Skógræktarritið - 15.05.2001, Side 107

DIANA GILBERT
The Potential forthe Restoration
of Montane Scrub in Scotland
SAMANTEKT
Árið 1996 var stofnað til verkefnis sem stuðlar að endurheimt kjarrs í
Skotlandi. Með kjarri er átt við gróðurlendi þar sem ýmsar meira eða
minna uppréttar runnategundir allt að 5 m á hæð eru ríkjandi og er
talið að slíkt gróðurfar hafi áður verið útbreitt í fjöllum fyrir ofan skógar-
mörk og við vesturströndina allt niður að sjávarmáli. Allmargar tegundir
geta myndað kjarrí Skotlandi, þ.á m. nokkrar víðitegundir, einir, fjall-
drapi og trjátegundir, s.s. skógarfura, eik, birki, reyniviður og blæösp
sem vegna umhverfisins ná lítilli hæð. Kjarr er vart til lengur í Skotlandi
og er leifar þess helst að finna á óaðgengilegum klettasyllum, innan um
lyng (einir og fjalldrapi) og mjög sjaldan í skógarjöðrum. Sumar runna-
tegundir eru jafnvel í útrýmingarhættu, t.d. loðvíðir. Kjarr hefur mikið
gildi fyrir fuglalíf, ýmis smádýr og jurtir. Þá væri hægt að rækta kjarr-
kenndar tegundir í jöðrum skógarreita til að draga úr myndun skarpra
skila í landslagi. Margt þarf að skoða ef takast á að auka útbreiðslu
kjarrs. Auka þarf þekkingu á núverandi ástandi, takast þarf á við beitar-
vandann og jákvæðar og neikvæðar hliðar girðinga, auka þarf þekkingu
á erfðafræði lítilla stofna og skoða þarf hvatningu til landeigenda í
formi framlaga.
Background
Less than two percent of
Scotland's land area currently
supports semi-natural woodland.
The maximum at the post-glacial
climatic optimum has been esti-
mated by a number of authors
(McVean and Ratcliffe, 1962;
Tipping, 1985 and Bennett, 1978)
at over fifty percent, with some
authors proposing that very little
ground was open even on moun-
tain summits. lt has been sug-
gested that man was beginning
to impact on the forest area as
much as six thousand years ago.
Since that time forest has been
systematically cleared to allow
for crop production on low
ground and extensive stock graz-
ing on the hills.
Immediately after, and as a
consequence of the Great War of
1914 to 1918 the Forestry
Commission was set up with the
precise remit of securing a strate-
gic reserve in home-grown tim-
ber. In Scotland, this meant that
native forest areas were, with few
exceptions either replaced with
exotics or ignored. Over the past
fifty years there has been nation-
al and international recognition
of semi-natural woodland as an
important biodiversity resource
and there is now considerable
activity to safeguard and restore
the most important communi-
ties, such as Caledonian Pine
Forests and Atlantic Oakwoods,
in order to meet international
obligations.
The public perception of fo-
rests in Scotland may be chang-
ing from the image of a planta-
tion, established well within the
forest zone where timber growth
is likely to be most viable, to a
mixed canopy which includes the
semi-natural woodlands. This
forest, though, is still limited by
deer fencing below the 450 metre
contour, resulting in a distinct
cut off between high forest and
heath communities. All the
restorative effort has been
focussed on high forest areas
described as important through
the European Community
Habitats Directive (The Council
of European Communities,
1992), and the Convention on
Biological Diversity (Anon, 1994,
1996) legislation. The natural
transitions between the true
woodland habitats and their
neighbouring grassland, heath or
mire communities at high alti-
tude remain largely forgotten
and depleted.
This paper reports on the
Montane Scrub Restoration
Project (MSR) which was initiat-
ed in 1996 as part of an inspira-
tional initiative called the
Millennium Forest for Scotland,
using funding from the newly
established national lottery
SKÓGRÆKTARRITIÐ 2001 l.tbl.
105