"This piece of wood is a time-traveller, washed out of the water-logged peat that has preserved it from rot since it fell to the ground an unknown number of years ago. It gives a glimpse into the history of this landscape, a time when Birch trees were present here.

I found this piece of Birch  wood  on the edge of a large blanket bog at 650 m above sea level. Yet there are no Birch trees in sight, no trees of any stature anywhere on this blanket bog. Indeed, there are very few mature Birch trees this high in the hills anywhere in Scotland.

The same water-logged, anaerobic conditions that allow peat to form are perfect for the preservation of organic matter like this – indeed, the process which preserved this small piece of Birch is identical to the process of peat formation itself. The skeletal remains of tree stumps are a common sight on peat hags across country. Some may be thousands of years old and echo the landscape that existed at the time the peat started forming when Scotland's climate changed about 4000 years ago. Many are more recent, and bear witness to a landscape changed and lost through human activity. Unpicking the story of these remains can help to guide our work in restoring these landscapes to their full ecological potential.

Finding an identifiable piece of Birch wood in the peat is rare, and exciting. There is debate about how much Birch was present historically in Scotland in these sorts of landscapes, high in the hills and in what is now treeless blanket bog. It could seem that these places are too inhospitable for trees to grow. And yet, in South West Norway, where the geology, ecology and climate are very similar to Scotland, and where it ought therefore to be just as  inhospitable to trees, Birch is abundant in precisely these sorts of places. 

 Birch trees growing on an upland bog in South West Norway, 940m above sea level. Photo: Ellie Dimambro-Denson

Downy Birch is a hardy tree that can grow almost anywhere and tolerate all sorts of extreme conditions. The hills of South West Norway are covered in Birchwoods, rich in birdsong and wildflowers, creating a 'Birch belt' between the upper limit of the pinewoods and the true montane environments of the high summits. Within these woods lie areas of blanket bog, with Birch trees growing on slightly raised knolls and hummocks, forming a stable mosaic with wetter, moss-filled hollows and open bog pools.

Are the few Birch trees that remain in Scotland's hills the last survivors of our own Birch belt? Could blanket bog, like those we are restoring at RSPB Scotland Abernethy and across the wider Partnership landscape, hold a similar mosaic of open bog and Birch woodland? Perhaps the answers lie in the peat itself, either as large pieces of wood or in extracted peat cores containing dated pollen records.

There is one more tantalising piece of evidence.  Less than 2 km from where this piece of Birch wood was found, an unremarkable burn trickles quietly down the hillside, slowly draining water from the bog into the Water of Caiplich and eventually into the River Avon. The burn is called the Caochan Bheithe, the Birch burn. Sometime within cultural memory, there were Birch here. Perhaps there will be again in the future."

^{Feature Image: A piece of Birch wood next to the blanket bog where it was discovered, having been preserved in the peat. Photo by Ewan Craig}