Heading in hereand here

Stansfirst in hereand here

words Polly Pullar

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wildlife

Swathes of mist hang in the Breadalbane valley as shafts of low sun struggle to break through. The track through the

wood is glutinous with thick mud after another of Perthshire’s infamous wet spells. Evidence of the savage impact of the gales of the winter of 2011/12 is everywhere. Massive trunks slammed down or precariously perched on their fallen kin; others leaning at a drunken angle just keeping a toehold on the earth, roots brutally wrenched up by hurricane-force wind. Many vast conifers still stand, however, proudly overlooking Loch Tay as they have done now for over a hundred years.

I am at Kenmore with Tom Christian, project officer for the iCONic project, a Perthshire-based initiative to save some of the world’s most threatened and remarkable trees from extinc-tion. iCONic is a natural marriage between the Perthshire ‘Big Tree Country’ project and the world leading expertise of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

The project not only conserves conifers by creating conservation plantings, a ‘living gene-bank’, it also allows us an opportunity to cherish

Planting a legacyA Perthshire-based project is helping to safeguard the future of the world’s most endangered conifer treeswords Polly Pullar

images Polly Pullar & tom christian

Main image: Tom Christian. Top: Serbian spruce seed being collected in Bosnia. Left: Chinese false larch.

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the extraordinary heritage left to us by our ancestors. The ‘American garden’, for example, was once part of the extensive Taymouth Castle Estate. Despite being unkempt, overgrown and almost forgotten, it still retains its magic due to the presence of its conifers. They touch a chord. It’s hard to comprehend the work and planning that took place to create many of the dramatic woodlands we simply accept as part of our lives – most are deliberately designed landscapes revealing the foresight and ground-breaking spirit of our ancestors.

Perthshire’s tree planting history is unrivalled. Two of Scotland’s most famous plant collectors, David Douglas and Archibald Menzies, hailed from the area. Douglas in particular was respon-sible for the introduction of many new conifers in the 1830s, which underpin commercial forestry to this day, as well as being among the most beautiful trees in Britain. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries saw a huge influx of new plants into Britain from all over the world. They generated great interest amongst landowners and sparked an incredible fashion for reshap-ing the landscape, planting unusual conifers to frame views, create avenues, or merely to alter the Highland scene beyond recognition.

The Dukes of Atholl are reputed to have planted some 27 million conifers for ‘beauty and profit’, though whether they really fired some of this seed from a cannon remains a mystery. Other ‘Planting Lairds’ followed their example and many of Scotland’s great houses

and estates now play host to some of the most remarkable tree collections in Europe, such as Scone Palace, Murthly Castle and Dawyck to name but three. What probably began as an experiment and a competitive phase amongst lairds to see who could produce the most dramatic results has left us with a unique designed sylvan legacy.

‘That’s a coast redwood,’ Tom tells me as we pass beneath a gargantuan tree that was brought here from California in the 1850s. I am as much under the spell of this extraordinary young man as I am by the trees he is showing me. At 25 he has a demeanour, knowledge and outlook seen in few, and I feel that he too, like the planting lairds, will leave his mark on this land. I have never met anyone more passionate about trees. Educated at Breadalbane Academy in nearby Aberfeldy, it was fortunate that his physics teacher John Mattingley of Cluny House Gardens, famed for its own great trees, recognised Tom’s interests and steered him in the direction of horticulture. Tom describes John’s guidance as a ‘eureka moment’ and revelled in the new departure thriving on his course at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), where their International Conifer Conservation Programme (ICCP), co-ordi-nated by Martin Gardner, fascinated him. ‘I’ve been so lucky to work closely with Martin. He’s very dynamic, and a great collaborator who has helped so many students. He gives us lots of his time and sends us off all over the world collect-

ing seed to bring back to Scotland for creating collections in projects like iCONic.’

Globally there are about 650 species of conifer, providing the majority of the world’s timber, providing a third of the world’s forest cover and thus playing a vital role in neutral-ising atmospheric carbon. Some conifers also contain compounds that are valuable as anti-cancer drugs. Tragically over half are under serious threat from illegal logging, habitat destruction, pests, diseases and climate change. The extinction of any species is an irreversible loss, which is why iCONic was set up – another line of defence for the earth’s fast-disappearing biodiversity.

Perthshire now plays a vital role in the conservation of many of these trees through the iCONic Project. Rightly known as ‘Big Tree Country’, it is home to some of the finest in the British Isles: the tallest hedge, the oldest yew, rare specimens including an extensive lists of cham-pion conifers with massive girths and heaven reaching trunks, and favourite trees such as the gnarled, medieval Birnam oak thought to be a remnant from Shakespeare’s Birnam Wood. The fact that so many conifers, from every corner of the world, thrive here is testimony to nutritious soils, clean air, and the climate with its wet summers and relatively cold winters.

Tom has travelled extensively in search of seeds. In Bosnia collection of the threatened Serbian spruce seed involved hair-raising expe-riences as specialist climbers scaled enormous

heights on treacherous crags to secure the seed, to say nothing of a delicate walk through a mine-field. A more recent trip to Lebanon was even more inspiring. Tom worked with Lebanese contacts collecting seed from the famous Cedars of Lebanon. ‘They were such beautiful forests. I’ve never known a single tree be of such importance to a country as a whole, it is the keystone of their national identity and appears on everything.’

In his role as project officer Tom looks for suitable places for new planting. Working closely with landowners, iCONic has already planted many valuable species in woodland all over Perthshire, including a grove of 120 Coast Redwoods above the roadside at Kenmore. ‘Just imagine what this will look like in future’, Tom enthuses, ‘a forest of redwoods right here in Perthshire.’ The venture is also about to give the grounds of Hilton Dunkeld Hotel a new lease of life after it lost many of its trees in the gales. The winds have laid waste to many old veterans, but Tom earmarks the gaping wounds for new treasures: ‘It’s always sad to see old trees succumb, but this gives us a great opportunity to plant for the future – after all, the Victorians planted for us, now it’s our turn.’

Due to the iCONic project and those supporting the venture, many conifers facing extinction, such as the Spanish fir, Serbian spruce and Chilean Fitzroya are in safe hands. And it is clear that Scotland’s latest tree pioneer is already leaving his mark for the benefit of future generations.

fieldfactsTo find out more about the work of the iCONic project visitwww.iconictrees.org

‘Collection of the Serbian spruce involved hair-raising expeditions’ Top left: The Dukes of

Atholl were responsible for planting thousands of larches in Perthshire. Centre Top: Larches. Centre bottom: Cilicican fir cones in Lebanon. Top right: Seed collecting can be dangerous work.

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