BCT
owns and manages Slewdrum Forest to promote the common good of
the inhabitants of Birse parish and deliver wider public
benefits. The Forest covers 169 hectares on the eastern edge of
the parish (map) and
was purchased by BCT on behalf of the community in 2006.
BCT’s
aim is to manage and develop the Forest as a native forest that
has varied habitats and high amenity, while also producing a
sustainable supply of timber that contributes financially to
other activities carried out by BCT on behalf of the local
community.
BCT
has leased the management of the Forest to its wholly owned
subsidiary, the Birse
Trading Company or BTCo since 2007, and a range if
improvements have been carried out in the Forest since then.
BCT is currently drawing up a long term Forest Management Plan
to be implemented by BTCo under a new lease from 2012.
Important parts of the Plan will be
-achieving
an adequate level of deer control to encourage natural
regeneration.
-planting
some further native broadleaves in parts of the areas felled by
the FC.
-clear
felling some stands of commercially mature non-native
conifers.
-re-stocking
the stands to be felled by natural regeneration and / or
planting.
-developing
a network of informal paths with links to the Deeside Way.
-carrying
out a range of other habitat and amenity improvements.
Slewdrum
used to be a local common that was also known as the Lendrum
Commonty. The Forest is still known locally by some as the
Commonty, while the twenty yard wide strip along the banks of
the River Dee that no longer forms part of the Forest, is
called the Commonty Fishings. However, unlike the Forest of
Birse Commonty, Slewdrum was an ancient Crown Common and the
last of its kind in Scotland (see Legal
History), when the Commissioners of Crown Lands gave it to
the Secretary of State for Scotland in 1954 for planting up by
the Forestry Commission. BCT then became the next owner in
2006.
©
Birse Community Trust 2010. All rights reserved.
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