Restoration
Wildland’s philosophy, its overriding mission, is very simple: we wish to restore our parts of the Scottish Highlands to their former natural splendour. And not just the land, the whole fabric of these great estates. It is our 200 year vision. Today, we have taken but the first few steps towards making this vision a reality.
Whilst nature answered only to the changing seasons, so too did man coexist in natural balance. However, we also have to accept the harsh reality that people who once worked the land have moved away. Now though, Wildland’s fervent desire is to see local communities thrive once more and to have those that have left the Highlands come back; bringing with them all-new skills and all-new visions for the way that people can work and live here. With regards to the land itself, there is no other project comprising this scale or scope in the UK. No other project offering such maximal altitudinal range from sea level to mountain peak and from the warmth of lowland shelter to remote and inaccessible peaks; a landscape manifesting all the signs of rebirth and varied enough to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Across the extent of the Wildland holdings are the fullest range of habitats. Forest, montane, peatlands, watercourses, grasslands and coastline habitats all serve to create a thriving ecosystem. However, heather and gorse, the picture postcard image of the Highlands, are also unnatural monocultures and an outcome of overgrazing or burning. Today, Wildland is implementing considerable focus towards the restoration of the ancient peatlands prevalent across large parts of the landscape.
Achieving fine quality woodlands through Wildland is but the first step. Over time, establishing woodlands and their associated plant and animal communities will be surveyed allowing us to monitor the progress of our vision and the effectiveness of the natural processes we seek to enable. Re-establishing thriving woodlands and forests is the critical foundation. As the climate warms, a woodland grouse that needs to migrate to higher altitude tree cover cannot if there’s simply no higher wooded areas to migrate to, or no wooded avenues to safely travel through.
We must not forget the simple fundamental fact that healthy woodland is the provider of both the shelter and the larder for all of the wildlife that lives within it. Our parts of the Scottish Highlands provide us with the stage to build on this wonderful country’s greatest natural capital asset. In restoring long derelict properties in innovative and always stylish ways we can make this asset, these landscapes, accessible to ever greater numbers of visitors. …visitors who in turn directly support the work and underpin a process wherein this tourism aspect also creates jobs and directly contributes to the local economies.