This is looking down onto Loch Doilet from the road to Strontian. Mixed age and species commercial woodland managed since before World War 2 by the Forestry Commission.. Some of the stands are more mature than you would see on the the normal forty year cycle. Also note that since all the land is owned by the Commission there are no straight edges to the planted areas with considerable aesthetic gain..
The road to the Fee Donald mine leaving the Aruindle “Oak” woods. This has also been managed in historical times for the extraction of native oak for charcoal and modified by later planting of “exotic” species and intermittent grazing creating considerable diversity..
Another view, in early spring, on the same road this time returning from the mine. Oak birch and some pines. The Commission has felled commercial pines on the left of the view to allow natural regeneration. The woods are fenced against grazing animals for the same reason.
[Note the oak in the middle of the photograph and compare with the oaks in the photos below.]
[3] A wood South of the road down to Drimlin. Coppiced Alder and Hazel letting lots of light to the woodland floor hence the diversity of flowers and mosses. Acid soil on granite.
We are about two miles east of Salen. Compare these oaks with the one in the photo above. What has happened here is that around fifty years ago the area was planted with pines. Growing faster than the existing oaks they shaded them out. The lateral branches died and fell off leaving only a few tuffs of leaves on the top twigs. The cavalry [FC] arrived just in time to save some of the trees,felling the pines and letting light at the oaks. This triggered a reflex burst of growth all over the trunks.
It will be interesting to see the grow regime that develops. My bet is that some of the new laterals will dominate and the final form will not be far that of a normal open grown tree.
The ground cover is already shows quite a range of species and a surprising amount of tree seedlings. Some of the best brambles I ever tasted grow here.
Third growth season after felling of surrounding pines.
Second growth season after felling.
A large Holly regenerating vigorously from the root/trunk junction.
An open Oak and Alder wood with ferns and mosses under on the coast road west of Strontian.
Timber operations in Polloch-
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A mix of ornamental planting looking over a pool on the river Shiel.
Contributions to the “little people”? In a wood near Salen.
Natural regeneration on the floor of a wood near Strontian. There are first and second year seedlings but no young trees. Grazing pressure by deer?
Spring larches among pines across loch Doilet