Ormsaigbeg Community Woodland - Another hurdle dealt with!

Approximate extent of the proposed woodland view from the war memorial

We had another site meeting in December with the Woodland Trust (WT) and the Forestry Commission (FC). In October our proposal was drafted by Willie Beattie of  WT this had to be examined by the FC to ensure that the site is suitable for the proposed planting, hence the meeting with Ian Collier.

 Willie's report is summarised below, I will include his full report elsewhere on the blog.

The soils are mainly shallow peaty podzols and podzols with gleying on the lower slopes. there is evidence of some tree cover around the crofting in-bye, comprising oak, larch, rowan, sycamore, hawthorn, hazel and willow. 

Proposed woodland types are ; upland mixed broadleaved woodland (W9) on the bracken dominated areas, upland oak-birch with blaeberry (W17) on the better soils and Scots pine on the heathy knolls higher up the slope.

Ecological site classification (ESC) indicates that the site is able to support a good range of native species with exposure being the main limiting factor.

The proposed extent of the woodland is outlined in red in the image above, it extends from the eastern boundary of the grazings west to above the end of the Ormsaigbeg road. It's about 70 ha., or 160 acres.

If the FC approve the proposal the next stage will be to inform all the shareholders in the grazing and to hold a meeting for all those interested where Willie and I will try to answer any questions and to provide more detail.