Talla & G

ameshop

e © Colin M

cLean

See inside for :

Rural Skills at Corehead

Winter’s past – Avalanche Risk in

the Borderlands

Wildlife in the Wild Heart

Issue 39 | Summer 2018

GreenThe

SHED

Borders Volunteers Led by Anna Craigen this runs every Tuesday. The group meets in Galashiels at 10am and heads off in a minibus to a variety of different Community Woodlands around the borders to complete a variety of conservation and woodland management tasks.

Carrifran WildwoodOur longest standing volunteer group which has been running for over 13 years, this group runs every Tuesday from 9.30 am.

2 The Green Shed Summer 2018 The Green Shed Summer 2018 3

Note from the ChairRosalind Grant-Robertson Chairman

As you read this Green Shed, I can only hope Spring has finally sprung! If ever there was a time to praise and thank our team of staff, volunteers and trustees for getting out there and keeping going, this Spring was it. The late wintry weather has affected planting schedules, fences and maintenance work. So I’m going to use this space to highlight this year’s appeal letter, which you should have received by now. Please support our work and warm our Wild Heart with a timely donation, however small! We would be truly grateful.

You may also like to consider support in the form of contributing time and expertise. We are always looking for new Trustees who can offer skills in areas like fundraising, HR or finance. It is not a heavy commitment and helping to steer our work can bring great satisfaction. Do get in touch if you would like more information.

Volunteer opportunities with BFT Do you want to gain new skills, get out into the countryside and contribute to habitat restoration across Southern Scotland? We now have 4 regular groups which you can join in with and there are also opportunities to contribute to biological recording on site.

Please get in touch to find out more at enquiries@bordersforesttrust.org or telephone 01835 830750.

Over the last three years we have worked with Kew Botanic Gardens to identify suitable sites and collect seed for the UK National Tree Seed Project.

This was no easy task in the Borders, with few woodlands meeting the ideal criteria, and the best examples often surviving in cleuchs and steep sloped gullies. With the help of volunteers we have scrambled, crawled and climbed to pick seeds, and sent in 32 collections, which comprises around 250,000 seeds from 266 trees and 13 different species. A big thank you to all those who have help collect, sort, dry and send the seeds.

It’s been wonderful to be part of this project which by freezing seed from across the country with as full a genetic diversity as possible, could serve as a back-up in case

loss of species from the landscape occurs, as well as providing seed material for scientific research.

It has also really highlighted to us how vital our work is to restore native woodland to Southern Scotland, especially native woodlands of a decent size as so many of the remnants are small patches just clinging on.

Corehead and Devil’s Beef Tub This group is in its 4th year and going strong. Led by Andy Wilson, volunteers go out every other Thursday from 10am to 3pm and contribute to a variety of tasks such a tree planting and orchard maintenance.

Talla & GameshopeOur newest group which started in November 2017, led by Andy Wilson. It runs on the first Sunday of each month and gives the opportunity to contribute to this exciting project from its inception.

Staff Update

Ali Murfitt joined BFT in April 2014 as our Corehead Communities and Education Officer. Over the past four years her role expanded to include leading events across our sites, starting our Junior Rangers programme, taking on Site Officer responsibilities and leading on producing the Green Shed and social media. As well as this flexibility and her multiple talents, Ali always carried out her work with a cheerful and determined commitment to the work of Borders Forest Trust.

So, it is with very mixed feelings that we announce Ali is now on maternity leave. We are so sorry to be without her input, but happy that she is embarking on a wonderful new adventure. We wish Ali and family all the very best!

UK National Tree Seed Project

Working together

Ali Murfitt © Matt Whitney

Tree Seed Project

Looking out at the Wildwood © Ali Murfitt

Talla & Gameshope

Carrifran Corehead

4 The Green Shed Summer 2018 The Green Shed Summer 2018 5

We are delighted that Clifton Bain has agreed to become a Patron of Borders Forest Trust. He has over 30 years of experience in the environmental world and currently heads up the IUCN UK Peatland Programme.

I asked him how he came into environmental work. Like many of us, Clifton cut his environmental teeth on volunteering in his teens. A zoology graduate, he took up his first job at RSPB Wales regional office researching the decline in breeding upland waders, caused mainly by the draining of bogs. With the realisation that simplistic government food production policies were having a negative impact on landscapes, he took a career shift to the policy side of RSPB, in order to influence decisions, bring insight, and make a difference. He became involved also in forestry policies, where he has seen the influence of the public mood against forests as single-purpose timber-producing industry lead to more joined-up thinking backed by wildlife legislation, bringing multiple objectives for landowners.

