Restoration

Day21
There are so many photos to choose from, pictures of us, waterfalls, gorges, and plants, but in the end I went for the restoration theme, because that’s what brought us to this lovely place.
If I’m honest the weather is becoming troublesome with just too many days of rain and cold, but it is what it is. It used to called “character building” in my youth, so we are drawing on our “character” and still enjoying the beautiful places, the company of our companions, and having a dry and sometimes warm van to retreat to.
(Just now we are watching rabbits grazing around the van, keeping the campsite grass nicely short. )
However, on to restoration and the image…
One of the largest (though still small) remnants of the old Caledonian Forest is to be found here on the Mar Estate. In an effort to make that remnant much larger, and ideally to link it to other remnants, the deer and sheep numbers have been drastically reduced.
In this picture you can see a result. I’m standing on the edge of the old wood and all the way up the hill there are new trees growing. The seeds come from the old trees and without grazing pressure the saplings appear and thrive.
Most of the trees are Caledonian pines, Scots pine, but there are others, such as willow and rowan, appearing too. Come back in 50 years and see the new forest!
The story of how this came to be, and the ongoing process, is told in the book; “Regeneration - The rescue of a wild land.”