SNH poison and ring Beech trees

[Wood wasp]

SNH accused of 'vandalism' on Inchtavannach Island - BBC News

[Wood wasp]

Better picture showing the dead trees

 

http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/landowner-scottish-natural-heritage-poisoned-my-trees-1-3829391

[peatff]

I can understand the Rhododendron but how can a tree that has been there 300 years be classed as non native ? The dead patches do detract from the general appearance of the area, was it just an economic based decision, cheaper to kill them than cut them down ?

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

That's gonna take some explaining!

[agrimog]

SNH, a group of university educated muppets with no real idea of the real world, everything they touch turns to sh1t, if it says it in the big book we read at uni, then its the correct way to do it, and all the rest of you are wrong

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

SNH, a group of university educated muppets with no real idea of the real world, everything they touch turns to sh1t, if it says it in the big book we read at uni, then its the correct way to do it, and all the rest of you are wrong

 

:lol: Made me laugh!

 

Very often the reality with tragic consequences!

 

What would be good to see now, is the academic / business plan that justified this course of action and to identify the architect of the plan and the chain of command that approved it such that appropriate sanction may be imposed upon them - assuming of course it is found to be a poor decision rather than a component of some great master plan that us minions outside of the QUANGO are too dull to understand?

[Wood wasp]

Exactly Kevin/Agri

 

In the real world someone suggesting that mature Beech woodland should be ringed/poisoned would be ran off the job pronto. Unfortunately for these guys that's just business as usual. Not far from above butchery site we've got SNH putting a beautiful birch and pine woodland under the mulcher as they've been given millions to create a peat bog, next stop along the same road is yet another quango who've been given millions.... To create a native woodland!

 

And let's not forget the rspb at other end of the country who've harvested thousands tons of softwood (to create another peatbog) without the inconvenience of bothering with a felling licence. Look forward to seeing results of FC investigation for that one!

 

And all this while our planting crisis just goes on

[ben_inthewoods]

Oh no I don't believe I am going to jump to the defence of SNH, but here goes.

 

I look after a similar SSSI woodland where we are removing beech as they are shading out and killing from the bottom up light demanding native woodland (oak, hazel, ash) crucially the beech are also casting to much shade for specific lichen.

 

To regenerate the native woodland type we are removing 90% of the mature beech, winching out of a gorge using IRATA qualified arborists, we are also planting locally collected oak and hazel to get a new cohort of native woodland.

 

What would happen to the native woodland if no intervention? A shade bearing beech monoculture in time. We all experience poor impractical SNH bods once in a while, but I am not sure that this is such a big deal at loch lommond.

[Wood wasp]

Whether you agree with the removal of the beech or not is one thing Ben. In your example the plan is to actively remove the beech and replant other species, presumably there will also be an ongoing management programme to ensure that woodland doesn't end up usual choked, worthless mess. I'm not sure about England but in Scotland the vast majority of our hardwood is worthless scrub, we certainly don't need quangos creating more!

 

Coming back to this specific instance the issue is that SNH have went through the woodland poisoning/ringing mature trees, they've now accepted that is a major cock up and are going to have to fell the trees anyway.

[ben_inthewoods]

One man's worthless scrub is another man's Atlantic Oakwood with high biodiversity values. I am not sure if everyone in SNH would consider it a cock up except a communication and PR problem. I understand that the main criticism was focused on the visual impact for tourism.

 

I agree that the management strategy needs to take into account future access and operations and therefore removal of some of the standing dead wood should be considered before it gets too problematic to deal with (too dead to climb or fell), but large standing dead wood is valuable in this situation.

 

I have found some SNH staff to really challenge the preconceptions that I and I know others often share. Granted there are many in the organisation that leave you tearing your hair out with impractical requests, but it is a big organisation. I reckon that if the 'non natives' were sycamore and not beech they would not be removed.