![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/benlawers.jpg\" "\\"benlawers\\"")
Plans to plant 100,000 native trees at Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve are on target as the half way mark has recently been reached. The National Trust for Scotland has so far planted 51,470 sub-montane birch, willows, rowan and alder which have already taken root on the lower slopes of Meall nan Tarmachan.<\/p>\n
The project is part of a long term plan to restore the native broadleaf woodland historically found at Ben Lawers, much of which has been lost due to management for sheep and deer.<\/p>\n
Restoring the woodland will continue to enrich the habitat at Ben Lawers, encouraging more insects and wildlife. Visitors will appreciate the more natural landscape the future trees will create with a mosaic of small wooded areas and open hillside<\/p>\n
The \u00a3250,000 project, which is being funded through the Scottish Rural Development Programme is part of a wider objective to increase biodiversity and enhance landscape value at the nature reserve. Property Manager Helen Cole said: \u201cBen Lawers is rich in biodiversity and renowned for its rare alpine plants. However, like many upland areas in Scotland, the effects of grazing animals have restricted some plant communities to cliffs and inaccessible ground. In Scotland we often think that the mountains are supposed to be treeless, but that is not the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor decades now, we have been working at Ben Lawers to restore some of the elements that have vanished from the open hillside. For example, we have several exclosures which boast a wonderful range of trees, shrubs and wildflowers. And we are pioneering the restoration of high altitude willow scrub, endangered in Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Project Manager Andrew Warwick said: \u201cThis major investment has enabled us to take our plans for native woodland restoration on Meall nan Tarmachan to the next stage. Building on the success of previous woodland schemes, the new planting will form open, fragmented woodland, on a landscape scale. By the end of 2012, more than 100,000 trees will have been planted in 75 hectares, but spread over 350 hectares of hillside, benefiting the environment at the nature reserve for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work to plant the remaining 50,000 trees will get underway later in 2012. Ben Lawers NNR has been in the care of the National Trust for Scotland since 1950. One of the botanically richest mountains in Britain, Ben Lawers is widely known for its outstanding range and diversity of arctic-alpine species and vegetation types. It is important for the very large number of nationally rare or scarce montane plant species that it supports, including vascular plants, lichens, and bryophytes. It also has an outstanding diversity of invertebrates with many nationally rare or notable species.<\/p>\n
Ben Lawers<\/a> is also hugely popular with hillwalkers, as well as the Munros, there is also the short Ben Lawers Nature Trail<\/a> which provides a gentler introduction to the mountain scenery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plans to plant 100,000 native trees at Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve are on target as the half way mark has recently been reached. The National Trust for Scotland has so far planted 51,470 sub-montane birch, willows, rowan and alder which have already taken root on the lower slopes of Meall nan Tarmachan. The project is part of a long term plan to restore the native broadleaf woodland historically found at Ben Lawers, much of which has been lost due to management for sheep and deer. Restoring the woodland will continue to enrich the habitat at Ben Lawers, encouraging more…<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23855,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6812\/revisions\/23855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Read more ›<\/div>\n