At 71 acres, I have a feeling that my land won't really be regarded as “small”, and having only 7 (yes, seven) trees over a foot tall, it's not really a “woodland” either. But I do own it, am utterly determined to create a woodland there over the coming years, and have found many of the threads on this forum incredibly useful.
The land in question is a croft in the Outer Hebrides. The entire croft extends to 440 acres but, in 1999, around 100 acres were set aside for the Millennium Forest for Scotland Project. The first planting, in 2002 failed completely (mainly because deer can swim – don't ask!) and, in 2006 the area was reduced to the current 71 acres. A second planting thereafter also failed (unless you take a “glass half full” mentality to extremes and are satisfied with the 7 trees that survived).
I became the tenant of the land around 5 years ago, and took ownership in 2012 - an incredibly proud moment for me as my family had lived on that piece of land from as far back as the 18th century until 1952. My first priorities were to make management of the livestock more straightforward. Most of the land is an uninhabited island, so nothing is really “straightforward” as such. But, that having been achieved, I turned my attention to the “forest”.
Over the course of this year, I've made the deer fence secure and begun planting. So far, I've put in around 600 willows, 100 Downy Birch, 100 Alder and 100 Scots Pine. In all honesty, I'm really just experimenting at this stage. My knowledge of trees prior to this really can't be understated – I could recognise the plastic ones that my presents were under when I was a kid, but that's about it. Seriously! Being raised in the Outer Hebrides, you're naturally as familiar with trees as you are with skyscrapers, double decker busses and multi-storey car parks – basically they're all tall things that live somewhere else!
To my surprise, and delight, I've found that around 1000 Rowan trees planted previously which I thought had been grazed to death over the past 8 years have actually survived. They've appeared again since making the fence properly secure and, although they average only around 5cm in height, it looks like they're going to make it after all.
Progress will be slow. Planting a tree involves carrying it quarter of a mile from the nearest road, rowing 100 yards and then carrying it another three quarters of a mile to the fenced area. From experience, I now know that I can only do 150 at a time this way before my sciatic nerve tells me “that's enough”. And there's a good reason why there's few trees here – I've learnt that peaty soil, regular 50mph+ winds carrying salty air off the Atlantic and very little natural shelter aren't conditions conducive to tree growth. But it's a learning curve I'm enjoying. I've gone from ignorance and disinterest on the subject of trees to near-obsession. I even have various trees growing in window ledges around the house just so I can observe and learn how they develop day to day!
I think I'll get there, but I think I'll need some help and advice along the way. Thank you in advance for any that you can give on this forum.
A couple of photos, to give a feel for the landscape...
The eastern boundary of the woodland. A little embarrassing that there are more trees outside the deer fence than there are inside!
An Alder planted this summer. Early days, but of all the species planted, Alder is certainly the one that's doing the best so far.
The remains of a blackhouse in the woodland - probably mid 1800's. In the distance (on the left of the picture) is the island from where Bonnie Prince Charlie made his escape "over the sea to Skye" in 1746