Building wilderness: The plot to restore the ecosystem of the Scottish Highlands
Although beautiful, the rolling hills and snaking glens of the Scottish Highlands are, in fact, landscapes that have been damaged by human beings. Much of the Scottish Highlands was once coated in a rich blanket of trees that formed the ‘Great Forest of Caledonia’. Over the centuries most of this forest was lost to agricultural incursions. Vast tracts of old-growth forest were removed; species like wolves, lynx, boar and even bear were hunted out; and the ecosystem services of diverse forests...