Forestry

The long-term vision for Attadale Estate’s woodlands is to create a positive contribution through integrated land management, so that the woodland ecosystems thrive to a similar extent and vitality to the ancient woodlands that previously covered the glens and hillsides.  

As part of this, all of the non-native conifer woodlands have been felled, to allow the estate to convert these areas into native woodland.  This will greatly enhance and expand the nationally important Caledonian pinewoods and the ancient semi-natural woodlands across the estate. 

The felled areas will be replanted in 2021/22 with a mix of native Scots pine, birch, hazel, aspen and willows to better reflect the ground conditions and the surrounding environment. The inclusion of open ground to reflect natural edges, watercourses and flushes will allow the new native woodland to appear more at one with the landscape.

The sites will be fenced to protect the new trees and the nationally designated Caledonian Pinewood situated along the Allt a’Ghiubhais burn.  This will in turn encourage natural regeneration of the pinewood.

To compensate for the loss of cover/forage for the local deer population within these areas, previously established native woodlands situated along the Eas Ban will gradually be opened up over the next 5 years. The existing fence lines will be dropped in sections identified by the estate staff to allow gradual incursion. A baseline regeneration survey has been carried out within these woodlands which has shown the sites are well established, with significant areas of natural regeneration, both inside and out with the fence lines, providing enough woodland cover to support a healthy deer population.  The total area within these sites is approx. 235ha. Although this is significantly less than the felled areas, these sites will provide a better quality cover and forage environment. 

Between 2019-2022 the estate are creating over 235ha of new native woodlands, this equates to almost half a million trees!

The expansion of native woodland across the estate will protect and improve the fragmented habitat networks within the nationally important Caledonian Pinewood areas. The woodlands will reflect the surrounding environment creating diverse and resilient woodlands for generations to come.

The estate have recently entered into the Forest Stewardship Council ® [FSC] certification scheme which confirms that the forest is being managed in a way that preserves the natural ecosystems and benefits the lives of local people and workers, while ensuring it sustains economic viability.

The scheme provides an independent assessment of compliance with the law, with forestry codes of practice and guidelines.  Examples of assessment subjects include health and safety, training and contractor qualifications, environmental impacts of forest operations – including wildlife, habitats, archaeological features, soil and water protection.