Bird’s eye view helps survey team reach new heights

Our nature conservation team trialled the use of a drone for the first time at Ben Lomond to assist with surveying mountain willow scrub, one of the six priority habitats outlined in our Plan for Nature.

The Plan for Nature provides a framework and focus for the Trust’s nature conservation efforts and outlines our actions to care for mountain willow scrub habitats. The drone survey was made possible by funding from players of the People’s Postcode Lottery and will contribute to our goal of surveying all the natural (unplanted) montane willows at the special places in our care by 2027.

Dan Watson, one of the Trust’s Senior Conservation Officers, said: ’Of the five montane willow species, downy willow is the most widespread, occurring at five of our places including Grey Mare’s Tail, Ben Lomond, Ben Lawers, Mar Lodge and West Affric. As nearly all of these willows survive on crags where they are protected from herbivores, they can be difficult to survey accurately, so we took a novel approach by using a drone to help overcome this barrier.

’Using the drone as part of this pilot project to survey the crag on Ptarmigan, a subsidiary hill of Ben Lomond, helped us determine its potential for conducting surveys in more remote and inaccessible locations. As a result of the new technology, the survey was a success, allowing us to identify a downy willow which was just out of sight. Unfortunately, we also noted a Sitka spruce growing over the willow, so further work is required using rope access techniques to get down there and remove it to allow the willow to thrive.

’Four downy willows were observed on the crag in total, and we plan to bolster the population by collecting seeds and cuttings from other downy willow populations in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.’

This work is one of the actions highlighted in our Plan for Nature that will ensure all populations of montane willows at Trust places will consist of at least 100 individuals for each willow species naturally present.

Players of the People’s Postcode Lottery have supported the conservation charity’s Love Our Nature project since 2022, which benefited from £900k last year. Further funding awarded through the Postcode Earth Trust this year has supported mountain willow scrub surveys across the charity’s estate and other nature conservation projects at a variety of different habitats, including coastal and marine areas, peatlands, wetlands, woodland, and the eight National Nature Reserves cared for by the Trust.

Players of the People’s Postcode Lottery have now raised over £3.4m since 2014 to support the National Trust for Scotland.

The Love Our Nature project supports the Trust’s vision to care for, protect and share Scotland’s nature, beauty and heritage for everyone, as outlined in our 10-year strategy, launched in 2022.

Thanks to Angus Mackie of Scotland360, who carried out the drone work.