Technical Services - News - 2007

 

News about projects, activities and events carried out by Forest Research Technical Services Unit (TSU).

Fallow site survey

Alternatives are being sought to the chemical protection of transplants from damage by Hylobius abietis (Large Pine Weevil), in line with Forestry Commission policy to reduce the use of pesticides, and to ensure cost effective control. One option is to leave clearfelled sites fallow for up to five years until Hylobius populations have stabilised to naturally low levels. Newton Field Station have been contracted by Forest Research Technical Development to locate and survey suitable upland sites. Surveys will involve laying out transects across fallow sites, classifying soil type and using quadrats to establish vegetation species and coverage.

Results can then be related to existing guidance to determine weed control, fertiliser application, and ground preparation options, on the basis of site type, and provide operational guidance and indicative costs from Technical Development studies. The actual costs of leaving sites fallow can then be compared to the cost of chemical protection.

Ground disturbance to encourage rapid recruitment of native Scots pine regeneration.

In the Quoich area of NTS's (National Trust for Scotland) Mar Lodge Estate, Scots pine regeneration is not occurring naturally despite low deer numbers, and the existing canopy is gradually being lost. We are working in partnership with NTS to establish research plots in order to test the effects of various levels of cultivation intensity on seedling recruitment adjacent to the native pinewood.

This experiment aims to:

• Compare the effects of different levels of cultivation and protection on adjacent to canopy seedling recruitment
• Determine the length of time a cultivated 'spot' remains receptive to seed germination
• Measure the rate of seed dispersal onto an area adjacent to the main pine canopy.

Scottish crossbill census

The Scottish crossbill (Loxia scotica) is the UK's only endemic bird species and is on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) red list of threatened species. As part of efforts to help conserve the species, a conifer cone counting survey is underway to determine the availability of its main food source, conifer seed.

Thought to have evolved as a hybrid of the common crossbill (L. curvirostra) and the parrot crossbill (L. pytyopsittacus), the Scottish crossbill is found only in the Scottish highlands. However, there is little information on the population size and locations of Scottish crossbills, so the survey aims to establish the temporal and geographic availability of their food. This information will be essential to the conservation of the species.

Staff from Newton Field Station are currently visiting a range of sites in north Scotland selected for certain conifer species:

• Norway spruce
• Sitka spruce
• Scots pine
• Japanese larch
• Hybrid larch

At each location 20 trees are being checked for green cones. This information will be compiled and analysed alongside historical data going back to the mid-1980s.

Information on coning, and therefore the food resource, will be linked to a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), national survey of Scottish crossbills, which aims to estimate population size and determine their habitat requirements. Any findings will have implications for forest management and design.