Forestry See How They Grow
From Moriston Matters, Issue 24, April 1981.
FORESTRY - SEE HOW THEY GROW.
It seems rather strange that foresters in this locality are competing directly with Canadian and American foresters to produce timber from trees of the same species. The two major species at present being felled around Invermoriston and in the Great Gen forests, for processing in the sawmill at Kilmallie, are Douglas fir and Sitka spruce .
The former, from western North America, mainly British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, is imported as Oregon or Columban pine. David Douglas, one of several famous Scottish botanical explorers, introduced it into this country in 1827.
Sitka spruce, which has a wide distribution, extending in a coastal strip from Alaska down northern California, was introduced by Douglas in 1831, although it was discovered by Menzies in 1792.
When the Forestry Commission began operations in the early 1920s the foresters inspected the private tree collections in the policy woods and gardens of the major landowners to see if any conifer species, other than our native Scots pine, was growing well under local conditions.
Lord Lovat had planted Sitka spruce behind what is now the Inchnacardoch Lodge Hotel, and there are fine examples of Douglas fir in the Falls Wood, Invermoriston. Some of the tallest trees in the British Isles are contained in Reelig Gleen, a Forestry Commission wood near Moniack Castle, the tallest of which is now 193 ft.
Both of these species enjoy the high rainfall and humidity found in this area and it has been proved recently that Sitka spruce operates most efficiently on dull days and puts up the shutters when the skies are blue and cloud-free. This district's rainfall of between 40 and 60 inches per annum, is very similar to that of the native areas of both trees and they thrive on the deep, loamy soils of the lower valley slopes.
We owe a great deal to the pioneer foresters of the 1920s and the 1930s who had the foresight to use unfamiliar species to establish quite large areas of what are now fine forests. Comparisons of species have been carried out by the Forestry Commission's Research Division who have run an out-station at Fort Augustus for many years. Seeds from many sites in North America have been used to compare rates of growth. By good chance or amazing foresight the early seed sources for both species have proved difficult to improve on and Sitka spruce from Queen Charlotte Isle, British Columbia, and Douglas fir from low and mid-elevation sites in Oregon are still our first choices.
Logs from both species provide the bulk of the raw material now going to the sawmill at Kilmallie, where it is converted into constructional timber and marketed in direct competition with imported material of the same species. The locally produced logs, which can be seen as they travel at regular intervals down the Dalcattaig Road, are of a very high quality. As a high proportion of our local felling is of saw-log size the recent modernisation of the mill at Kilmallie, at a cost of £4,000,000 enables as to take an optimistic view of the future.
T. C. B.