photo by Arlo
on the north east part of the croft we’ve got around 100 sitka regen around 7 years old. on that thin strip they’re about the only thing providing any structure to the place – besides an understory of thigh high reeds, knee deep deer grass ruts, calf nuzzling moss and heading down the bank to the burn an abundant bed of heather. this being the place where the access road was due to be put in, our care plan has been – well, lets see what comes up. around this strip and out of harms way, we planted alder by the hundreds.
the access road went in early 2022. since then the land has settled down – less bogginess due to road drainage – and we’ve planted more alder and scots pine among the sitka regen. downhill of this a forest of birch regen has sprung up, with some oak and rowan appearing now and then. the birch we generally leave to their own devices but whack a tree guard on any other native species that rears it heid.
naebody wants a forest of sitka here and yet, we ackowledge they’ve provided a service while we waited to see how the road shenanigans turned out. our youngest created a song to sing everytime we take down a sitka – thank you for your service, for keeping our air clean – which we’ve sung many a time as sitka regen tends to outstrip any other species on an ex sitka plantation (but that’s a different story). the sitka has provided a bit of shelter to the young sapplings but are now beginning to over shadow them.
girdling the sitka brings many benefits. we don’t need to deal with 100 sitka trees and their brash in one go. the standing dead wood will provide important habitat for birds and insects, and over time they’ll drop their needles and branches, gradually adding nutrients and organic matter to the soil. they’ll continue to provide shelter for the alder and scots pine and it won’t have such a big visual and structural impact as by the time they’re ready to fall the younglings will be at their shoulder and we’ll be well on our way to nurturing a copse of scots pine with an alder, birch and rowan under story.
