How the amazing response to our Corrimony Wildfire Appeal is helping rebuild the reserve

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Ай бұрын

In May 2023 fire tore through RSPB Scotland's Corrimony nature reserve. It destroyed native woodland and precious habitat for birds like Black Grouse and Crossbills. But an amazingly generous response to our wildfire appeal is helping to restore the reserve. In this video Site Manager Simon Mclaughlin explains the work on the ground and how much the support has meant to him.
We would like to thank RSPB members, supporters, and our partners Barratt Developments and Trees for Life for the generous contributions we have received to the Corrimony Fire Appeal
This support has been essential to helping Corrimony recover from the fire

Пікірлер: 7

@sueg1530 Ай бұрын

So good to see this recovery. Nature is amazing and so are those who have helped this recovery. Thank you to you all. 💚

@Solstice261 Ай бұрын

Great now what's left is hoping it won't happen again, hopefully th muirburn bill will help with that, I know it wasn't responsible but no fires in moors is better than a lot of fires in them Excellent recovery work I aspire to work in projects like these, meanwhile we can all try to help as much as we can and donate

@Rob.1340 16 күн бұрын

👍💚😎

@l2e9aL Ай бұрын

The money being spent on raising those trees in a tree nursery would surely be better spent culling deer & allowing the post-fire ecosystem recovery to take care of itself? Planting oaks straight after a large disturbance event like this isn't really in line with how forest ecosystems function, and planting the likes of willow, rowan & birch seems pretty ill-advised to me considering they are pioneer tree species & are evolved to colonise areas affected by disturbance such as this. Oak would come in time once birch, etc. has formed nice soils & the jays & squirrels have moved in. This rush to plant everything seems to come from a traditional forestry mindset rather than an ecological standpoint. The fire, whilst tragic, should have been seen as an opportunity to reinvigorate the natural systems that could see this area become a thriving ecosystem. Post-fire landscapes can be pretty amazing for biodiversity too (provided they aren't burnt on a ~7 year rotation). I'm glad you've got money to do stuff (particularly with regard being better prepared to prevent another fire like this) but I don't see the science behind rushing in to plant hundreds (thousands?) of trees.

@l2e9aL Ай бұрын

Sorry, just watched further on & you even have someone pointing out that the trees are recovering & are there already themselves. Seems to be some disconnect in understanding what is happening on the site & how that’s informing management?

@Debbie-henri 29 күн бұрын

I don't know this area at all, but I'm presuming there were oaks here originally, suggesting that the soil must have been already good enough to support the replanting of young oaks as seen in the video. There would be no need to wait for soil levels to build up in a true pioneer sense (after severe erosion/agricultural overgrazing) since fire doesn't burn away soil to any degree that I've ever noticed. Also, as I have a bit of land that I left fallow for several years, I know how tiresomely slow it is to wait for species such as oak and beech to finally get a foothold. Indeed, I eventually had to wade in and give the pioneer Birches, Willows and Alders a helping hand, they were that slow - and that's considering there are mature woodlands to either side of me. During the time it takes for trees to finally get started and self seeding into bare land, the animal species, particularly insects, will be long gone. And considering how stressed the environment is already, it may very well take a great deal more time than usual for them to come back (as I noticed following the Neonicotinoid hit that everything took around my location. Some species never came back, and other species that weren't here before have dominated - Wood Pigeons, Crows, Jackdaws, Chaffinches. I think it is perfected fair to get cracking and plant a variety of native trees as some might a plantation. That way, you give 'everything' in a normal system a chance to get a foothold. Since I started actively tree-planting on my little piece of ground, providing sufficient cover for birds and animals to safely make inroads into bare areas without being too easy prey for predators - the number of species that have appeared naturally, through animal introduction has ballooned. If we waited for this reserve to do the same, it would take decades, likely longer. Do you really think native creatures can wait decades - seeing as wildernesses are being pressured by continuing development and agriculture, as well as rapid climate change?