reindeer lichens.
This group of lichens get their name from the fact that reindeer feed on them extensively in Scandinavia, but I think it’s also interesting that the shapes of the lichens sometimes look like that of the reindeers’ antlers. In Scotland the reindeer lichen are much less abundant than in Scandinavia, and that’s due to the excessive browsing pressure from the large numbers of red deer (Cervus elaphus) that we have here in Scotland.
Whereas in Norway, Sweden and Finland it’s common to see extensive beds of reindeer lichen in the forests, in Scotland it’s a different story, with only small clumps or patches occurring, because of overgrazing. However, where deer have been excluded by fences, those small clumps will grow and expand to become larger beds, as they do in Scandinavia – we have some examples of this occurring at Dundreggan, for instance. I was pleased therefore to see these groups of reindeer lichen in the Barrach Wood, because if deer numbers can be successfully reduced there, then they too should become larger and more extensive in the forest.
While I was looking at the lichens on the forest floor, my eye was drawn by a splash of bright red colour on a nearby fallen Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) log. On this winter’s day it was one of the only spots of colour around, apart from the occasional red patch of acute-leaved bog-moss (Sphagnum capillifolium).
Looking closer, I saw it was one of the Cladonia lichens, with distinctive cup-shaped podetia, topped by red apothecia – the parts of the lichen that release the spores of the fungal partner in the lichen symbiosis, between a fungus and an alga. I wasn’t able to make an identification to species level myself, but John replied when I sent him the photo that it was one of the aggregate of species that are listed together as Cladonia coccifera agg. when it’s not possible to be more specific (eg in this case because I was only providing a photograph, not the lichen specimen itself). The Cladonias are some of my favourite lichens, and I am in awe of their beauty, remarkable shapes and the translucent glow of colour in their apothecia – they are some of Nature’s most stunning creations in my view!
Moving further into the woodland, it was lichens that again drew my attention. This time, however, it was arboreal lichens (ie those that grow on trees), and in particular the wisp-like beard lichens (Usnea filipendula) that attracted me. Some of the Scots pines had their limbs literally draped in these, forming natural, living curtains of greenish-grey organic material cascading from the branches.
Like the reindeer lichen, these beard lichens have multiply-branched shapes, presumably to maximise the surface area for their size, and therefore gain as many nutrients and as much moisture as possible from the air currents and wind. There is an elegance about the lichens as they hang from the branches and twigs that reminds me of the long pendulous sleeves of both Japanese kimonos and medieval maidens’ dresses.
Moving further into the woodland, I came across a group of three birch trunks beside each other. The middle one was dead and a large bracket of the birch polypore fungus (Piptoporus betulinus) was fruiting on it. Although this fungus is normally only seen on dead birches, it infects living trees that have already been weakened in some way, and eventually causes their death.
Walking around the back of these birches (Betula spp.), I saw there was a large patch of cudbear lichen (Ochrolechia tartarea) on one of them. This is a common species, frequently occurring on old birches in the Caledonian Forest, but, unusually, this one only had a single apothecium on it – cudbear lichen colonies usually have many apothecia on them. I don’t know why this specimen only had a single apothecium, but it certainly made it distinctive from all the others I’ve seen over the years.
Many of the Scots pines in the wood were straight-stemmed, with few low branches on them. This indicated that they had all grown up at the same time, relatively close together, but it also meant that they didn’t provide many opportunities for creative photography.
In one area, however, the trees were more widely spaced and had quite a lot of large, lateral, horizontally-spreading branches. This provided more physical structure in the forest, offering not only increased perches for birds but also more aesthetically-interesting compositions for my camera. As is always the case in the native pinewoods, every pine was different in its shape and growth pattern, providing an endlessly varying number of different individuals, each as unique and special as every human being.
A few of the pines had burls or burrs on them – bulbous hemispherical growths that bulge out from the trunk of the tree they are on. These are caused when the tree undergoes some form of stress, such as an injury due to storm damage or fungal attack. Dormant buds (that would normally create new side shoots or branches) then produce the distorted shape of the burl, which often consists of dense wood with unusual grain in it.
Some of the pines showed signs of storm damage, with fallen branches lying at the base of their trunks. Most winters some trees will experience natural pruning like this, and it adds to the diversity of shapes in the trees, as well as providing an abundant supply of dead wood, which is vital for a whole host of organisms, such as fungi, beetles and slime moulds.
Because the wood of Scots pines has a high resin content, it is slow to decompose, so the nutrients it contains are only returned to the soil over an extended period of time. During the time before it rots away completely, the dead wood provides a habitat for other organisms to grow on, and one old log I looked at had an abundance of mosses and lichens covering it.
Many of the old Scots pines in Caledonian Forest remnants such as the Barrach Wood are reaching the end of their lifespans, and they often die of natural causes while they are still standing. The wind will quickly remove the needles and small branches from a dead pine, leaving just the main trunk and larger branches. Such standing dead trees are known as snags, and they too form a vital habitat in the forest, with pine snags providing nesting sites for the crested tit (Lophophanes cristatus), one of the characteristic birds of the Caledonian Forest.
By this time the light was beginning to fade, and the sky was partially clear so it looked like there might be a colourful sunset. I walked over to a small clearing in the wood, where there was a view out to the open sky and was just in time to catch a few images of some of the pines silhouetted against clouds that were brightly-lit in sunset-tinged hues of gold, orange and red.
