The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday October 30 2024

The Scotsman

Dale catches up with Katharine Hay as she continues her walking tour of Scotland. Today they discuss the announcement of the Tree of the Year - The Skippinish Oak in Scotland

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin, sorry, for this Wednesday.

00:05My name is Dale Miller.

00:06I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Rural Affairs Correspondent,

00:11Catherine Hay.

00:13Catherine, thanks for coming on during your travels.

00:16I know you've been writing plenty about rural Scotland at the moment.

00:21I'm going to get to you in a moment, but we'll just talk through the front page of the Scotsman

00:26Firstly, and we ran with a pretty powerful image at the top of the front page from Alex

00:33Salmon's funeral.

00:34He was laid to rest in Aberdeenshire yesterday.

00:37It was a pretty small service.

00:39It was kept to about 70 guests, close friends and family.

00:45There were some notable people, including John Bercow, the former Speaker who attended

00:51in person, and Kenny McCaskill and Fergus Ewing giving eulogies at the funeral.

00:59We also had a bit of a preview leading the front of the front page today on the budgets,

01:06which will take place from 12.30.

01:08You can read all the latest on the budget at scotsman.com.

01:12Catherine, thanks for taking some time out from your walk to join us.

01:16You've been writing a lot about trees, but firstly, the tree of the year announced last

01:23night.

01:24Yeah, so it was exciting for Scotland and not just for the tree community in Scotland,

01:30but also the music scene, because an ancient oak, well, they think it's about 400 years

01:37old in Lochaber, which was nicknamed the Skiffinish oak after the band Skiffinish was crowned the

01:46winner of Tree of the Year, which was announced by Woodland Trust.

01:51The announcement was made on the BBC One show last night.

01:54And yeah, it's quite a nice story behind it, that Skiffinish were playing at a Woodland

02:03expert meeting about a decade ago, and one of the lead members of the band, Andrew Stevenson,

02:14wanted to just show them this tree that he'd seen when he was growing up.

02:20It was just this amazing oak.

02:22And he, after playing a gig, he took them to see it.

02:25And they were so amazed.

02:26It hadn't been on record before.

02:29Nobody had sort of the details written down.

02:31And I think he said this was around 2009.

02:35And so because they were just so amazed by the pedigree, by this incredible Highland

02:38oak, they named it after the band Skiffinish.

02:40So yeah, it's one of those situations where it's an amazing tree, but it's also got this

02:48wonderful backstory to it as well.

02:52And on all things trees, which I know, funnily enough, it's a coincidence you've been writing

02:57a lot about recently, but they're a big feature as you travel around the country, there's

03:01some mountain trees making a comeback.

03:03And this goes back to a project in the Highlands, is that correct?

03:08Yes, so the montane scrub.

03:11So they're a species that were kind of, well, just declining massively up until the 1990s.

03:19There weren't that many. In fact, experts were saying that the last sort of remaining

03:24bigger patch was just about the size of a tennis court.

03:26So which is a bit worrying because among the montane scrub, you've got montane willows,

03:32which are very good at helping prevent the effects of climate change.

03:39But yeah, since the 1990s, because of various planting schemes, various efforts from

03:44conservationists, including on land owned by National Trust Scotland, about half a million

03:51of these have been planted, which, yeah, I think with the management schemes that we

03:57have in place, because a lot of, part of the reason why they declined as well was because

04:01of deer population increasing and also sheep, so over browsing.

04:06But hopefully with a bit of deer management practices that we have now in Scotland and

04:11these conservation efforts to keep these plants being planted, they will continue this

04:18successful comeback.

04:20Again, what's quite nice with this story is a girl, Lucy Watts, sorry, Sarah Watts, who's

04:25been doing the research behind a lot of the comeback of these species.

04:32A bit like myself, she's been sort of travelling around the country to kind of, you know,

04:36get a better picture of what it is that she's looking at.

04:38And she's climbed around 200 Monroe's in her research because obviously a lot of where

04:43this species grows is up in the peaks, in the peaks of Scotland.

