The Wet Woods Restoration Project site at Inshriach lies approximately 6km south of Aviemore, between Loch an Eilein to the north and Feshiebridge to the south west.

Inshriach has a more open aspect than the Abernethy Forest sites, except perhaps at Mondhuie, with the steep slopes of Creag Mhigeachaidh and Creag Follais providing a spectacular backdrop to the east of the site.

A small burn (or stream), the Allt a Mharcaidh, bisects the site. This burn was partially canalised by hand in the 18^th century to make it easier to extract felled timber from the forest. The straightened watercourse serves as a practical reminder of the long history of forest management at Inshriach.

Targets

The forest at Inshriach is owned by the Forestry Commission and largely comprises young lodgepole pine and Scots pine plantation, although there are significant remnants of bog woodland in varying condition. The specific targets for Inshriach are:

• The removal of mixed conifers and non-native regeneration over an area of 40 hectares adjacent to a fast-flowing canalised watercourse, the Allt a Mharcaidh.
• The heavy thinning of planted Scots pine within this area.
• The blocking of key drains within this area.

Management

The first phase of the restoration work was carried out in July and August 1999 and concentrated on larger trees of marketable size over an area of 20 hectares. These were felled by a mechanical harvester and extracted by a forwarder machine. The harvester was particularly effective in gathering brash material together, which allowed earlier recovery of a large proportion of the ground vegetation. Damage by the machines was impressively minimal, although this was helped by a good spell of dry weather.

Throughout the harvesting operation, watercourses were bridged using timber and brash, with plastic piping to allow water flow. The bridges were later altered to become drain blocking dams. Areas of pure planted Scots pine on the drier moranic deposits were thinned to a more natural structure and retained. It was hoped that the thinning would encourage the recovery of the ground vegetation.

The second phase of work focussed on the more waterlogged areas where regenerated lodgepole pine was removed by chainsaw and cross-cut to encourage rapid natural decay. This took place in January 2000 over an area of 20 hectares. Both phases of felling work were undertaken by a local contractor and completed ahead of schedule and within budget.

Following tree removal, the hydrological reinstatement work was carried out in May 2000, employing the same local digger contractor who had completed much of the drain blocking work at Abernethy. During the final year of the Project a number of small areas totalling 0.5 hectare were tidied up with the removal of missed individual trees. In the spring of 2001, over the entire area, an estimated 80% of the brash was raked into approximately 200 heaps on mineral soils and the majority burned. Some brash heaps were left to see whether they proved beneficial to invertebrates or provided useful cover for mammals and birds.

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Achievements

• In total, conditions for the development of bog woodland were restored over an area of 52 hectares at this site.
• Two interpretative panels have been installed.
• Guided site visits were given by Forest Enterprise staff to a number of groups including the Keilder LIFE bog restoration project, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology staff, and participants of the end of project conference.