Here is a more detailed description of the current state of the woodland. (For the idiot’s guide see my earlier post (https://womaninthewoods.net/we-bought-a-wood/). There is a post coming soon about our proposed management plan – they’re sort of linked, so I hope you are paying attention!
Where is it?
Comar Wood is in Strathglass, a fairly well-wooded part of the Scottish Highlands, which leads eventually up to the beautiful pinewoods of Glen Affric. The wood is on a steep hillside on the north side of the Glass floodplain, making it a sheltered site with a south-easterly aspect. It is quite long and narrow, running for about a kilometre along the side of the valley. The altitude is between 65 and 150 m above sea level.
What is underneath it?
Underground you would find that the rock type is Moine schist (typical across a fair bit of the Highlands), covered by glacial till in all but the very steep parts. Above this are brown earth soils, the type of soil that develops in natural woodland conditions. The ground flora species (i.e. plants growing at ground level) naturally present on the site can help to indicate the quality of the soil. In our case we have abundant bluebells, bracken, dog’s mercury, bramble, honeysuckle, bugle and various other plants that indicate our soils are mildly acidic with a moderate fertility that should be capable of allowing a wide range of tree species to grow.
What trees are in it?
The main tree species in the wood is Sitka spruce, which covers around 65% of the total area. It was planted 34 years ago as a commercial crop. There are also areas of planted larch of the same age, but these only cover about 5% of the site. Before this the site consisted of ancient native birch woodland. The birch were ring-barked when the spruce were planted (this is where a strip of bark is removed all the way around the trunk in order to kill the tree).
The spruce have never been thinned so now form a dense stand. However, native trees – mainly silver birch – can still be found within it. These birch include older trees that pre-date the plantation (ones that survived the ring-barking) and younger trees that have grown up with the spruce. The woodland is considered to be a Plantation on Ancient Woodland Site (PAWS). We had a survey carried out by Alasdair Firth, courtesy of the Woodland Trust’s ancient woodland restoration project. This classified the area planted with spruce as critical in terms of the threat to the ancient woodland.
Fortunately some parts of the site were not planted with spruce or larch and these contain remnants of the previous native woodland cover. There is one such area of about a hectare at the western boundary and the strip alongside the road is also native. The other native remnants are inside the plantation and are areas that were presumably considered too steep and/or rocky to plant. The main tree species in these native areas is silver birch. Other tree species present in numbers include aspen (which are all found in one stand), alder, oak, rowan, bird cherry, hazel and willow. I have found at least one example of juniper, holly, wych elm and ash. Hawthorn and blackthorn are also present in several locations.
What else is in it?
A woodland is about more than just the trees but in the areas of spruce the ground flora is generally either non-existent or is composed of species such as mosses and wood sorrel that are tolerant of heavy shading. In remnant areas of native woodland the ground flora is much more diverse due to the plentiful light. The species mix is quite variable suggesting subtle differences in soil fertility. In the slightly richer areas plants such as bluebell, wood anemone and dog’s mercury are found, together with bramble and honeysuckle. Heathers and blueberry are found in areas of poorer soil. Mosses and ferns are common and bracken is found extensively.
The remnant native areas provide a refuge for specialist woodland plant species that have been shaded out elsewhere by the spruce. They help to show what the woodland could or should look like were the spruce not present. However, even these remnants are being increasingly shaded by the adjacent spruce trees, which only continue to grow taller!
Apart from the spruce, another cause of damage to the native woodland remnants is browsing by sheep and deer. I don’t yet fully understand the relative impacts of each animal but I know that both are present in the wood. The sheep come from a semi-feral flock that wanders round the local area eating all the young trees it can find. This is likely to be reducing natural tree regeneration in the native woodland, especially of the species that these animals particularly like, such as rowan, oak and hazel. The character of the native woodland remnants has probably also been influenced by historical management of the woodland. I don’t know exactly what this entailed (though would like to find out), however I know there were several bobbin mills in the locality ~150 – 100 years ago which would have used a large amount of birch wood for bobbin manufacture.
Anything else?
As well as roe deer (and sheep) we also have badgers and red squirrels in the wood. There are also bats, although I don’t know what species. I think probably pipistrelle. There may be other mammals existing here, such as pine martens, that I have yet to see or find evidence of. There are plenty of birds and insects too.
I love exploring the woodland and there is always more to find within it. The contrast between the planted and non-planted areas is stark and highlights just how much impact the spruce are having. Inside the plantation, in the middle of the spruce, you are totally enclosed in a dark, silent world of vertical tree trunks. But it is not long until you find some evidence of the old woodland hanging on – an old birch tree just keeping its head above the spruce, or a small gap and a patch of light where bluebells still flower. The ancient woodland is still there underneath, waiting for the light to return.