This interactive workshop will be exploring what makes our western pinewoods special. We will go on to consider whether this should influence our management decisions and what opportunities there might be going forwards. 

Neighbouring land owners in Glen Arkaig share their honest experience from working together in partnership. 

Representatives from a community forest, a West Highland Estate, the state forest and an eNGO use the example of the Beò Airceig : Living Arkaig  to explore how partnership landscape scale restoration can work because of, rather than despite, these very different land ownership models. 

There will be a focus on the key challenges in delivering landscape scale restoration using the case study of a project delivering on the ground.

84 different native pinewood sites are listed on the Caledonia Pinewood Inventory (CPI).  An unknown number of other sites that met the original criteria for inclusion were omitted, mainly because they were unknown or unrecorded at the time. 

Around 50 of these sites are now being investigated in detail through the Wild Pine Project. The CPI, although not giving statutory protection to the pinewoods that a designation like SSSI or SAC would do, incentivises positive management of pinewood sites through the potential of accessing higher grant rates and the discouragement of planting of pine within a certain distance from the site, to minimise risks of the spread of diseases like Dothistroma. 

This workshop will discuss whether similar recognition should be given to native pinewood sites highlighted in the Wild Pine Project, leading to similar incentivisation of positive management. ‘Does the fragmented & often critically threatened status of these sites mean that it is imperative they receive support towards positive management? Or are they too small, too remote, or too compromised by previous management to put additional funding towards?’

This interactive workshop will highlight some of the existing funding sources for restoring and expanding Caledonian pinewoods. We will share experience on how these can be accessed and blended to work co-operatively at a landscape scale.

Deer management is often the key challenge at Caledonian Pinewood sites, and consequently around 30-40% of our pinewoods have been deer fenced at some stage. However, pine growth rates are initially slow in the west, meaning recovery often takes longer than the lifespan of a fence, and progress can be lost when fences are breached. These difficulties can be overcome through effective landscape scale deer management, but this approach is rarely taken outside the Cairngorms.

During this workshop we will discuss the merits and challenges of different approaches to deer management at Caledonian Pinewood sites, and when fencing may be an appropriate management tool.