Survey of thousands of Scotland’s trees aims to protect ancient woodlands

Thousands of trees across Scotland are being surveyed in a major project to help conserve ancient and native woodlands.

The work, led by the National Trust for Scotland, will examine trees from mountainsides to the grounds of stately homes across the charity’s 190,000 acres of land.

The aim is to map particularly old and unusual trees, as well as planting successors for the future.

“A couple of the sites will have records about particular trees, but we don’t have an overall data set for old trees, so the first thing to do is get a sense of what we’ve got, where it is and how it’s distributed,” explained Alan Crawford, the trust’s senior nature conservation officer.

“Ancient and veteran trees are incredibly important both in terms of ecology and in terms of cultural history.

“They can live for hundreds of years, come in all shapes and sizes and are often described as ecosystems in their own right.”

The survey will categorise trees as ancient, veteran or notable, depending on their age, condition and characteristics.

“Some of these trees are found in our extensive upland properties, within areas of native woodland or wood pasture, as well as in remote locations on crags and gullies,” added Mr Crawford.

“Others will be found in lowland properties in the grounds of castles and big houses, often in parkland settings or tree-lined avenues.”

As many of the trees are nearing the end of their lifespan, the project will also identify where replacements should be planted.

“When you look at old trees it feels like they have been there for ever and they will be there for ever, particularly in parkland situations you will see that’s the case, but there are no young ones coming up behind them,” said Mr Crawford.

“We want the young ones to be established and in fact getting old and taking on some of those ecological characteristics before the old ones pass away.

“I’d like to go back 100 years in time and do this then because we’re already missing some generations.”

The first phase of the survey is being funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery, which has donated more than £3.4m to National Trust for Scotland projects over the past decade.