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Scott
flint knapper
Username: Scott
Post Number: 1454
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 5:44 am: |     |
I've also heard that we have ore forest cover in Canada and the North Eastern US than we had 100 years ago!
Scott
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ces gens, Jondalar, ils sourient. Ils me sourient. - Ayla |
Snowwolf
gatherer
Username: Snowwolf
Post Number: 77
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 9:47 am: | |
At one point in the past, most of Scotland was covered in pine forest. Known as 'Ancient Caledonian Pinewood' there aren't that many areas left. I'm lucky enough to live near some of the oldest remnants, the 'Scenery' album from the link in my signature has some examples of some really old Scots Pines.
Apparently, quite a lot of the original forestry around this area was commercially logged around the end of the 19th, start of the 20th century, by Canadian lumberjacks. The logs were then floated down the river Spey to Spey Bay, before being loaded on to ships and sent around the world for building projects.
An interesting side issue to this, is that because of the movement of the logs, the river Spey has been judged to be a 'Navigable River' in the high court of Scotland, which means that landowners along the length of the Spey cannot prevent canoeists from using it. Landowners wanted to stop canoeists, claiming that they disturbed the salmon.
A lot of deforestation has occurred throughout Scotland and there have been various efforts to replace it. From the 1960's onwards, huge swathes of commercial softwoods were planted, but the trees were so closely packed, there was very little other wildlife able to colonise. As these are being logged now, they are either being left to be colonised naturally, or native woodland is being replanted.
The one positive result from the general deforestation across Scotland, is that because the area just north of the central belt is now treeless, the imported American Grey Squirrel has not been able to invade. Grey Squirrels have pushed out our native Red Squirrels from most of the UK and there are only a few areas where the Reds are safe.
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement." Gandalf. (JRR Tolkien)
My Pictures. ***Re-sized for easier viewing, new pics added*** |
Ted
hunter
Username: Ted
Post Number: 469
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 10:57 am: | |
Was it Scotland that I read about where pastures which had been grazed by sheep for generations, and when a small plot was fenced off, what had been thought to be herbage turned out to be full of tiny bonsai-ed trees, which immediately leapt out of the ground, headed for the sky like Jack's beanstalk?
Ted
Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Benjamin Disraeli: "The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll." |
Snowwolf
gatherer
Username: Snowwolf
Post Number: 79
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Monday, August 21, 2006 - 1:54 pm: | |
Ted, I don't know if that was in Scotland, but it sounds as though it could well be. Locally, where the forestry commission or the RSPB are trying to regenerate native woodland, one of the first things that they do is remove sheep or red deer from the land. There has been quite a bit of contoversy about red deer culls, which are done, at least partly, to help with woodland regeneration.
Certainly native Scots pine grows very quickly in the right conditions, but is little more than low scrub on land grazed by sheep or deer, I wonder if that is the tree referred to.
Another interesting thing is that Culloden battlefield has Hebridean sheep grazing on parts of it, specifically to keep trees and shrubs in check. It's being done in an effort to keep the battlefield conditions as close to how they were in 1746 as possible. Apparently, if the sheep weren't there, it would be Culloden forest, not Culloden moor.
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement." Gandalf. (JRR Tolkien)
My Pictures. ***Re-sized for easier viewing, new pics added*** |
Matt
hunter
Username: Matt
Post Number: 540
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 04, 2007 - 1:52 pm: | |
My brother and I climbed a couple of mountains last week, and I've been trying ever since to beat a few pictures into a quasi-presentable format. Wow, Webshots is nearly unrecognizable from what it was when I was using it last two years ago! Hopefully this link will work...
Northern Presidentials, New Hampshire
I can't yet figure out how to remove photos from a new album (ridiculous!) and it's difficult enough to edit them, so you'll probably find 8 tiny pictures which I've tried to bury at the end of the album. They are mostly duplicates which I forgot to size properly when first creating the album...my apologies.
