208 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. In the rewilding effort, Trees for Life focuses on creating places where there’s room for open-ground species, semiwoodland 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. “It depends how degraded the woodland remnant is,” McDonnell said. “But some flora and fauna will have that continuity. . . . The living building blocks of habitat will still be there.” 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—and mapped—forest plans. “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.” — Alan McDonnell, head of nature restoration at Trees for Life Aims for Rewilding Plants and Wildlife GIS helps answer questions about how people in the past used the Scottish Highlands. In the 18th and 19th centuries, they felled oak and pine trees to build ships and fuel furnaces for making iron during the Industrial Revolution. Only 84 areas are recognized as Caledonian pinewoods in the government’s pinewood inventory. Trees for Life has visited most 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. “We’re making the argument to government—and society— that Caledonian pinewoods would be much more of a significant component of today’s landscape if we would let nature have its way,” McDonnell said. Much of Scotland’s native flora has been harmed by sheep and deer, whose browsing consumes tree seedlings, which leads to a sparse mature forest without nextgeneration trees. Trees for Life has successfully installed deer fences that allow the seedlings to grow where they haven’t been free to grow for centuries. In places with older trees, Zooming into the detail of the Roy Map reveals the topography of the land and the vegetation that grew there in the 1740s.
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