When I asked about his view on the value of wild places, Clifton spoke of each generation not seeing the changes in their local environment until it is too late. He believes it needs local people to stimulate reaction from the policy setters to protect and promote natural habitats. Sites such as The Wild Heart can be undervalued economically in terms of both long-term skills and jobs unless their contribution to quality of life is also quantified as a cost benefit. Awareness is growing of the contribution natural capital makes to the economy.

As for specific support for our work, Clifton’s understanding of policy making will help us to make connections so that our work on the ground gets proper support from government and funders, particularly in the private sector, where companies are seeing the need for projects nearer to home. New market mechanisms and an emerging awareness that an economy based on environmental health gives a stronger bottom line should bring opportunities to make corporate connections. Here, Clifton’s support will be invaluable.

It may be obvious from Clifton’s background that he has a lot to offer BFT as a patron, but he says we are giving in return: we offer him an opportunity not just to talk about how the environment can be, but to show where it is actually happening. To be associated with Borders Forest Trust rejuvenates his interest and balances the frustrations of working in the world of policy making.

Welcome, Clifton! We look forward to working with you.

Introducing our new Patronby Rosalind Grant-Robertson, Chairman

Clifton has published a number of books we thought BFT members would be interested in. The Ancient Pinewoods of Scotland. A companion Guide

The Rainforests of Britain and Ireland. A travellers Guide

They are available from Sandstone Press.

As the native trees grow and tall herbs and heather can flower, set seed and expand their range, a richer diversity of wildlife is able to return. We’ve long had dedicated volunteers contributing to biological recording on our sites, some completing decade long studies which have resulted in scientific papers, as well as casual records from walkers out and about.

We are looking for more volunteers to help with our surveys – in particular our bird surveys at both Corehead and Carrifran. If you’d be interested in surveying on our sites please email enquiries@bordersforesttrust.org

Also watch out for our new wildlife recording feature on our website which will be launched later this year.

Wildlife at the Wild Heart

News from the WILD HEART

Contains public sector information licensed under the O

pen Governm

ent Licence v3.0

.

Some of our regular wildlife recorders share their experiences.

6 The Green Shed Summer 2018 The Green Shed Summer 2018 7

New

s fr

om th

e W

ILD

HE

AR

T

I have been moth trapping on Borders Forest Trust sites for over a decade. It is fascinating to watch the changes in moth populations with the planting of broad-leaved trees on sites which hitherto had supported few or no trees.

Much of the Borders is bereft of native trees, with Peeblesshire having less ancient woodland (continuous woodland cover on a site since 1750) than any county in mainland Britain apart from Lincolnshire and Caithness. At Carrifran, the planting of aspen has resulted in an explosion of puss moth (Cerura vinula), poplar hawk (Laothoe populi) and pebble prominent (Notodonta ziczac), and it is likely that aspen specialists such as seraphim (Lobophora halterata) will also benefit.

BFT sites have provided a number of exciting finds, the most notable of which was the discovery of the Nationally Scarce thyme pug (Eupithecia distinctaria) at Gameshope in 2016. The larvae of this species feed on thyme and it is expected that it will continue to thrive on the steep scree slopes there which will remain unplanted.

Recording on these sites can be challenging both in terms of climate and terrain. It can be 20C, still and sunny in Peebles, while 20 miles south at Gameshope it can be 10C cooler, cloudy and blowing a hooley. As for the terrain, you need your wits about you – I managed to get my wife’s 4WD stuck a mile up a track one evening and had to be towed out the next day by a local gamekeeper – not my finest hour!

Moth recording is particularly valuable as insects are a great barometer of climate change when compared with other species groups that are slower to respond. Many species have become established in Scotland since 2000 moving northwards from south of the Border, including the yellow-barred long-horn (Nemophora degeerella) which when recorded at Carrifran in 2015 was at its most northerly site.

Nonetheless, the rewards outweigh the costs, and I would recommend others to explore some of these under-recorded sites – who knows what else might turn up as woodlands become established.

We have been monitoring birds at Carrifran in regular spring surveys since before tree planting began in 2000 and have recorded a marked increase in woodland birds. From 2007 to 2017, the number of woodland species increased to 14, and the total number of woodland birds recorded by two observers walking a total of 24 km on two days rose consistently from four to 425.

