Impossible dream
In the meantime, planting of trees can be both appropriate and necessary.
To seek a pure Caledonian Forest somehow unsullied by human hand and maintained only by natural regeneration, as some previous correspondents have suggested, is to chase an illusion.
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Hide AdI’m not aware of any such forest in Scotland, or that one has existed over the past millennium and more.
What I do know is that the planting efforts of bodies such as Trees for Life have achieved significant expansion of forest areas with a “Caledonian” mix of trees and wildlife. This work has been an inspiration for many and a boost for scarce plants and creatures.
To hold back from it on the basis of pursuing a notion of some long-vanished Caledonian Eden is to miss both the point and the opportunity.
(Dr) Kenny Taylor
Culbokie
Black Isle, Ross-shire