Foreword
Over the last 15 years we have reversed the threat to our native forests and woodlands and the process of restoration and expansion is well underway. However, at the upper margins of our forests, one woodland type, depleted more than most, has yet to be tackled. Remnants of montane scrub have hung on as trees or clumps of trees in exposed and remote locations, often protected from grazing animals by terrain. They are all that’s left of a once widespread zone between the forest and the open moorland.
These remnants are invariably cut off from the forests they once fringed and no longer function within an extensive ecosystem. The contorted shapes and diminutive habit that we associate with montane scrub is no accident. The trees survive in the most hostile conditions above the slopes where foresters have traditionally planted and regenerated trees. So the restoration will be a slow but rewarding process as a diffuse boundary evolves between forest and mountain.
The Forestry Commission’s role is to maximise the environmental and social benefits of forests as well as ensuring that they continue to produce a flow of timber to support the rural economy. We have been at the forefront of the restoration of Scotland’s native woodlands both in our own forests managed by the Forest Enterprise and on land owned privately, supported through our Woodland Grant Scheme.
We enthusiastically support the current interest in treeline woodlands; they are an important element of the Forest Habitat Network approach which is a priority action in the Scottish Forestry Strategy. The restoration process will not always be easy, nor indeed achievable everywhere. However, where it can be done the rewards will be very visible and tangible. As the trees move up the hills they will not only enhance this landscape and our natural forest biodiversity but will establish the missing element in our vision of a continuum of woodland cover from the river valleys to the biological limit of tree growth.