Dale catches up with Katharine Hay as she continues her walking tour of Scotland. Today they discuss the announcement of the Tree of the Year - The Skippinish Oak in Scotland
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin, sorry, for this Wednesday.
00:05My name is Dale Miller.
00:06I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Rural Affairs Correspondent,
00:11Catherine Hay.
00:13Catherine, thanks for coming on during your travels.
00:16I know you've been writing plenty about rural Scotland at the moment.
00:21I'm going to get to you in a moment, but we'll just talk through the front page of the Scotsman
00:26Firstly, and we ran with a pretty powerful image at the top of the front page from Alex
00:33Salmon's funeral.
00:34He was laid to rest in Aberdeenshire yesterday.
00:37It was a pretty small service.
00:39It was kept to about 70 guests, close friends and family.
00:45There were some notable people, including John Bercow, the former Speaker who attended
00:51in person, and Kenny McCaskill and Fergus Ewing giving eulogies at the funeral.
00:59We also had a bit of a preview leading the front of the front page today on the budgets,
01:06which will take place from 12.30.
01:08You can read all the latest on the budget at scotsman.com.
01:12Catherine, thanks for taking some time out from your walk to join us.
01:16You've been writing a lot about trees, but firstly, the tree of the year announced last
01:23night.
01:24Yeah, so it was exciting for Scotland and not just for the tree community in Scotland,
01:30but also the music scene, because an ancient oak, well, they think it's about 400 years
01:37old in Lochaber, which was nicknamed the Skiffinish oak after the band Skiffinish was crowned the
01:46winner of Tree of the Year, which was announced by Woodland Trust.
01:51The announcement was made on the BBC One show last night.
01:54And yeah, it's quite a nice story behind it, that Skiffinish were playing at a Woodland
02:03expert meeting about a decade ago, and one of the lead members of the band, Andrew Stevenson,
02:14wanted to just show them this tree that he'd seen when he was growing up.
02:20It was just this amazing oak.
02:22And he, after playing a gig, he took them to see it.
02:25And they were so amazed.
02:26It hadn't been on record before.
02:29Nobody had sort of the details written down.
02:31And I think he said this was around 2009.
02:35And so because they were just so amazed by the pedigree, by this incredible Highland
02:38oak, they named it after the band Skiffinish.
02:40So yeah, it's one of those situations where it's an amazing tree, but it's also got this
02:48wonderful backstory to it as well.
02:52And on all things trees, which I know, funnily enough, it's a coincidence you've been writing
02:57a lot about recently, but they're a big feature as you travel around the country, there's
03:01some mountain trees making a comeback.
03:03And this goes back to a project in the Highlands, is that correct?
03:08Yes, so the montane scrub.
03:11So they're a species that were kind of, well, just declining massively up until the 1990s.
03:19There weren't that many. In fact, experts were saying that the last sort of remaining
03:24bigger patch was just about the size of a tennis court.
03:26So which is a bit worrying because among the montane scrub, you've got montane willows,
03:32which are very good at helping prevent the effects of climate change.
03:39But yeah, since the 1990s, because of various planting schemes, various efforts from
03:44conservationists, including on land owned by National Trust Scotland, about half a million
03:51of these have been planted, which, yeah, I think with the management schemes that we
03:57have in place, because a lot of, part of the reason why they declined as well was because
04:01of deer population increasing and also sheep, so over browsing.
04:06But hopefully with a bit of deer management practices that we have now in Scotland and
04:11these conservation efforts to keep these plants being planted, they will continue this
04:18successful comeback.
04:20Again, what's quite nice with this story is a girl, Lucy Watts, sorry, Sarah Watts, who's
04:25been doing the research behind a lot of the comeback of these species.
04:32A bit like myself, she's been sort of travelling around the country to kind of, you know,
04:36get a better picture of what it is that she's looking at.
04:38And she's climbed around 200 Monroe's in her research because obviously a lot of where
04:43this species grows is up in the peaks, in the peaks of Scotland.
