Philip Ashmole (Borders Forest Trust)
Philip Ashmole (Trustee, Borders Forest Trust): Carrifran Wildwood and Beyond
Dr Ashmole began by reminding us that pollen evidence has shown that 6000 years ago, approximately midway between the end of the last Ice Age and the present day, and before farming, Scotland was nearly all covered by diverse native woodland. In the Southern Uplands, the dominant tree was Oak but with Hazel and Birch plus many other species. He proceeded to show us an aerial view of Manorhead, Peeblesshire in the high parts of the Southern Uplands where the landscape was totally denuded of trees, but areas of Spruce plantation, which had protection from grazing animals, stood out and showed that trees could flourish there.
In 1993 a day conference was held entitled “Restoring Borders Woodland” which mainly focused on landowners, to promote the concept of ecological restoration. In addition to this Dr Ashmole, his wife Myrtle and various like-minded friends and colleagues had the idea of a grass- roots group buying and restoring a whole denuded valley, creating a Wildwood.
Borders Forest Trust was founded as an organisation that could apply for funding from the National Lottery and other sources, with the Wildwood Group becoming a devolved and volunteer-led part of BFT.
In 1996 after extensive searching for a suitable site they found Carrifran, just off the A708 outside Moffat. The 650 hectare site included the whole catchment of the Carrifran Burn and was a landscape shaped by glaciers and stripped of trees by fire, sheep and feral goats. One Rowan tree survived in a rocky part of the valley where it had been inaccessible even to goats and this survivor became Tree of the Year in 2020. One third of the area was already an SSSI (site of special scientific interest) due in part to relict herbaceous plants such as Sea Campion and Mountain Sorrel on the crags. The area to be purchased also included Rotten Bottom where a 6000 year old Yew longbow had been found. A peat core taken at the find spot for pollen analysis showed that Birch, Alder and Oak had grown there along with abundant Hazel or Bog Myrtle.
Having been given a two year option to buy Carrifran, in February 1998 a fundraising campaign to raise the c. £400,000 purchase price began. In the meantime volunteers collected seeds of the relevant tree species from surviving patches of native woodland and grew them on in gardens. The Oak proved to be a problem as Sessile Oak was required and there had been hybridisation with English Oak in many places. Luckily seeds were found and collected from Galloway Forest Park where pure Sessile Oaks remained.
With nearly all the money coming from members of the public, Carrifran was bought and on 1st January 2000, the first trees were planted on site. The planting plan was developed by members of the Wildwood Group in consultation with Scottish Natural Heritage and the Forestry Commission. Planting of the main tree species was grant aided and finished in 2007. This work required contract planters in addition to the volunteers. Prior to planting commencing, the land was cleared of sheep and goats and a 12km perimeter fence erected to keep them out. The integrity of the fence is checked every month by volunteer boundary wardens. Volunteers continued with enrichment planting of further trees and shrub species with 700,000 trees having been planted at Carrifran to date.
Late in 2007 a plan was developed to restore montane scrub such as Downy Willow to areas from 600 to 750m above sea level. 50,000 shrubs have now been planted by volunteers in these difficult to access areas.
The success of the work at Carrifran was shown in a lovely contemporary image of the initial area of planting where trees are maturing and Bluebells are re-asserting themselves.
From the outset at Carrifran, bird population surveys were carried out twice a year. These initially showed the dominance of birds of open ground such as Meadow Pipit but more recently native woodland birds have re-established with Song and Mistle Thrushes, Woodcock, Great, Blue and Long-Tailed Tits, Wood Warbler and Tawny Owls being recorded.
Dr Ashmole moved on to the “and Beyond” part of his talk and informed us that eight years after the purchase of Carrifran, Borders Forest Trust acquired Corehead and the Devil’s Beef Tub, including the sources of the River Annan, which has been planted with some large but hidden areas of native woodland. Following this, in 2013, the 1832hectare area of Talla and Gameshope was bought. This is contiguous with Carrifran. On the highest part of the land at Talla Craigs a relict fragment of montane scrub and tall herb vegetation has been enriched with the planting of Dwarf Birch and Downy Willow while the Upper Talla Valley with areas of scree has been planted with the rare Bearberry.