04:49So, yeah, her paper, which she goes into detail about how successful the restoration

04:55project has been, that was just published yesterday.

04:59And it looks at a particular case, which is in the Ben Loyers National Nature Reserve,

05:06which is run by the National Trust for Scotland.

05:09And just, yeah, that's one of the most successful sort of areas where the plant has

05:16been really making a comeback.

05:19So there's been widespread planting of about 54,000 willows between just sort of, I think

05:26it was the late 90s and the early 2000s.

05:29So, yeah, it's some kind of also bringing back nature with these scrubs, with these

05:35plants, you bring back obviously the biodiversity that thrives in them.

05:39So, yeah, it's a big success story.

05:41It's a really great one to see for Scotland where, you know, some areas where we've lost

05:46a bit of what was, you know, naturally meant to be there because of maybe changing it for

05:51grazing or for other purposes.

05:53So this is just an example of where, yeah, the nature restoration project has really

05:58turned out well.

06:00And Catherine, just to touch on quickly before we finish, I know you were telling me the

06:04other day that you've been surprised as you've been travelling around communities and

06:08forests. Actually, there's a tension out there.

06:12It's a bigger issue than we probably think, you know, myself living in the central belt.

06:17It is something that people care passionately about.

06:20Yeah, no, I mean, that's something that is definitely a running theme across all corners of

06:24Scotland that I've noticed and been picking up on.

06:27There I was just babbling away about how great it is that we've got these tree planting

06:31projects on the go. But sometimes I think there's this notion that just because it's a

06:35tree, it's a good thing and, you know, nature.

06:37But actually, there is a lot of controversy over some of the forestry that happens in

06:42Scotland. One tree in particular that's a bit of bone of contention is the Sitka spruce.

06:47So it's not actually a native tree.

06:48It comes from Scandinavia.

06:49And the reason why the forestry people want to use it is because it's a fast growing tree.

06:55The idea is that you can obviously it's much better for timber purposes, for business and

07:00also just faster for the Scottish government to meet their tree planting targets because it

07:05grows quickly. And so, you know, CO2 is going to be absorbed and everything.

07:09But on the other side, you've got communities who are worried about it being non-native

07:14firstly. Also, they do shed their spruce needles a lot and it can create a sort of blanket

07:21of needles underneath them.

07:23And that can restrict biodiversity.

07:27Also, a lot of them, because they're planted for forestry, they're planted very closely

07:30together, tightly together.

07:31So it creates these quite dark woodland, dark forests and blocks the light.

07:37And again, that's not a great thing for some species.

07:41So there's one article which you can read on The Scotsman where this debate has got really

07:45heated down in the corner of Dumfries and Galloway.

07:48And yeah, a community are very concerned about a Sitka spruce plantation, predominantly

07:55Sitka spruce plantation being planted on a hill next to Langham in this region.

08:01For various reasons, the hills they think is deep peat, which legally you're not allowed

08:07to plant on just because of the environmental qualities that peat gives us.

08:12But also, just as I said before, with the biodiversity concern.

08:16Interestingly, next door to this hill is a nature reserve who have been given public

08:21funding to remove Sitka spruce, to remove this tree.

08:24So it does sort of beg the question, you know, we're paying public funds towards removing

08:29Sitka, why are we planting it?

08:31But it's a very complicated debate because obviously, as I mentioned at the beginning,

08:36it can be, it's a popular tree to use for forestry.

08:40And if you want a lucrative timber business, then it's sort of the one that they go for

08:44at the moment.

08:46You can read all the very latest from Catherine at the Hayes Way content area.

08:52You'll find it on the homepage.

08:54You can click through and see all the stories that she's spoken about there and continue

08:59to follow her as she travels by foot around Scotland.

09:03Please follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.

09:07You'll be able to get a full and comprehensive wrap this afternoon on the budget, what it

09:13means for Scotland, the best analysis and comment as well across our site.

09:18So please tune in to find out exactly how this budget is going to affect you.

09:23And please go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.

09:27Thanks, Catherine, and thanks, everyone, for joining us.

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