It was only the middle of the afternoon, but that’s the reality of winter in these northern latitudes of the Highlands – in early January it gets dark at about 4 pm. However, it does mean that sunsets are easier to see than in midsummer (when they occur at 11 pm) and this was a particularly beautiful one, so I headed for home filled with joy from the colourful send-off that the forest gave me.
Gov Pavlicek says
I love Scotland, been there many times for landscaping. I remember in The Netherlands there was a sitkaspruce forest. It had the most varied fern community of all forest in The Netherlands and was, according to a study, the forest most resembling the Pacific NW of USA (and SW of Canada I guess) anywhere in the world. But noe one cared and they tore it down. Foreign species are bad even when they are good by the very same standards ecologists apply to native forests (whatever that may be).
I survey among ecologists at a huge meeting was done and the question was asked what they would do with a foreign species that did not do any harm at all. Most ecologists replied they would rip it out regardless of what it did.
And that is what I see and read anywhere. I read this in books for scholars, I read this in articles. It is a massive story about xenophobia to my mind that is perpetuated time and time again. I know a few ecologists and in general I think these are people much like me, with an open mind and love for nature. But they seem ultraconservative when it comes to nature. I hear much of the same things ultraconservatives tend to say in a cultural sense about human foreigners. Also. both tend to pick examples and then generalise this to a whole group. Also, they seem to use circular reasoning a whole lot. Not one of them could tell me what is basically wrong with human dispersal in the first place. When I give the exampel that a bird transports seeds from a Sitkaspruce or a man, the outcome would be the same. Yet the former would be allowed, the latter evil.
There is nothing right or wrong with any species growing anywhere. All I see is large group of people that cannot deal with change, which makes this world a hard place to live in from that persective but on a large scale we know change is inevitable. Nothing is forever.
A very important change that affects the temperate zones especially is climate change. It is warming, precipitation patterns are changing and there is no reason to think this will somehow stop. It simply means that assemblages we were used to and therefor think are the right ones in some place are probably no lnger the right ones in some time. We see treelines moving up mountains and lattitudes.
A fixed, conservative view on nature might not be the best approach to this. I think the very best approach of all is accepting change, accepting that we live in a time that is changing faster than in millions of years. Species are dispersed everywhere, climate is changing at the fastest rate in millions and millions of years.
The sitkaspruce, the douglas fir, the lodgepole pine, Grandfir are not nonnative. They arrived later than some other species and not by birds, wind or rivers. They arrived by another species: men. And they could be the ones that can survive at least for a longer time than Scotspine for instance.
Like I said: I love Scotland, I love the people and the landscape and Sitkaspruce (and larch I found out) make up an important part of the to my mind beautiful scenery. I like it a lot more than the Caledonian forest which seems rather boring to me. My prefered part is the Big Tree Country near Perth (|Dunkeld I think) and Pucks Lodge in the vicinity of Dunnoon.
Finally if we let go we get a landscape that is influenced by humans, but not depending on humans to survive. We will see new mixtures of species that simply can survive in todays Scotland (or the Netherlands). All those new arrivals will adapt, will develop and become a new species in time. Sitkaspruce btw is a prime example. It is already so different that Euforgen wants European Sitkaspruce to be considered distinct from its NW Pacific parents. It is already that different…
Kind regards,
Gov
Ashley says
Thank you for sharing these wonderful photographs & your very informative words. I don’t think I have ever seen beard lichens before; your description of them being like medieval maidens’ dresses seems apt. To be honest I don’t think I have really looked at lichens in general before; your pictures of them are stunning & I shall strive to take more notice in the future of the little things around us! You are very fortunate to still have these remnants of ancient woodlands & forests close by; here in Northern Ireland the wooded landscape is very poor & I look across the sea with envy!
Alan Watson Featherstone says
Hi Ashley,
There’s a whole world of wonder to discover in lichens, and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of them to look at in Northern Ireland, despite the paucity of forest cover there. I’ve been to Killarney National Park in County Kerry in Eire before, and there are fantastic lichens there. Have you seen the excellent ‘Lichens of Ireland’ website, http://www.lichens.ie/ ? It’s well worth a look, and may help further stimulate an interest in lichens for you!
With best wishes,
Alan
Joan Fairhurst says
Many thanks Alan. I spent a couple of conservation weeks in the area looking across to the remnant forest. It was a thrill to see the ground flora rapidly recovering after the non natives had been removed and the view of the Affric skyline above the trees lingers in my memory. I recall Geoff Diamond commenting that the plantation had encroached on the ancient remnant early in his career and he was particularly enthusiastic about TfL working there. It sounds as though we can look forward to visiting the area again soon.
Alan Watson Featherstone says
Hi Joan,
Thanks for your comment, and it’s good to know that you’re familiar with the Barrach Wood as well. I’m sorry to have missed the recent Gathering that you co-organised, but I hear that it was very successful – well done!
With best wishes,
Alan
Peggy Edwards says
Thank-you so much for sharing this with someone 5000 miles away, in words and beautiful photos.
Alan Watson Featherstone says
Hi Peggy,
It’s nice to hear from you, and I’m glad you liked this blog. You must have read it immediately after I posted it, as your comment was online just a few minutes after the blog went live!
With best wishes,
Alan