Crooked old tree and good regeneration – East Peninsula Affric Forest
The photograph was taken by the late Finlay MacRae who was a District Officer in the Forestry Commission based in Dingwall at this time. The images are courtesy of his daughter Donna.
Brian Stanger (Insch, Aberdeenshire) believes ‘The East Peninsula may refer to the part of Loch Affric between Affric Lodge and the FC forest walk car park. The photo could have been taken from somewhere below Pollan Buidhe. The snowy summit in the background would be Sgurr na Lapaich’.
Finlay strongly promoted the policy of natural regeneration of the native Scots pines already present in Glen Affric and achieved this by the heavy culling of deer and also deer fencing. Planting by hand was carried out in treeless areas using nursery trees grown from seed collected from native Scots pines in Glen Affric.
The image features three people the one nearest to the old tree is Hugh Morris - Chief Forester Affric Forest circa 1975 - 1983, next to camera is Donald MacLennan (‘The Charm’ or ‘The Blue Charm’) who was Head Wildlife Ranger in Affric Forest and at the rear is Brian Stanger – Forester in Affric Forest. ‘The Charm’ nick name probably originated from a very favoured and famous salmon fishing fly.
The follow on image in the PDF linked below this text demonstrates the success of natural regeneration from the existing Scots pine in another area close at hand to the last.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Groups of people