Just worth recognising the first anniversary of the “big fire” which I was involved in last year on a hill down by the Solway Coast. Over the course of twenty four hours, a thousand acres of heather went up in smoke as a routine back burning exercise got out of control. I doubt that I Continue reading

The great half-truth of black grouse conservation is the way that birds use trees. Search for black grouse on google and it won’t be long before you find screeds of information about black grouse in woodland, complete with images of community initiatives which get people out onto the hills with bags of trees, as if Continue reading

Never one to admit that perhaps I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, I received a further three hundred and fifty trees for the Chayne this afternoon. These are largely blackthorn and hawthorn for the new hedge, but there is also half a box of downy birch trees which are going in on an Continue reading

There was an early start to the Peak District on Friday for some work with the Heather Trust. The 6:15 train from Dumfries is something like the waiting room for the afterlife, populated by lost souls who fell once fell asleep on a train in Glasgow and then slipped between the seats when the cleaners Continue reading

When you are used to living in a remote location, you can either go one way or another on the social spectrum. Some hill shepherds and keepers will talk the hind legs off any passing walker, while others turn sour and introverted. I tend to swing between these poles depending upon my mood – nothing Continue reading

Now in my fourth year of working on the Chayne, I am starting to come to terms with the nature of the ground itself. By comparison to arable England, the entire place is probably classed as moorland, but like the eskimos and their snow, there are many words in Scotland to describe land which lies Continue reading

Now that the new stretch of hedge has been made stock-proof, it’s time to think about what I’m going to plant in there. I had always planned on a predominance of hawthorn and blackthorn with the odd rowan, but it’s just too good an opportunity to try out some new species. After all, this new Continue reading

It was so mild that the forecast was becoming a joke. There were no stars at midnight, and the few specks of rain which fell in the dark felt fat and harmless. Predictions of snow were laughable until the first light of morning began to glow weirdly around the bunched corners of the curtains. It Continue reading

The more I read and learn about upland conservation, the more value I am beginning to put on the humble hedge. Fields which only have drystone dykes to mark them out do become pretty barren places in the winter, and it finally dawned on me while waiting for a fox in the snow last week Continue reading

After a frankly shameful amount of media hype about the weather during the last few days, it looks like Britain has miraculously survived a devastating onslaught of lightly frosted water. When weather centres start to issue “mega-warnings” about snow, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and imagine that something really unusual is Continue reading