{"id":649312,"date":"2024-02-27T06:09:28","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T14:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=649312"},"modified":"2024-02-27T06:44:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T14:44:53","slug":"rewilding-scottish-highlands","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/rewilding-scottish-highlands","title":{"rendered":"A 300-Year-Old Map and GIS Guide Rewilding in the Scottish Highlands"},"author":671,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[301562,479612,488262,488242,488252],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478432],"esri_blog_department":[478222],"class_list":["post-649312","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ecosystem-services","tag-habitat-restoration","tag-rewilding","tag-scotland","tag-valuing-nature","esri-blog-category-biodiversity","esri_blog_department-conservation-and-environment"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"Trees for Life uses maps to see the past and plan the future, rewilding the Scottish Highlands to the rich ecosystems of centuries ago.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<em>A lone Scots pine may soon have neighbors. (Photo courtesy of Trees for Life)<\/em>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Trees for Life gathers knowledge to guide the careful and long-term work of stitching back nature for the benefit of humans and the environment.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Key Takeaways<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Trees for Life has a vision for a revitalized forest that allows wildlife and communities to thrive.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Ecologists map an ancient forest to replicate the health of flora and fauna.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Maps convey the opportunities of a rewilded Scottish Highlands.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Highlands of Scotland, where mountains, glens, and riverbanks once teemed with diverse flora and wildlife, less than two percent of the ancient Caledonian pinewoods remain. What\u2019s left is confined to pockets of forest, without the connectivity that marks a healthy and biodiverse ecosystem.<\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trees for Life, a Scottish rewilding charity, joined forces with Rewilding Europe to create the <a href=\"https:\/\/treesforlife.org.uk\/about-us\/affric-highlands\/\">Affric Highlands initiative<\/a>. Situated in the heart of the Scottish Highlands and spanning over 200,000 hectares, this pioneering rewilding of the landscape places local people at its core. Over the course of 30 years, Affric Highlands will bring together communities, businesses, and landowners in the region with the shared objective of restoring nature, fostering a resilient local economy, and enriching people's lives.<\/p>\r\nTo realize this ambitious vision, it is imperative for the organization to gain a comprehensive understanding of the remaining fragments of native habitat. Records of the region's environmental history are scarce. But there are a few maps that have survived, including a famous survey conducted by Scottish military engineer William Roy in the 1740s (see sidebar). These maps of the past have been digitized to help inform Trees for Life's ecologists who carry handheld devices into the forest, using geographic information system (GIS) apps to record findings and consult the historical maps.\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cGIS and maps are really important because they ground us,\u201d said Alan McDonnell, the head of nature restoration at Trees For Life, who notes how maps help consider the dimensions of the rewilding effort. \u201cWe like to see what it was to gauge how big it could be, what it could look like, and how it could sit in the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Putting Past Plants and Wildlife Back<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rewilding has gained prominence as a means to combat climate change and counteract the collapse of nature. It requires a strong interdisciplinary knowledge of the web of species that make up a healthy ecosystem.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAlmost anywhere you go in Scotland, you\u2019ll see at least some trees,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cBut often it could be a richer place ecologically.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With GIS technology, Trees for Life blends technical skills with the workflows and skills of natural history and field ecology specialists. These professionals use GIS to capture data, analyze ecosystem values, and visualize interconnections among different species.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":649412,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the rewilding effort, Trees for Life focuses on creating places where there\u2019s room for open-ground species, semi-woodland species, and many others in between. Ecologists use old maps to guide work in the field, hoping to find genetic evidence of forests that developed after ice left Scotland more than 13,000 years ago.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt depends how degraded the woodland remnant is,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cBut some flora and fauna will have that continuity. . . . The living building blocks of habitat will still be there.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wherever pockets of original forest are found, there is scope to allow the trees to set seed and naturally regenerate and rejuvenate the woodland. Sometimes, seeds are collected and propagated so that the seedlings can be replanted according to carefully designed\u2014and mapped\u2014forest plans.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":649342,"text":"When you come up with an idea to restore an area, it often starts as a fuzzy concept in your mind. The ability to map it helps bring it all together.","author_name":"Head of Nature Restoration at Trees for Life","author_profession_organization":"Alan McDonnell"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Aims for Rewilding Plants and Wildlife<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GIS helps answer questions about how people in the past used the Scottish Highlands. In the 18<sup>th<\/sup> and 19<sup>th<\/sup>centuries, they felled oak and pine trees to build ships and fuel furnaces for making iron during the Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only 84 areas are recognized as Caledonian pinewoods in the government\u2019s pinewood inventory. Trees for Life has visited the majority of these areas and conducted extensive surveys of their health and condition. The next step will be to consider other ancient pinewoods that are not on the list.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019re making the argument to government\u2014and society\u2014that Caledonian pinewoods would be much more of a significant component of today\u2019s landscape if we would let nature have its way,\u201d McDonnell said.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much of Scotland\u2019s native flora has been harmed by sheep and deer, whose browsing consumes tree seedlings, which leads to a sparse mature forest without next-generation trees.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trees for Life has successfully installed deer fences that allow the seedlings to grow where they haven\u2019t been free to grow for centuries. In places with older trees, a deer fence can be all that\u2019s needed for the trees to naturally expand the forest.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[649392,649432,649402]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To imagine what the Affric Highlands Partnership can accomplish in terms of biodiversity restoration, the team looks to an example set by the healthy pinewoods of Norway.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf you travel just 200 miles east of here to southwest Norway\u2014the same latitude\u2014you can hardly walk in a pinewood without standing on twinflower, which is a rare species in Scotland,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cIt can feel like there\u2019s miles of the stuff there, along with a diversity of mammals.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Returning Missing Species<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trees for Life has had success in returning mammals that have gone locally extinct or have been in serious decline in Scotland, including beavers and red squirrels.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cRed squirrels were captured from the east where they thrive, and taken to north and west Scotland where they petered out 60 years ago,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cAnd lo and behold, they were naturally feeding within days, and in three months there were young squirrels.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McDonnell likes to show people on maps how the squirrel populations have grown bigger and begun moving around. He has watched even the most suspicious rewilding skeptics light up when he talks about these charismatic creatures.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stretch goal of Trees for Life is to return the Eurasian lynx to Scotland. \u201cThat\u2019s a very serious social proposition, because we don\u2019t have a predator bigger than an otter now,\u201d McDonnell said.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To make the case for lynx reintroduction, Trees for Life has compiled maps of the habitat it likes and the lynx's impacts on the environment. \u201cThe conversation starts with showing where the lynx might go and where it almost certainly wouldn\u2019t,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cThe ability to communicate visually is really valuable. We can\u2019t predict exactly what the lynx would do here\u2014it\u2019s a wild animal after all\u2014but we can illustrate the range of scenarios based on knowledge of similar landscapes and situations.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Showing What\u2019s Possible<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McDonnell has seen restoration succeed. That helps fuel his passion. Thirty years ago, Trees for Life replanted native trees in an area of open ground in Glen Affric. Colleagues he calls \"tree wizards\" went high into the crags of mountains to harvest seeds in places deer couldn\u2019t reach, to return rare willow species. The word <em>wizard <\/em>applies in his mind for the ways they keep small remand populations of rare species going with their technical skill and tender loving care. With persistence and vision, a forest slowly took hold.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[649362,649442,649422,649372]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The land has changed, and habitat has been created with the return of insects, fungi, plants, and mammals. The habitat has even led to the return of black grouse\u2014an endangered species in Scotland.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou get this mosaic of habitats,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cEach step feels quite small, but they are all steps towards bringing richness back into the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same GIS maps that guide rewilding efforts also support Trees for Life in communicating the benefits of restoring the Affric Highlands\u2014especially to inspire the next generation.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don't know about you, but I remember being young and having lots of idealistic ideas about how things should happen,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cJust lots of shouting at the wind and saying, \u2018Why don't the people in charge sort this out?\u2019 And of course, that never really comes about. You eventually realize you've got to make that change yourself.\"<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/natural-resources\/overview\">GIS is used to transform natural resource management<\/a>.<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":649382,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Maps Mark a Changing Scotland<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The various clans of Scotland observed a communal form of land ownership. \u201cNobody thought, \u2018This is our property. These are our lands,\u2019\u201d said Alan McDonnell, conservation manager for Trees for Life. \u201cI guess that led to a lot of fighting to determine whose lands they were.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Roy Military Survey of Scotland (1747-1755) is a historical cartographic document the British used to conquer Scotland. The quality and completeness of the Roy map led to military advantage with its leap forward in detail and accuracy. It recorded nature as part of the conquest to acquire resources, including lumber for shipbuilding and other industries. Because of what it captured in the past, this document continues to have relevance for all manner of geographic questions today.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf General Roy mapped a fir tree symbol, we can often find a 300-year-old pine tree exactly where he marked it,\u201d McDonnell said.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maps also record changing land and ownership, with names on the map denoting who owns massive estates. Queen Victoria bought the Balmoral estate in 1852 and fashioned its 20,000 hectares as a hunting lodge. Other lodges and landholdings became a status symbol among Europe\u2019s elite.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These large landholdings are seen as an asset for the rewilding movement\u2014a place to return nature and livelihoods. Trees for Life has had growing success returning missing species to Scotland\u2019s Affric Highlands. As habitat diversity expands, the map will need updating.<\/p>","snippet":""}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A 300-Year-Old Map and GIS Guide Rewilding in the Scottish Highlands<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trees for Life uses maps to see the past and plan the future, rewilding the Scottish Highlands to the rich ecosystems of centuries ago.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/rewilding-scottish-highlands\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A 300-Year-Old Map and GIS Guide Rewilding in the Scottish Highlands\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" 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