Montane woodland habitat has all but disappeared from Scotland due to historical land management, but it is recovering in some areas where browsing pressure from deer has been reduced and it is being restored by planting on areas of Wildland Ltd. Glenfeshie Estate and RSPB Scotland Abernethy Reserve.

Each June since 2021, rare native willow tree saplings have been carried into the remote Loch A’an basin on RSPB Scotland Abernethy Reserve by Cairngorms Connect Partnership staff and volunteers, and then planted out by specialist contractors. The aim of this work is to revitalise remnant populations of montane willow species, too isolated and lacking the genetic diversity needed to reproduce successfully. The species being planted include downy willow, whortle-leaved willow, and eared willow.

This combination of willow species, and other associated vegetation, forms the habitat known as montane scrub. The Cairngorms was once a stronghold of this specialist type of woodland, which occurs high up in the mountains between the familiar pine forests and extreme harshness of the montane plateau. However, this habitat is now extremely rare.

Of the sample population of planted willows in the Loch A’an basin monitored in August 2022, 97% were recorded as either healthy or surviving in May 2023. This is fantastic news and demonstrates that in the future, visitors to the high tops in the Cairngorms will once again be able to experience this rare and fragile habitat.

^{Cairngorms Connect Partnership staff and volunteers loading bags and tree-planting harnesses with 4000 willow saplings and cuttings.}

 The Cairngorms Connect Partnership held their third Willow Walk on the 2nd of June 2023, with sixty dedicated staff and volunteers carrying 1500 downy willow saplings, 500 whortle-leaved willow saplings and 2000 eared willow cuttings up to the Cairngorm Plateau and down into the Loch A’an basin ready for planting.

This year’s Willow Walk was the biggest yet and the new batch of trees will almost double the 4500 that have been planted over the previous two years in this area. With this number of trees going in the ground, and the survival rate being seen, Cairngorms Connect are hopeful that natural regeneration will occur, and this largely missing habitat will grow stronger over time.

The young trees were grown in the Cairngorms Connect Tree Nursery at RSPB Scotland Abernethy Reserve from cuttings and seed. The parent plants have been collected from existing trees across the Cairngorms including populations on Wildland Ltd. ground, National Trust for Scotland Mar Lodge National Nature Reserve, Drumochter, and from the Loch A’an basin itself where less than 40 individual plants survived clinging on to rocky ledges. The eared willow cuttings were taken from healthy populations elsewhere on the reserve.

The staff and volunteers who joined the walk spanned generations, ability, and experience – all working towards a shared 200-year vision for the future which, ultimately, they will not see the end results of.

^{Members of the Cairngorms National Park Junior Rangers holding the willow saplings they carried to the Loch A’an basin on this year’s willow walk.} 

The youngest in the group were four members of the Cairngorms National Park Junior Ranger team. Katherine, aged 16, described what being part of the Willow Walk meant for her. “It makes us, as in the youth, feel like we’re doing something and we’re not just sitting round doing nothing. There is that sense of belonging. Being able to conserve and guarantee a future of this place for future generations makes me very happy. Doing small things to help, like bringing in the trees today, will help towards the bigger picture.”

 ^{Mother and son, Kate and Ali, on the Cairngorm Plateau on this year’s Willow Walk.} 

On the walk back down from the plateau mother and son duo, Kate and Ali, reflected on what it means to be able to do this work together.  “It’s great to be out here with Mum and then hopefully, in years to come, with my son Torrin. I’ll be able to be the boring dad and point out the work we did to help change things for his generation … There is something really nice about doing work that you ultimately are not going to see the fruits of. I think it is just being part of a place.”

As a long-term volunteer at the Tree Nursery, Kate added, “I am very fortunate to be fit enough and able to do the Willow Walk at my age. I think it’s wonderful that I go from the very beginning with the seeds, working in the Tree Nursery. It’s a huge part of my life.”

Local contractors, Alban Tree Care & Consultancy, are planting out the trees this week and the Cairngorms Connect science and monitoring team will continue to assess the health of the trees and the success of the regeneration.

Ellie Dimambro-Denson, Cairngorms Connect Monitoring Officer, spoke about her recent survey of the previously planted trees at Loch A’an. “They seem to be surviving their second winter! Only a little browsing, mostly by hare, but they’re budding with a few producing catkins that are beginning to open up too.” Ellie also found two catkins containing seed that was germinating below one of the native willows, which is likely the result of planting a broader genetic mix of both male and female plants in strategic locations which will enable this historic population to reproduce naturally once again.

This work in the Loch A'an basin and on Wildland Ltd. Ground is part of the Cairngorms Connect Partnership’s landscape-wide plan to restore native woodlands across a vast area within the National Park and is further enhanced by the similar work being carried out by the neighbouring National Trust for Scotland on Mar Lodge.  The work is supported by the RSPB’s LIFE 100% project.

The work at the Cairngorms Connect Tree Nursery is currently being funded by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot, and a generous grant from the LIFE programme of the European Union. Cairngorms Connect is funded by the Endangered Landscapes Programme.

^{Feature Image: Young downy willow tree with catkin on the slopes of the Loch A’an basin.}