News from the WILD HEART

As well as the satisfaction of our routine recording revealing the changing bird life year by year, there are aspects of the work that make recording days particularly interesting. There is the challenge, for example, of separating the similar calls of Blackcaps and Garden Warblers, and of Tree Pipits and Meadow Pipits. There is the joy of hearing the loud and familiar calls of a few Cuckoos and Song Thrushes for the first time each year. And there is the occasional unexpected record, when, for example, a passing Osprey flies by, Swallows nest in our lunch shelter, or I flush a Woodcock, Greyhen (female Black Grouse) or Short-eared Owl. A family of ground-nesting Kestrels in 2008 provided another unusual record.

As well as the transects we walk, we also monitor a Black Grouse Lek (display ground). Over the years we have witnessed and recorded a fluctuating population. There were five displaying males there when we first discovered it in 2006, this number increased to 11 in 2012, then crashed in 2013 and 2014, and has remained low at only two to four birds since then. Sadly our numbers seem to reflect a similar decline across Southern Scotland over the same period. Our lek is up high and requires a night in a tent to be ready for the birds’ arrival at first light. This has its compensations, however, because I get to hear Snipe, Red Grouse and Skylark (all absent in the valley), an occasional sighting of a Peregrine or Fox, and unforgettable views of the lights of distant Moffat in the middle of the night.

Bird Monitoring at CarrifranBy John Savory

Moths By Reuben Singleton

Black Grouse © John Savory

Willow Warbler at Carrifran © John Savory

Pete Gordon who initiated the bird surveys in 1998.

Moth Trapping © Reuben Singleton

Logging the moth catch at Carrifran © Reuben Singleton

8 The Green Shed Summer 2018 The Green Shed Summer 2018 9

Debris fan at Gameshope Wood

Avalanche track Rispie Lairs

Pine in avalanche debris

Gupe Craig avalanche

Crinan beside little birches

Globeflower in debris

Snow pack Firthhope Linn

Creag Meagaidh

#3

#2

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8#1

This year, with funding from Scottish Natural Heritage, we have been able to run a number of rural skills courses. We’ve focused on traditional skills which are used to manage Corehead as a working farm with habitat restoration and education at its heart.

The workshops have included dry stone dyking, gate building using green woodwork techniques and pruning of the apple trees in our community orchard.

Dry Stone DykingA key challenge when integrating trees and livestock, is that whilst the trees are still small and vulnerable it is vital to maintain the fences, walls and tree boxes which separate them. This can be costly and time consuming work and we thank the many volunteers who have helped check fences at all of our sites! Professional dry stone dyker Alastair Reily led this workshop, attended by a number of our regular volunteers. As well as teaching the art of fixing some fallen sections, Alastair also shared tips on how to do small and regular repairs to prevent further sections falling. A really useful day for all and the Corehead volunteers have gone on to repair additional sections at our Thursday sessions.

Build a Rustic Gate Workshop Green woodwork and the necessary woodland management that accompanies it, is a traditional skill in revival. It brings multiple benefits, creating rural livelihoods whilst increasing biodiversity. At Corehead Farm this is something we’d really like to encourage and we hope in time, to plant areas of coppice hazel with standards (larger trees), as well as basketry willow. By the end of this workshop we had created a new access gate for our community orchard, with participants able to learn and improve skills with axe, draw knife and shave horse.

Corehead Farm now has its own shave horse, enjoyed and used by our volunteers and Junior Rangers and the start of more green woodwork projects to come! At Talla & Gameshope, along with the planting, we’ve started to run family events such as the Wildlife Walk and Picnic, and at Carrifran this spring, the valley provided a fantastic setting and inspiration for outdoor theatre in the Wildwood.

Rural SkillsThe impressive weather events during the winter of 2017/18 have reminded everyone at BFT that one can only understand the forces that our little planted trees are up against when we have got to know our sites at all seasons and over many years.

In a seminal 1996 conference on the ecology and restoration of montane scrub habitats in Scotland, Diana Gilbert, David Horsfield and Des Thompson described unusual high level woods of downy birch, montane goat willow and rowan at Creag Meagaidh NNR that formed an open, upland parkland of old trees, many of them with prostrate trunks. Several members of the Carrifran Wildwood Group went to see these trees, and were intrigued by the suggestion that landslides led to trunks falling up-slope, windthrow to trunks falling across the slope and avalanches to trunks falling downslope. After all of these events, surviving trees often produce striking rows of vertical branches from a prostrate original trunk. [#1]

There has not been time for many trees like this to develop on our sites, but it’s now clear

to us that avalanches – and also landslides and windthrow – are normal events in the Moffat and Tweedsmuir Hills in winters with severe weather. Derek Ratcliffe, the architect of the SSSI system in Britain, wrote in his book on Galloway and the Borders, that in Moffatdale “great smooth slopes soared high above, as steep as it is possible for hillsides to be, without breaking out into actual crag”. Slopes like this are abundant on all our sites, and we are starting to understand some of the consequences, for people as well as for trees.

