Not easy, bloody hard work 😅

The beech would also counter the oak, birch, rowan etc etc

I agree it is not black and white and the question around native or not is contested. I believe it is the right decision for this particular woodland.

I don’t consider beech as locally native so not best for biodiversity.

It is all relative. Very recently in this particular wood but I would argue relatively recently in Scotland as a whole compared to Scots pine for example.

The beech are more recent perhaps 20 years or so. They will be thinned out and all saplings cut back. Some of the others species I mention are perhaps 100+ yrs so removal will be slower as a major job. Any saplings/young of those species will be removed over time. Sitka is particularly invasive.

I would estimate the oldest is 20yrs give or take.

Passive rewilding versus active 🤔 In this case I believe some human intervention is required before standing a bit further back and allowing ecological processes take over. This ancient woodland has over time been planted with non native Sitka, Douglas fir, western hemlock and beech.

For many hundreds of years this woodland would have been oak, birch, hazel, hawthorn etc. Beech has been introduced by humans very recently and would not have been locally native. Unchecked it will dominate all native species and drastically reduce biodiversity.

No fencing and no predators to keep deer numbers in some kind of balance.

There is huge ecological benefit in addition to the impact on deer either through predation or creating landscape of fear; nutrient recycling, carcass scavengers, impact on red foxes and thus capers etc… Having said this it is not all about ecological benefit there is economic and social too.

Attitudes are changing as people become more informed about lynx.

Many of the same reasons we detail here for the reintroduction of lynx our other missing carnivore. www.scotlandbigpicture.com/lynx-to-scot...