On the bright side, it seems that Webshots has greatly expanded its capacity for non-paying members; I believe I'm now allowed 3100 photos! I'm not sure if I like the movement of images in the slideshows, but one needs to click on the individual photos to read the captions anyway (I think ).
We sit together,
the mountains and I,
until only the mountain remains.
-- Li Po (701-762 A.D.) |
Annie
storyteller
Username: Annie
Post Number: 2024
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 04, 2007 - 2:51 pm: | |
Great pics Matt!  Particularly #14 is a classic beauty - a color pic that almost seems to have been taken in black & white.
You could post that one here with imagelink or even upload to make sure it stays accessible regardless of the Webshots account's stability. 
Chess is the purest form of debate, unadulterated by a topic. |
Matt
hunter
Username: Matt
Post Number: 541
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 05, 2007 - 5:57 pm: | |
Thanks Annie!
In my bumbling, trial-and-error way I'm slowly regaining the feel for Webshots; the annoying mini-photos are gone and I've done a fair bit of adding and editing (if anyone else ventures a look, #14 is now #17).
Ah what the heck, it probably won't remain #17 for long so I'll upload the pic in question here...
This is Mt. Adams as viewed from a bit below the summit of Mt. Madison.
We sit together,
the mountains and I,
until only the mountain remains.
-- Li Po (701-762 A.D.) |
Scott
flint knapper
Username: Scott
Post Number: 1905
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 7:49 am: | |
Great pics Matt. Did you wear crampons? I usually avoid snowing climbs, gravity is a real bitch, a thousand meters up a mountain!
What was the vertical and how long did it take you? Looks like pretty nice country!
Scott
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ces gens, Jondalar, ils sourient. Ils me sourient. - Ayla |
Matt
hunter
Username: Matt
Post Number: 543
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 3:11 pm: | |
We both brought crampons but never used them. After a climb last winter (in which my brother and I tried a south-easterly trail which essentially turned out to be a steep, thick river of ice) we wised up and chose a more sheltered approach from the north this time around. The snow was deep below the trees, but ice was never enough of a problem to warrant anything heavier than stabilicers (kind of a scaled down but more user-friendly crampon).
Our total vertical for the day was 1570 meters and our time was 9 1/2 hours. On a nice summer's day we'd probably shave 2 hours or so off that time (although it's not always possible then to resist the temptation to lounge about and maybe nap on summits!). Northern New Hampshire is certainly beautiful, though it's not as wild and remote generally as are the Adirondacks. The soil is very different (more minerals, fewer organics, making for far less mud in non-winter), and the alpine zones are more extensive than anywhere else in the country east of the Mississippi. It's a very long drive for me to get there, or I'd certainly visit more often.
We sit together,
the mountains and I,
until only the mountain remains.
-- Li Po (701-762 A.D.) |
Matt
flint knapper
Username: Matt
Post Number: 561
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 6:28 pm: | |
My last hiking trip differed from my previous one in that I utterly failed to break my camera this time around. The following visual evidence should adequately defend my claim of said failure...
Here are the rest of my photos from said failed expeditions. I should warn that there is at least one more gratuitous shot of a pair of boots...
We sit together,
the mountains and I,
until only the mountain remains.
-- Li Po (701-762 A.D.) |
Rhi
hunter
Username: Rhi
Post Number: 523
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2007 - 3:28 am: | |
They ARE beautiful boots, Matt. 
Gorgeous place to hike.
Mostly Harmless
A Knock on the Duir "If ye don't be belaving innything what fun are ye going to get out av life?" Judy Plum, LM Montgomery |
Scott
flint knapper
Username: Scott
Post Number: 2058
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 4:12 am: | |
This is how he lost the last camera! Hanging off overhangs like that....at least boots are tied on.
Scott
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ces gens, Jondalar, ils sourient. Ils me sourient. - Ayla |
|
Living like Ayla 
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