04:49So, yeah, her paper, which she goes into detail about how successful the restoration
04:55project has been, that was just published yesterday.
04:59And it looks at a particular case, which is in the Ben Loyers National Nature Reserve,
05:06which is run by the National Trust for Scotland.
05:09And just, yeah, that's one of the most successful sort of areas where the plant has
05:16been really making a comeback.
05:19So there's been widespread planting of about 54,000 willows between just sort of, I think
05:26it was the late 90s and the early 2000s.
05:29So, yeah, it's some kind of also bringing back nature with these scrubs, with these
05:35plants, you bring back obviously the biodiversity that thrives in them.
05:39So, yeah, it's a big success story.
05:41It's a really great one to see for Scotland where, you know, some areas where we've lost
05:46a bit of what was, you know, naturally meant to be there because of maybe changing it for
05:51grazing or for other purposes.
05:53So this is just an example of where, yeah, the nature restoration project has really
05:58turned out well.
06:00And Catherine, just to touch on quickly before we finish, I know you were telling me the
06:04other day that you've been surprised as you've been travelling around communities and
06:08forests. Actually, there's a tension out there.
06:12It's a bigger issue than we probably think, you know, myself living in the central belt.
06:17It is something that people care passionately about.
06:20Yeah, no, I mean, that's something that is definitely a running theme across all corners of
06:24Scotland that I've noticed and been picking up on.
06:27There I was just babbling away about how great it is that we've got these tree planting
06:31projects on the go. But sometimes I think there's this notion that just because it's a
06:35tree, it's a good thing and, you know, nature.
06:37But actually, there is a lot of controversy over some of the forestry that happens in
06:42Scotland. One tree in particular that's a bit of bone of contention is the Sitka spruce.
06:47So it's not actually a native tree.
06:48It comes from Scandinavia.
06:49And the reason why the forestry people want to use it is because it's a fast growing tree.
06:55The idea is that you can obviously it's much better for timber purposes, for business and
07:00also just faster for the Scottish government to meet their tree planting targets because it
07:05grows quickly. And so, you know, CO2 is going to be absorbed and everything.
07:09But on the other side, you've got communities who are worried about it being non-native
07:14firstly. Also, they do shed their spruce needles a lot and it can create a sort of blanket
07:21of needles underneath them.
07:23And that can restrict biodiversity.
07:27Also, a lot of them, because they're planted for forestry, they're planted very closely
07:30together, tightly together.
07:31So it creates these quite dark woodland, dark forests and blocks the light.
07:37And again, that's not a great thing for some species.
07:41So there's one article which you can read on The Scotsman where this debate has got really
07:45heated down in the corner of Dumfries and Galloway.
07:48And yeah, a community are very concerned about a Sitka spruce plantation, predominantly
07:55Sitka spruce plantation being planted on a hill next to Langham in this region.
08:01For various reasons, the hills they think is deep peat, which legally you're not allowed
08:07to plant on just because of the environmental qualities that peat gives us.
08:12But also, just as I said before, with the biodiversity concern.
08:16Interestingly, next door to this hill is a nature reserve who have been given public
08:21funding to remove Sitka spruce, to remove this tree.
08:24So it does sort of beg the question, you know, we're paying public funds towards removing
08:29Sitka, why are we planting it?
08:31But it's a very complicated debate because obviously, as I mentioned at the beginning,
08:36it can be, it's a popular tree to use for forestry.
08:40And if you want a lucrative timber business, then it's sort of the one that they go for
08:44at the moment.
08:46You can read all the very latest from Catherine at the Hayes Way content area.
08:52You'll find it on the homepage.
08:54You can click through and see all the stories that she's spoken about there and continue
08:59to follow her as she travels by foot around Scotland.
09:03Please follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
09:07You'll be able to get a full and comprehensive wrap this afternoon on the budget, what it
09:13means for Scotland, the best analysis and comment as well across our site.
09:18So please tune in to find out exactly how this budget is going to affect you.
09:23And please go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.
09:27Thanks, Catherine, and thanks, everyone, for joining us.