In April 2013 our tree-planting contractors Treesurv added avalanches to their Planting Risk Assessment after an experience in Lochan Burn at Corehead, when a small avalanche dislodged rocks that reached the edge of the area where they were planting. In winter 2017/18, in the course of the challenging planting above the mouth of the Gameshope valley, work was temporarily halted when the condition of the slopes deteriorated.

The avalanche debris to be seen around the Gameshope

Wood in February 2018 highlights the risk to trees, and indicates some places where saplings are unlikely to remain upright long enough to reach full size. [#2] At Carrifran, the plan for planting Scots pines in what seemed to be suitable habitat in the north of Rispie Lairs has been modified twice. We moved some trees after a few were swept away by avalanches in December

2014 from the ridge between Priest Craig and Saddle Yoke. [#3] However, on a visit to Rispie Lairs on 27th March 2018 we were disconcerted to find pines planted in an area that we had thought was safe, protected by netting guards with two strong stakes, had been flattened by a small snow-slide that snapped the stakes and left the little trees mainly prostrate though still alive. [#4]

In contrast, pines planted with similar shelters among the crags nearby were intact, and that is where we shall plant more this year.

Other long-term effects are suggested by an avalanche originating from the cornices near Gupe Craig at Carrifran in January 2010, which uprooted some young trees and left many more with trunks slanting strongly downhill. [#5 & #6]

Another intriguing avalanche effect was noted at Carrifran later in 2010, when a snowpack formed by an avalanche on the south face of Firthhope Rig sometime before 9th March was still present on 29th June. It was in a deeply shadowed gorge below the Firthhope Linn waterfall and was insulated by a layer of grassy debris. The burn had of course immediately carved a way through under the snowpack, and by the end of June a Globeflower had come up through the debris on one side and was in full bloom. [#7 & #8]

The lessons are simply that avalanches are significant factors in the ecology of the hills of the Borderlands, and that they should never be underestimated by anyone venturing or working on the hills in winter.

A look at Winters Past

AVALANCHES in the Borderlands

By Philip Ashmole, BFT Trustee

News from the WILD HEART

Repairing the wall

Rustic Gate Workshop

Junior Rangers on their Shave Horse

Images © Ali Murfitt

Images ©Philip Ashmole & Robin Sloan

Borders Forest Trust Membership/Donation Form

If you’re reading this and you’re not a BFT member, why not sign up and make a lasting contribution to our work? If you are a member, please pass on to a friend!

Name ............................................................................................

Address ........................................................................................

Postcode ......................................................................................

Telephone ................................................................................... Email ............................................................................................

Type of Membership (please tick)

Individual £20 per annum (overseas £25)

Unwaged £7 per annum

Family £30 per annum (overseas £35)

Group £50 per annum

Corporate £250 per annum

Life £500

Gift AidIf you are a UK taxpayer, we can recover the tax you have paid on any donation from the Inland Revenue, greatly increasing its value, at no cost to you. We can currently reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that you donate.

Please sign the declaration below:

I would like Borders Forest Trust to treat all donations I make from the date of this declaration (until I notify you otherwise) as Gift Aid donations. I confirm I have paid or will pay Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year that is at least equal to the amount that all charities I donate to will reclaim in Gift Aid on my donations for that year.

Signature: ....................................................................................

Date: ..........................................

or contact us:

📞 01835 830 750

✉ enquiries@borders foresttrust.org

we also post details:

FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/BordersForestTrust

Tumblr @BordersForest

For more information about our forthcoming events please visit our website: www.bordersforesttrust.org/news-events

In the blink of an eye

By Ali Murfitt, Site and Community Officer

I started working for BFT some four years ago, as Community and Education officer. Over the years my role has expanded and changed and I’ve had the opportunity to get to know all of BFT’s sites and do a variety of conservation, survey and education work.

It’s been a real privilege to work with such a great team of staff, members, and the hardiest and most committed volunteers I’ve ever come across! It’s also been fascinating and heart-warming to watch habitats change, even across this short time period – as nature when given the chance, will rapidly flourish.

