Planting native trees above Loch Ness to reduce future risks

We’ve started planting native trees on the steep slopes above Loch Ness as part of making the A82 safer for road users and the hillside more resilient to the impacts of wind and rain.

A rich native natural woodland – a mixture of blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, birch, cherry and oak – will replace the 100-year-old conifers being felled along the iconic loch because they’ve become susceptible to windblow and erosion.

Our teams recently completed the first stage of this restocking project with 5000 trees planted in high density pockets on sections of the cleared slopes near Drumnadrochit. These will act as seed sources for ongoing natural regeneration.

This initial restocking is a key part of the long-term programme to replace the conifers with native woodlands that will, over time, increase the stability of the hillside and reduce the risk of landslides.

“There is already some natural regeneration happening on the slopes and this work will supplement this with additional species. Planting the entire site would have posed a significant challenge with considerable safety risks due to the steep terrain so the method used is the best solution,” said North Region Assistant Operations Manager Luke Wilson.

 This work will make the landscape – including the A82 and the infrastructure that runs alongside it – more resilient to extreme weather events that we may be seeing more of in the years to come.

“The broadleaved species chosen to replace the mature conifers we’re selected because they are a combination of slow and low growing trees. This mixture can better stabilise the slope and increase resilience by holding the soil on the slope together. It will also create a well-connected broadleaf woodland corridor to provide significant biodiversity benefits,” adds Luke

The restocking project is restoring Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS), with the type of trees being planted returning the woodlands and their associated flora back to native species. This includes using oak seeds collected from the Great Glen.

This new forest, once established, will have less need for extensive management interventions in future and be left largely alone to develop and expand through natural regeneration and provide the environmental benefits associated with constant tree cover.

The A82 project, which started in 2012, will take up to 25 years to complete. This is due to the size but also the complexity of the landscape and technical aspects of the project.

“The large scale, large tree size, steep slopes, difficult terrain and proximity to the road make forestry and engineering operations complex and expensive but necessary, to mitigate the potential risk to public safety, the costs and risks of emergency repairs and the significant disruption to the community and economy,” said Luke. 

From conventional harvesting to Skylining and safety fencing, the techniques for this project will change depending on the site requirements.

“The careful and detailed management of replacing the conifers is a critical and significant part of the A82 project. We want and need the new species to be resilient to changes in the climate decades from now so future hill slips and windblow are mitigated against and this iconic road and the people who use it are protected,” said Luke.