Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape Project
The CALL project involves the community in planting trees to expand native woodland habitats across Assynt - credit Chris Puddephat / WTML
Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape is based in the far north west of Scotland, a partnership of community, charity and private landowners working together.
Encompassing an area of over 60,000 hectares (232 square miles) it is one of the largest landscape restoration projects in Europe. The area is blessed with some of the most dramatic landscapes in the British Isles, and within these some of the rarest and most endangered habitats, including temperaterate rainforest.
Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape was initiated in 2009 by the Scottish Wildlife Trust with the vision to scale up Scotland’s nature conservation efforts from reserve-focused activity to landscape scale. This also brings nature conservation to the fore, making it a much stronger element of socio-economic decision making. The ‘ecosystem approach’ provides multiple benefits within a landscape; crucially linking a healthy environment, a healthy economy, people’s wellbeing and ultimately the prosperity of Scotland.
As a result, CALL secured National Lottery Heritage Fund support for a five-year Partnership Scheme (CALLP) starting in 2016, and including the following projects that have all benefitted Scotland’s rainforest. The project has now formally ended, but it lives on in the landscape.
Woodland Expansion
This strand of the project focussed on the small, scattered fragments of temperate rainforest found along the area’s coastal fringes. The aim was to expand and connect these fragments in order to create corridors for wildlife and a fully-functioning ecosystem. The project was led by Woodland Trust Scotland, one of the fourteen partners of the Living Landscape project.
By providing crofters and land managers practical advice and access to finance, the project has so far enabled over 340ha of new native woodland to be planted, and more than 350ha of existing woodland to be brought back into active management. The project has engaged with 60 crofters and land managers, and run 50 volunteer days. One designated woodland is on its way to recovering condition, with one more in progress. In addition, a local tree nursery has been established which provides trees from the local seed source, which are much more resilient to local climatic conditions from elsewhere.
Woodland Trust Scotland is committed to continue this work, even though the project has now finished.
Hazel Wood Audit
The aims of this Assynt Field Club-led project were to:
Identify the extent, location and condition of hazel woods remaining in Coigach and Assynt.
Map and catalogue all major stands of hazel.
Assign an index of importance based on the presence/absence of key indicator species and assign an index of the threats each stand faces.
Offer lichen and bryophyte training to local people
Sustainable Deer Management
This project, led by the Assynt Foundation and Scottish Wildlife Trust, supported the training of deer managers, and the greater understanding of the importance of deer management in the creation and management of new and existing rainforest in the area.
Culag and Little Assynt Woods Paths
This project, led by Culag Community Woodland Trust Ltd, improved access to these two remnants of Scotland’s rainforest, with the aim of connecting more people to these places which in turn has led to more volunteers to help look after the woodlands. An increased awareness of the local environment has also helped foster an increased sense of individual and collective responsibility for the natural environment within the local communities.