Not long back from the From Forests to Heritage conference in Helsinki, hats off to the organisers for an excellent event. There was so much wonderful research to hear about from the other contributors, and so much we can learn from the beautiful forest and heritage of our host country, Finland.
I presented ‘Revealing the cultural histories of Scottish wooded landscapes’ using Dendrochronicle historic woodland case studies, mostly collaborations with Peter Quelch, to consider the relevance of the human past in 21st century ecological restoration. It is good to see some Scottish organisations involved in native woodland restoration becoming aware of this dimension, but there is a long long way to go.
A second joint paper was presented by my dendro-colleague Anne Crone, on our dendrochronological evidence for the history of the use of pine timber, both native and imported, in Scottish buildings. That too reflects our unique Scottish woodland history and our regionally-distinct timber use histories.
There will be a special volume of the Journal of Wood Culture to publish papers from the conference, to which we hope to contribute on these subjects.
#fromforeststoheritage #dendrochronology #Scotland #rewilding #reforesting #biodiversity #woodpasture #cultural #landscape #woodland #heritage #native #pine #timber #history #buildings