P3-Vol 2.No3 Dec 96 - International Journal of Wilderness

Figure 1—Original range of
Native Pinewoods in Scotland
Many species of wildlife have flourished
in the Caledonian Forest, including
large mammals such as the beaver
(Castor fiber), wild boar (Sus scrofa), lynx
(Felis lynx), red deer (Cervus elaphus),
moose (Alces alces), brown bear (Ursus
arctos), and wolf (Canis lupus). In addition,
several notable species of birds have
lived here, including the capercaillie
(Tetrao urogallus), the crested tit (Parus
cristatus), and the endemic Scottish crossbill
(Loxia scotica), which occurs only in
the pinewoods.
Deforestation of Scotland
However, there has been a long history
of deforestation in Scotland, with
clearance of the land beginning in
Neolithic times. Trees were cut for fuel
and timber, boats and huts, and to convert
the land to agriculture. Over centuries
the forest shrank as the human
population grew. It also suffered
through deliberate destruction, such as
when the Vikings attacked Scotland and
set fire to villages, farms, and forests.
Other areas were burned during campaigns
to exterminate “vermin” such
as the wolf, which was flushed out of
the forest by the flames. Timber extraction
in the 17th and 18th centuries,
after the forests of England were
exhausted, led to further deforestation
in the Highlands, compounded by the
notorious Highland Clearances of the
late 18th and early 19th centuries,
when landowners evicted many of the
smallscale peasant crofters from their
holdings to make way for extensive
sheep grazing. The subsequent rise of
“sporting” estates in the Highlands—
used by their owners for shooting trophy
animals—led to a substantial increase
in the red deer population and a
resultant decline in natural regeneration
of the forest. Finally, some of the
best remaining areas of natural forest
have been lost or seriously degraded
in the 20th century by underplanting
with commercial crops of exotic trees,
such as North American sitka spruce
(Picea sitchensis) and lodgepole pine
(Pinus contorta).
Today, between 1 and 2% of the
original forests survive, and the native
pinewoods have been reduced to a few
dozen isolated remnants, totaling
16,000 ha (Forestry Authority 1994).
Gone with the trees are all the large
mammals (with the exception of the red
deer), the last to disappear being the wolf
in the 17th century. Of the species that
survive, most have been drastically reduced
in numbers and range, such as the
red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and pine
marten (Martes martes), while the effect
on plants, fungi, and invertebrates can
only be assumed to be similar.
Figure 2—Existing remnants of Native Pinewoods
in Scotland and the forest regeneration area
envisioned by Trees for Life.
A red deer stag grazes beneath Scots pines in Glen
Affrig. (Photo by A.W. Featherstone.)
A Wilderness
Restoration Vision
It is therefore too late for wilderness
protection in Scotland, as the terrestrial
ecosystems (which are mainly forest)
are so severely reduced in area and
impoverished in diversity of constituent
species. The fragments of forest that
remain are now described as seminatural,
reflecting their disturbed and degraded
condition. The surviving remnants of
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDERNESS/Volume 2, Number 3, December 1996 37