Findhorn Foundation criticised for clearing 'invasive' trees on site

AN environmentalist has spoken out against the destruction of woodland within a local spiritual community.

Renee Labouche contacted the Gazette when she noticed that lodgepole pines were being removed from land in and around the Findhorn Foundation.

She said: "I am concerned about the destruction of so many trees opposite the shop and around the site, and healthy young lodgepole pine on the dune and heath area called Hinterland which is protected, axing dozens to sell for Christmas.

"The description by the Hinterland Land manager Kedojo Wanderer reads: 'Exotic Lodgepole pines from NW America that have become invasive on the rare dune and maritime heath habitats'. This is the justification. They are hardly exotic coming from the same latitude as Scotland. They were brought here in 1855. The Sitka, Corsican, Noble Fir and Norway Spruce also arrived about that time. I see on the Forestry website the Scots Pine is the only native conifer.

They are valuable for preventing sand shifts and draw up water below ground. not invasive, an emotive term used for harmful weeds. The inevitable answer is always conservation which is wearing thin."

Ms Labouche photographed some of the "destruction" opposite the Phoenix shop, calling it a "virtual tree graveyard with bodies piling up."

"The massacre is happening following committee approval," she said. "And around the food waste area by the community centre back door - once a lovely natural screen of small trees - is now just savage stumps with exposed bins.

"Trees at the back of the car-share shed were also needlessly hacked down. A fir in the Treetops garden was felled, I was told because of phone wires, however on inspection I saw no wires within 20 metres.

"All over The Park, raw stumps are appearing."

Land trustee at Findhorn Hinterland Trust, Alan Featherstone, is responsible for managing the land where the lodgepole pines were felled.

He said: "Lodgepole pine is a non-native species that was introduced in the relatively-recent past, and is an important tree for timber in Scotland. At Findhorn however, there are no commercial plantations of lodgepole, but trees were planted from about the 1970s onwards for amenity purposes.

"The Findhorn peninsula is a site of national importance for its dune heath ecosystem and the rare species associated with that. This habitat has been greatly reduced elsewhere due to factors such as golf course development and gravel extraction, and the protection of the remaining sites, such as at Findhorn, is now a high priority under responsibilities to safeguard the country's natural and biological heritage. The richness of the dune heath habitat is illustrated by the fact that almost 200 species of lichens have now been recorded there, including the rare matt felt lichen, and by the presence of specially-adapted fungi such as the sandy earthtongue, a species which has only been recorded from a handful of sites in Scotland."

He added: "In the years since the lodgepole pines on the peninsula started producing cones, the species has become highly invasive in the surrounding dune area, spreading over a significant proportion of the rare lichen heaths, with a serious negative impact on the lichen communities, threatening their survival.

"Although the Findhorn Hinterland Trust only has management responsibility for a small proportion of the dune area, we are acting to protect this rare and endangered habitat by removing the lodgepole pines from the area we manage. This action is being taken with the full support of the government conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, and with advice and input from a local ecologist."

Ms Labouche was unconvinced.

She said: "Every one was hacked down above the ground - needless killing when purchasers, being eco-campaigners supposedly, could have dug up the complete tree with its roots and replanted.

"These self-righteous people are clever at sounding right."

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