Glen Carnach, a remote glen on the edge of Knoydart - it takes the guts of a day to get here from the nearest road. this majestic place was once wild, then peopled. now its neither

the people who lived here were evicted to make way for large scale sheep farming during the Highland clearances. sheep were then replaced by deer so that wealthy people could shoot them, and the Glen continues to be managed for that purpose today

high numbers of deer eat all of the young trees within reach, restricting woodland to inaccessible parts of the landscape: cliffs, crags and ravines. here, birch is the most common species, but there is also juniper, aspen, willow, rowan, alder, oak, hazel, holly, ash and elm

scatterings of trees are also found in the surrounding landscape, but these are generally old/senescent - their continuity threatened by sustained heavy browsing. this elm is one of them - a huge phoenix (tree that fell over and regrew) supporting temperate rainforest lichens

this hollowed out ash with unusually white bark is another. an escapee from a past lapse in browsing pressure, it and many others will not be replaced when they die - completing the Glen's degradation to the terrestrial equivalent of an urchin barren

why do we tolerate this?

why do we tolerate keeping deer numbers intentionally high for the pleasure of a select few - at great cost to most other wildlife?

why do we act like we can do nothing about past injustices, when people continue to suffer their effects today?