The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Hunt for tree thieves after rare spruces are uprooted in Perth
Conifers with ‘priceless genes’ taken from conservation site
Five “extremely rare” spruce trees have been stolen from a specially-developed conservation area in Perth.
The almost-extinct Serbian spruces were taken from Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park last week.
Native to forests of Bosnia-Herzegovina and western Serbia, the trees look similar to the Norwegian spruce – a popular type of Christmas tree.
Police are working with Forest Enterprise Scotland to identify the culprits.
According to Forest Enterprise Scotland, the stolen trees have no commercial value but contain “priceless” genetic material essential to the long-term conservation of the species.
Most of the roots had been left in the ground after the “pointless” theft, meaning the evergreen trees are now most likely dead.
Endangered conifer species facing extinction in their native range are kept in special conservation areas, like Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park.
Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust (PKCT) operate the conservation area alongside the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and Forest Enterprise Scotland.
Tom Christian, PKCT project officer, said: “The climate and landscape of Perthshire is ideal for growing conifers and the area provides a very important safe haven for rare and endangered species from around the world.
“Each conifer conservation programme tree is grown from seed that has been specially collected from its native habitat.
“Each tree represents years of work organising expeditions, processing the collected seeds, growing them on and then planting them in Perthshire.
“Until these trees were stolen, we probably had the greatest concentration of them outside of their native range.”
Forest Enterprise Scotland’s beat forester, Robin Lofthouse, said: “At a time when biodiversity around the world is increasingly under pressure, projects such as this play an invaluable part in conserving genetic material.
“This pointless theft is extremely frustrating not just because of the loss but because the trees are likely to have been killed. The thief had tried to dig them up but left most of the roots in the ground.
“Sadly, we are now in the situation where we are forced to look at where we could site wildlife cameras to protect other species in the project.
“I would urge anyone with any information about this crime to contact Police Scotland, or the local Forest Enterprise Scotland office.”
A spokesman for Police Scotland con- firmed they were investigating the theft, thought to have occurred between the evening of December 1 and the morning of December 2.
It is the second high-profile Christmas-related theft in Perthshire in days.
On Monday, a miniature model of Baby Jesus was pinched from a nativity scene at St John’s Kirk in Perth.
The model, which was stolen in a similar incident in 2015, was retrieved by police on Tuesday evening.
The Serbian Spruce planted in Kinnoull had been cultivated from the pine cones of older trees clinging to the steeps of the Drina River valley, in forest meandering the border of Serbia and Boznia-Herzegovina.
Members of the conservation programme team travelled to collect seeds, risking life and limb to climb the slopes in an area still riddled with landmines, a dark reminder of BosniaHerzegovina’s troubled past.
The town of Srebrenica, where 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered in an act of genocide in 1995, sits in the forest to the west of the river valley.
The conservation programme exists to protect trees at risk of becoming extinct in their native range.
Programme leaders believed the trees were safer in Perth, where the risk of eradication through wild-fire is significantly less than it would be in BosniaHerzegovina.
It is common for endangered species to be cultivated away from where threats to it exist.
The measure means if the plant is destroyed entirely in its homeland, it can avoid extinction by being transplanted from one of the conservation areas. Morag Watson, manager of the PKCT, said the conservation programme at Kinnoull Hill was like an “ark”.
She said: “We took a trip over to Boznia-Herzegovina to harvest seeds from pine cones of Serbian Spruce trees.
“We can grow the trees here to full maturity, and return them to their native range, if need be. We act like an ark for different species.
“The idea was to not have all of the eggs in one basket, so to speak.”
This pointless theft is extremely frustrating