A curiosity I see in the Cairngorms is juniper apparently acting as a nurse plant for other trees, like gorse does at lower altitudes. I wondered whether this might just be observer bias, but it is recorded widely in the literature across Europe e.g. sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 1/2

All plants in our new #montane #willow seed stand at #Corrour are catalogued with details of the individual wild plants used to take cuttings. Now we can collect seed from this site rather than visiting remote cliff-ledge relict populations! #DownyWillowSeedStand Trees for Life

I'm thrilled to have planted #Corrour 's #montane #willow seed stand! We collected Downy Willow cuttings from across the estate & they've been grown by Trees for Life. Now we can upscale seed production for habitat #restoration , from the largest #DownyWillowSeedStand in Britain!

Willow delivery for Corrour Estate! 🌱

These bags hold a future montane scrub habitat, ready to support the return of biodiversity to high-altitude places on Scotland's west coast.

Good luck with the planting, folks 🌦️

They're here! Our very own precious Downy Willow (Salix lapponum) cuttings from #Corrour ready for planting in our montane willow seed stand! 🤗🥰🤩💪Trees for Life
#DownyWillowSeedStand #montanescrub #restoration #treeplanting

With a little help, montane scrub is only too happy to return to Scotland's hillsides.

We're thrilled to see Dundreggan-grown willows thriving at Mar Lodge Estate National Nature Reserve NTS in the Cairngorms. Recent surveying showed an almost 100%-success rate for planted trees!

📸Shaila Rao + Treesurv

Ground prep under way ready for assembling our first #montane #willow seed stand at #Corrour . I'm so excited to get our precious rare plants in the ground for upscaling #restoration action! 🤗🤩 Trees for Life
#DownyWillowSeedStand #montane scrub #mountainwoodland

I'm buzzing after a great day University of Stirling presenting some of my initial #PhD results to my department BES Stirling Stirling Natural Sciences. 6+ years of the Dwarf Birch (Betula nana) planting trial are producing exciting data. Great to get feedback on my #research from my colleagues! 🤗

Lovely morning out on the hill at Glen Finglas Woodland Trust🌳 GreatTrossachsForest to monitor the Dwarf Birch (Betula nana) planted for my #PhD experiment Stirling Natural Sciences Woodland Trust Scotland. Good timing too as these data are going straight into a presentation I'm giving tomorrow BES Stirling! 🤩💪

Flick through Ellie’s complete notebook from her UKTreescapes fellowship in Norway, working alongside scientists at NINA naturforskning, on our website and get a glimpse into this possible, future landscape:
bit.ly/field-notes-fr…

I'm so excited for a delivery we'll be receiving at #Corrour next week from Trees for Life! A couple of years in the planning involving collecting #montane #willow cuttings from some very tricky locations 👀🤯🤩🤗 More updates to follow...!
Lower two photos by Mark Hamblin

Aspen is common across Europe, yet could be considered Scotland’s lost tree. Over centuries, nature has slipped away. Restoring aspen to our landscape, with all its life-giving characteristics, will put a piece of the ecological jigsaw back in place. #PaintingScotlandYellow

#Fieldwork today at #Corrour monitoring winter survival & browsing of the Dwarf Birch (Betula nana) in my #PhD planting experiment Stirling Natural Sciences. Only one more round of growth measurements to go at the end of this year & then it's a wrap! 🤯🤗

A great haul of 15 new #aspen clones from Estate Office Sarah Watts and Isle of Eigg by Beth for our national collection. We hope to replicate these and provide back to donor sites. #paintingscotlandyellow

Many thanks to Beth & Mike, volunteers with
Eadha Enterprises, who joined us at #Corrour last week to collect cuttings from our #Aspen stands. What a great opportunity to visit some fantastic locations on the estate!
#PaintingScotlandYellow #woodland #restoration

Go go willow! 🙌

A trailer load of willows is currently on its way from Dundreggan to Glen Affric, ready for volunteers to plant this spring.

We've whortle-leaved, woolly, downy, eared, goat and tea-leaved willow 🍃

Did you know Scotland was home to so many different types?

I'm a fan of #ExtremeBotany , & now also #ExtremeEntomology / #ExtremeMicroLepidoptery ! More photos from our fruitless search for the #Alpine Coffee Moth (Callisto coffeella). It's important to report null results to cultivate #restoration action! Patrick Cook Andrew Painting

This weekend we searched for the rare #Alpine Coffee Moth (Callisto coffeella) in Glen Doll; discovered in Scotland in 1983 & the only true #montane #willow specialist micro- #moth in the UK. We couldn't re-find it, but that's not surprising with #scrub as overgrazed as this! 😭🤯

I had these two for company today while marking out sites for our #montane #willow seed stands at #Corrour . Really excited to get the plants in the ground soon to support tree nursery supply & rare plant propagation in #Lochaber 🤗😍

Over the last three years, tiny willow saplings were carried over the rugged Cairngorm Plateau and planted around Loch A'an to restore mountain woodland.

See how the little trees are getting on: youtube.com/watch?v=O9ydK7…

Cairngorms Connect LIFE Programme NatureScot Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme