Great Trossachs Forest
The Great Trossachs Forest – concept and long-term vision
Concept – why form a partnership
The neighbouring land-owning organisations, WTS, RSPB & FCS, working across an extensive area of the Trossachs, have independent specific objectives for land management but there are a number of aspects of mutual interest. These include elements of woodland and other habitat management, biodiversity management and monitoring, public access and countryside interpretation. By securing a closer partnership, the project will achieve:
- landscape-scale habitat enhancement,
- An enhanced and more integrated approach to access and interpretation.
- some common standards and approaches across the area,
- resultant efficiencies of scale, mutual promotion and profile raising,
As a result, this partnership will bring benefits to the individual partner organisations and to the delivery of land management objectives for the benefit of biodiversity and people.
Long-term vision
Currently the area stretching from Loch Lomond north of Inversnaid reserve, across the Loch Katrine Catchment to Glen Finglas has long been managed as a mosaic of upland sheep walk with small areas of native deciduous woodland, larger areas of commercial forestry and with reservoirs at Loch Katrine, Loch Arklet and Glen Finglas.
Habitat enhancement, of native woodland and open moorland, lie at the heart of this project. The results would be new native woodland in all areas that are best suited to its establishment. That woodland would be of high biodiversity value and would consist of a wide range of types ependent on the individual characteristics of the site, the aspect, hydrology and soil-type for example. A range of woodland types would develop including high canopy oak woodland, areas of Caledonian pine, pasture woodland and wet alder woods. In montane areas and on forest edges scrub would form an important feature. The interfaces between woodland and open ground habitats would have the characteristics of more natural woodland with a mosaic of scrub and open ground rather than abrupt fenced edges.
The area would not be entirely forest, key moorland, montane, wetland and grassland habitats would be retained and enhanced through conservation management. Grazing, by both domestic livestock and wild deer, will be a key component of management, resulting in a dynamic system with components expanding and contracting over time in response to natural processes.
The whole area would be managed with people in mind – for the enjoyment of visitors and local people, to benefit local communities aesthetically, socially and economically and to become a focus of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. It would be a showcase for wildlife and habitat enhancement, and for revealing the long history of the ways in which people have interacted and modified their environment. It would be used as a demonstration site to other land managers and opportunities would be available for use by primary, secondary and tertiary education groups.
The partner bodies would continue to operate effectively as a partnership under the umbrella of the Trossachs Forest Project. While the bodies would continue to have independent specific aims for the land that they manage, this coherent and long-term partnership would continue to provide significant biodiversity and people gains on a landscape scale.