Before working for BFT, I thought that planting a tree was something you did for the next generation, for future wildlife or at least your very old future self. I’ve been surprised to discover the speed at which the beginnings of woodland emerge from a sheep grazed field. I’ve watched small twigs just peeping out of tubes, turn into young trees whose branches you look up to. In just 7 years since being planted, we are now taking off some of the tubes as the trees girth begins to rub against the plastic. I’ve also seen a wide range of caterpillars munching on those young tree leaves, and insects feeding on the increase of wildflowers, followed by the birds – quick to take advantage of a new home and food supply. You don’t just plant a tree for the future, you plant it –in a suitable place - to great benefit now, it’s heartening stuff.

With the growing of the trees, children visiting our sites have turned into teenagers and many are still attending our Junior Ranger sessions, now with years of experience of planting trees, learning outdoor skills and caring for our community orchard – which together we’ve watched grow from small twiggy trees to ones which are starting to bear buckets of fruit.

Every student who goes to Moffat Academy and other local schools now visit Corehead Farm at least once and learn how the landscape around them once formed part of the great Ettrick forest, discover the nature there and do their small part to help shape its future.

Small pond areas or scrapes which were dug a few years ago now teem with dragon flies and water beetles and are now slowly beginning to succeed back to wet meadow. Nature doesn’t stand still for long.

One of my favourite things has been to take a walk in Carrifran in the spring. It is truly a pleasure to listen to the chorus of birdsong and know that across these hills in Southern Scotland thousands of acres are, rather rapidly, growing into beautiful woodland. Sometimes humans can get something right!

10 The Green Shed Summer 2018 The Green Shed Summer 2018 11

Borders Forest Trust’s

Privacy Policy

Borders Forest Trust are committed to ensuring that

our supporter’s personal details are securely held

and managed. As you may be aware, a new regulation is being introduced across

the EU on 25 May. We have updated our Privacy Policy in line with the new

regulation to detail how we collect and retain your

personal details.

Our Privacy Policy tells you where we collect personal data, what data we collect and what we use it for. You can request to change your preferences as to what we send you, or how we send

it to you, at any time.

You can find the updated policy on our website at

www.bordersforesttrust.org/privacy-policy or if you would prefer us to send it to you in print please call or email us and we will be happy

to do so.

Junior Rangers toast another good year © Ali Murfitt

Woodland beginnings in Tweedhope © Ali Murfitt

Tree tube ready to come off © Ali Murfitt

Blaeberry bumble bee on yellow rattle © John Clarkson

Borders Forest Trust Membership/Donation Form

Method of Payment

Paying by Standing Order reduces our administration costs, helping us to plant more trees.

I authorise you to send this Standing Order request to my bank of building society

To (bank/ building society)…………………………………………….................….

Address ………………………………………………..................................…...............

……………………………………................................................................................

................................................................. Postcode ……………........................

Sort code ……………..............…. A/C No ………….................…………...............

Account Name ………………………………………..........................………..............

Please pay Borders Forest Trust the sum of £ …………...........................

Monthly/annually (delete as applicable) starting on ………………........

Signature …………………...................................…. Date ………………………

Or

I enclose a cheque for £ ……....……........ in respect of my/our membership subscription.(Cheques should be made payable to Borders Forest Trust)

I enclose a cheque for £ …………............ as a donation.

Or

Please debit my credit card with the sum of £ ………………………..........

Credit Card number ………………………………………………..............................(Visa, Mastercard, Euro, Delta, CAF)

Name on Card …………………........……..........……. Expiry Date ……………..

Signature …………………...................................…. Date …………………………

Thank you to our funders, who include:

The Borders Forest Trust...rooted in the community

Registered Office & Mailing Address:Monteviot Nurseries, Ancrum,Jedburgh, TD8 6TU

Borders Forest Trust is a CompanyLimited by Guarantee

Registered in Scotland No.SC162581Scottish Charity No. SC024358

Tel: 01835 830 750www.bordersforesttrust.orgenquiries@bordersforesttrust.org

The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views of Borders Forest Trust

Published by Borders Forest TrustMay 2018

StaffCEO:Jane RosegrantProgramme Manager:Nicola HuntSite & Community Officer: Alison MurfittBFT Site Officer: Andy WilsonFinance Officer:Sandra Smith-Maxwell Community & Education Officer: Anna Craigen

PatronClifton Bain

TrusteesPhilip AshmoleLynn Cassells Hugh ChalmersSarah EnoStuart FoulkesRosalind Grant-RobertsonJim KnightDavid LongHans WaltlJohn Thomas

Newsletter Editor: Ali MurfittDesign: Vivid Design Consultancy

Space here for paper creditation