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Robin Noble

Celebrating the Natural World and advising on its conservation

ORKNEY- NOT SO TREELESS...... The lovely islands of Orkney are often said to be 'treeless' or 'virtually treeless', but that has really never been true; the Victorians successfully established plantations of that versatile tree, the sycamore, around their big houses, and several of these survive today. And in the places more sheltered from salt-laden winds, today's Orcadians have been emulating them, with new plantations of a whole number of species, as may be seen in the background of this photo. But the group just beyond the heather in the foreground is really much more interesting, and much older in origin. Often the most northerly woodland in Britain is said to be Berriedale in Hoy, but that is only because people have been overlooking those bushes in this picture- or, at the very least, expecting 'native woodland' in these windswept islands to look like woods elsewhere. These are mounds of willow, perhaps no more than six feet in height, but many times that in circumference, and they are found scattered all over the extensive wetlands and damper moorlands of the archipelago. I am very, very sure that these are native, that they were never planted, and it is something of a miracle that they have survived so far, even if, so often, nobody notices them. They are hugely important to small birds like reed buntings, but I think that it would be worthwhile to study them as 'micro-habitats' in themselves; they may well be important for the flightless moths which are found here, for instance. Perhaps, with luck, someone may have done just this sort of study, and they are now recognised for the special survivors they are?

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Richard Oram

Professor of Medieval and Environmental History at the University of Stirling

8mo

Yes, almost certainly native and likely to have been sustainably managed for millennia until the materials they provided became available cheaply through imports in the earlier 20th century, or replaced by synthetic alternatives (old fertiliser bags instead of wicker creels and baskets).

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