Trust invites local feedback on Mountain Woodland Project

The community in and around Schiehallion is invited to comment on our proposed Mountain Woodland Project on the Fairy Hill. 

Stakeholders are invited to comment on an ambitious woodland regeneration project planned for land cared for by the Trust at East Schiehallion.

• Find out more about the Mountain Woodland Project and consultation.

As well as aiming to revive rare mountain woodland habitat at Schiehallion, the project will also offer volunteer and educational opportunities, and have health and wellbeing benefits to those who visit the mountain.   

Mountain woodland describes a habitat that links low-level woodland to the Alpine zone at the summits of our mountains. It encompasses a variety of tree species that will grow at a range of altitudes including Scots pine, downy birch, aspen, juniper, dwarf birch and montane willows. Scotland’s mountains would once have been covered with these trees, but changing land management practises and increased grazing pressures have made this habitat extremely rare, and across our uplands, trees are largely confined to inaccessible cliffs and ledges.  

The Trust's Mountain Woodland Officer Izzy Filor said: "In the midst of biodiversity and climate crises, habitat restoration projects such as the one planned at East Schiehallion will provide huge benefits not only for wildlife, but also for people, from providing a home for birds, mammals and pollinators, to greater water storage potential and health and wellbeing opportunities.”  

Just as importantly, the project would also create a seed source for the future, and increase or encourage the return of species which are ‘functionally extinct’ at East Schiehallion such as juniper and montane willows.  

Around 30,000 visitors climb the Schiehallion Munro every year, so the project has the potential to engage with a huge number of people who travel from across Scotland and further afield. “We hope that by restoring mountain woodland here we can create a key demonstration of what is possible in other upland areas,” said Izzy. 

The Mountain Woodland Project will provide volunteering opportunities, particularly for schools and youth groups, as well as also strengthening the area’s tourism offer. “We want to engage as many people as possible in this project,” says Izzy. 

• Find out more about the Mountain Woodland Project and consultation.
• Find out more about our work at East Schiehallion.