Dundreggan is a 4000 hectare estate in Glen Moriston which is owned by
Trees for Life, a charity organisation dedicated to restoring part of the Caledonian Forest in Scotland's northern highlands.
Yesterday, Sunday 22nd May was Biodiversity Day and Trees for Life held a public event to open new visitor facilities at Dundreggan. I took the opportunity to meet a few people and discuss surveying for Red Squirrels in the area which currently has few sightings and nothing confirmed on the estate itself.
Steve Morris, the estates manager showed me some gnawed spruce cones that had been found. These were mostly mice but one cone was definitely squirrel gnawed, so the challenge is now to establish their presence and distribution.
Following the official opening of a new visitor footpath we were taken to see the
Wild Boar enclosure which is, in part an experiment in Bracken control and forest regeneration. I found it a moving experience to see these charismatic animals in a near natural environment, albeit behind a fence because, to me, they are the precursors of large wild animals once again living in the forests of northern Scotland.
Exciting as all this is, something that really drew my attention was the
Juniper (
Juniperus communis ) growing over a large area adjacent to the visitor car park. This species has badly suffered from changes in land management, over grazing and browsing in recent times; and to see it here in all its representative forms was a real pleasure.
