This post has not a lot to do with Rona, but still it may be of interest.

Early on this year when discussing ‘Peatland Restoration’ whilst visiting Shieldaig I heard mention of a ‘Road to Nowhere’. I had been talking about the crazy amount of money (£265Million) that was being spent on supposedly restoring moorland, peat hags in particular and my experience on a recent visit to a Stalkers meeting at Glenquioch where a demonstration was being laid on for the group. When my Shieldaig friend suggested that was what was going on at Ben Shieldaig/Loch Damph, knowing the area, I wondered as it was in my experience very thin ground, a boulderfield, not a peat moorland?

The demonstration at Glenquoich was very informative as the contractor explained the contracts. He is in the business of making money for sure that is his business so no slight on him but the whole thing borders on the bizarre. There we were on a cold hillside, feeder stags behind us, miles of road round the loch and a digger slicing peat from one piece of moor and laying it on another. Saving the peat/moor and getting great access to the job over the miles of road, yes you guessed right over and through the peat moor.

Apart from the madness of this a big part of this huge amount of money could be, in my opinion be better spent on building houses, creating crofts, restoring our road surfaces in Scotland in the right places for all the people paying way over the top rents, car tax etc, such as on Skye.

The other thing that came into my mind was that if this were to be a drought summer a lot of the ‘shifted’ peat turves would curl up and die. But so far this summer that has not come to pass (lucky for those with these schemes). Reprofiling peat on moors that has naturally eroded over centuries or since moors were part of the landscape is in my mind madness. For sure the drainage ditches on some moorland should receive attention. Those that promote this Government’s cash giveaway would do well to read Dr James Fenton’s seminal work on peat in his two volumes.

Which leads me back onto Ben Shieldaig and Loch Damph.

Moving on from peat but it will become part of the issue. The ‘Road to Nowhere’ that my local friend was intrigued about and no one it seemed that he knew had any knowledge of what it was about. Anyone seeking planning permission for housing has to inform those affected, here it seems that nobody knew. Most likely there was ‘something ‘ in the papers but who sits scanning papers nowadays for planning applications of new forests. However a new forest planting is what it is. So two diggers working on this road for months intriguing locals was for access.

And what a road complete with fake farm tracks.

I see from the Ben Shieldaig Management Plan Map that there is no mention of a road, access track yes, but this is a road worthy as a main road and as a far as I can see it comes to a dead end and although we drove a good way in, we did not venture to the end where I am led to believe it finishes against a cliff? From the other side I did not see it ending up at the Lochside but the roadend may be shielded by the terrain.

On my visit here in April it seemed a little late to be planting especially as the hardwoods were well flushed in the bags at the side of the road, but it was still April, so I guess just made it but the there were trees there in bags in May I am reliably told. Fingers crossed for a wet summer. But the issue here on stepping out of the car was that I was standing looking at a boulderfield and apart from the usual tree suspects, Oaks in the bags. Wrong Trees, wrong place. The area we stopped in was mounded as was a large part of this fenced off area, the mounds were very light and even in April, dusty. There had been planting and at my feet were trees planted close together. Poor planting but there had been a Media splash a week or so before with all sorts planting a tree here and there so I can only conclude that this was planting from the photo op. I cannot see seasoned planters doing this.

I may ramble on a bit here but first impressions after driving past the famous Scots Pine at the end of Glen Shieldaig then the Birch forest between Shieldaig and the Balgy Burn is why has the well established Birch wood not spread further round to the East. Of course deer and sheep will get the blame, I do not know the crofting history here, but it is strange that a Birch wood of this size and seed source has not expanded. Is it because the ground going Eastwards is so poor? Or out of the sun, or more North facing. Would be interesting to find out and I wonder did the company brought in to design this project ever wonder?

So why plant here when the latest craze is for rewilding/regeneration which I would interpret as leave it to nature, had it something to do with the huge grants available which negates rewilding. If you interfere and set up huge planting schemes it is not rewilding, why not fence it off and regenerate it naturally, do not burn diesel making a road to nowhere, nor waste time and money on trees and planters, planting trees on thin soil/peat. I would suggest these trees are doomed, I may be wrong but without continued intervention, weeding, fertilising and beating up it will fail, especially the oaks. It is a Boulderfield and far from ideal ground. On our short drive I saw two very straggly holly trees, one coming out of a rock where a Blackbird sometime long ago had planted the seed.

Anyway if you have got this far with my ramble on about the Woodland Trusts planting at Loch Damph/Ben Shieldaig you may wonder why I brought it up on my blog. With the bad schemes I hear about Brewdog’s Kinrara and Muckrach’s huge scheme going awry, I thought I should note this one. There are better commentators than myself out there and questions are being asked.

It seems speaking to local people in the Shieldaig area that there is unease over the Woodland Trust’s Scheme. Comments range from “they are no better possibly worse than the old Lairds” They do not employ any locals” Pick ups and cars coming for a day out gives nothing to the economy” “where are the local jobs”, it goes on and on. Come on Woodland Trust think about the local population, you can do better than a few walks with picnic tables and a car park.

Would you want this view obscured by trees supposing they did grow.

What a view.

For me the fence, the gates, the road are all destroying the very thing that they are trying to conserve. Just employ a full time stalker, supply a house and the equipment that he or she needs, let them go onto the ground every working day, monitoring, culling deer to manageable levels and let the trees do what they have managed for centuries.

The Woodland Trust should buy multiple copies of Dr James Fenton’s book Landscape Change read it and just stop to think about what they are doing here.

Just as an add on but referred to previously here is a picture I have just found of Dr James Fenton’s two volumes on peat, very interesting.