Scotlands Lost Forests Are Returning - here's how

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Please come to Wales (All Parts) and highlight the same issues that are happening here, overgrazing, every available part of the land being used for farming or forestry. There was a recent professor who said that the bio diversity in the Cambrian Mountains was non existent and likened it to a Cambrian Desert. There so much potential for the rewilding of Wales but it nearly always gets overlooked by other regions. A channel like your would be great to showcase the issues.

I can remember walking in a fragment of Caledonian Pine Forest on the south side of Loch Rannoch in 1963. It was somehow primeval, and one could imagine any sort of long-extinct monster bursting into view. It was a truly magical place.

Very happy to read this. Helping the world to breath.

I think the Japanese call it forest bathing and it's 'prescribed' by doctors for things like anxiety. On a different note, I also really like your appreciation of nuance and complexity in these issues where traditional use, modern use, human need vs nature need are all in play.

It might be bad now, but the situation is unquestionably better than a few decades back. I've travelled between the central belt and the central highlands for over 40 years, and there are huge areas where there are now young trees where previously there were none, or a few old trees at best. And I do mean Scots pine, not the bog brushes (sitka) that still cover too much land.

Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor, Exmoor are all very similar near me. All have been overgrazed. It depressed me when I visited Scotland and especially the Isle of Skye with the lack of wildlife and trees. It's good that people are starting to wake up now and to reverse the damage we have caused.

This is ironic considering that where I live (Siberia), specifically the pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) is almost a weed. It is extremely unfussy and grows and propagates extremely fast anywhere as long as there is just enough light. It's entirely different with many other species like the Siberian pine (pinus cembra), which is far more demanding in terms of water, soil and climate requirements, and grows and propagates a lot slower.

As a German I can tell you how important forests are for us. Starting as a recreational place for sunday walks and bike rides, to the culture of forestry with professions and universities about forestry, and finally the lots of money we make with the timber.

Your content is always so great. I was born in England but have lived in Australia from a very young age. It is so interesting to see the dramatic changes that rewilding and sustainable land management practices that are being implemented in Ol' Blighty! Thanks for your awesome channel and for your continued focus on the progress being made. Much Love from the land down under!

I hope the UK will be more accepting of predators some time in the future. It's the only way to balance an ecosystem. We have the wolf wars going on here in the US but there are lots of wolf advocates. We also have other predators, coyotes, lynx, cougars and bobcats that are helping to keep the deer populations in check. But even with these there are still so many deer. We need to learn to live with large predators. It's a tricky balance but oh so necessary. Thanks for the good work that you are doing!

Great video Rob, and can't agree more with the sense of peace being in forests like that

We need to eat more venison. I’ve hardly seen a young tree growing here in the last twenty years, the deer simply eat everything. The deer are becoming quite tame because idiot tourists are feeding them. The toffs and their grouse massacring habits are definitely not helping. Great film my friend, thanks for sharing.

Most of the forest have been replaced to conifer plantations not native to Eurasia, We should chop down these forest and revive peatlands and Caledonian forest instead. To restore biodeversity to these landscape we need to bring wolfs and lynx also I think there just really interesting animals.

Great videoo Rob! Excited to have you presenting more of our projects soon! - Cheers, Duarte

We was so happy to leave the forest a few centuries ago, now we can't wait to go back.

Great job as always communicating the need for trees. Here in the US we have huge land areas that have been left natural and well wooded. Further the various states have islands of forests called Forest Preserves and state parks. I live 20 miles NW of Chicago. The Forest Preserves are popular. Talking of Rewilding, we have isolated spottings of Puma in our area.

Excellent informative content Shame we haven’t got a Lynx

I love how you say that Scotlands potential fills you with hope. You are the type of environmentalist that people would listen to.

What an absolutely spot on comment at the start, "Scotland's landscape is falling short of its potential". I totally agree, I commented on another one of your videos as I lived for 20 years on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park. I commented that the problems you face in this pursuit of rewilding is purely human psychology and our relationship and perceptions of the land. I love hill Walking, not to bag Monroe's, but to take in the quality of the landscape and relax. Glen Tannar Caledonian Pine Forest is a regular place I visit for the quality of the environment and landscape, just like you it helps me recharge and feel relaxed. But too much of Scotland is shockingly barren and bereft of what should be there, very far as you said from its potential. And to not use profanity too much, "it really grinds my fucking gears to see my country and where I am from in such a disgusting natural state, the potential of what it could be has me dreaming of what a denuded glen would look like if nature was allowed to return even to a semi natural state.How awesome would it be to trek across the lower elevations of the Cairngorms passes and Glens through a mosaic of natural forest for miles and miles. The tops is the highest Cairngorms and Highlands likely were never forested, but up to 600 meters and higher in sheltered gullies it would have been. In Aberdeenshire I see hundreds of square miles of grouse moor, especially when travelling over Cairnamount that would normally be many square miles of birch, Scots pine, oak, Rowan and aspen to name a few, instead I just see a sea of heather with burnt patches. The economic, cultural, biodiversity, and natural beauty a more natural forest brings is far higher than a sea of ling. Heather is an important ecosystem too, but it should never be this abundant, and would be mixed as under story in a Caledonian Pine forest. Serious land reform is needed in Scotland, too much of Scotland is taken up by estates with little interest in the good stewardship of the land, we do have some excellent estates too, but the others need to tap into the potential of eco tourism and sustainable natural forestry use.