Boar to clear bracken for trees

SIX wild boar were encouraged to snack on bracken yesterday when they were released into a 30-acre forest enclosure west of Loch Ness.

The animals were taken to the Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston as a “secret weapon” to help kick-start a forest restoration project by Findhorn-based charity Trees for Life.

The organisation hopes the animals will reduce the amount of bracken at the site, encouraging the regeneration of native trees and woodland plants.

The charity aims to restore 580 square miles of Caledonian forest in the Highlands.

The woodland once covered vast areas of Scotland but only 1% of it survives.

More than 800,000 trees have been planted by the charity since its first project in Glen Affric in 1991.

Volunteers headed to a wet Dundreggan Estate yesterday to launch the wild boar project.

The six beasts, two adults and four young, have been donated by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig, near Kingussie.

It is hoped they will naturally control bracken, which grows very fast and can inhibit the growth of other plants by overshadowing them.

Boar can also help plants germinate by rooting and exposing areas of soil.

The charity’s executive director, Alan Watson Featherstone, said the boar project was important.

“Wild boar are an integral part of the Caledonian forest, and their presence is crucial to the ecological health and balance of a natural woodland,” he said.

See www.treesforlife.org.uk for further details.

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