Special branch
Help is needed to survey historic oaks
The magnificent Cadzow Oaks, within Chatelherault County Park, are a nationally significant remnant of what is probably the oldest surviving oak woodland in Scotland.
Planted nearly seven centuries ago, when Robert the Bruce was still alive and hunting deer, they are considered a national treasure through their status as part of the Clyde Valley Woodlands National Nature Reserve.
And now, the public are being offered the chance to get to know this iconic habitat through a volunteering opportunity.
Experts from the Clyde and Avon Valley Landscape Partnership (CAVLP) say that as veteran trees lose vitality in older age, they start to become more interesting to other forms of life: a self-renewing deadwood resource playing host to an ever richer and more diverse flora and fauna. Even within one veteran tree, a range of deadwood habitats including dry rot holes, wet rot holes and rotting heart wood will support a different variety of lifeforms.
Chatelherault is nationally important for its wealth of rare invertebrate life. Around 40 per cent of woodland wildlife is thought to be dependent on these habitats in the UK which support a breath-taking range of saproxylic (deadwood dependant) species, including fungi, lichens, invertebrates, mosses and birds.
The project, Life in the Cadzow Oaks, focuses on invertebrate species, most notably spiders and beetles, for the first time since the 1950s and 1960s. Survey results will be compared to a survey completed over 50 years ago, the results of which are held in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow.
It is hoped that the survey will confirm the presence and abundance of key species that were recorded in the past and note any changes. Findings will be used to inform management plans, ensuring the appropriate conservation of these unique habitats for the future.
Donna Marshall, CAVLP programme manager said: “We hope that people are inspired to volunteer for the Cadzow Oaks Deadwood Invertebrates 50 Years On survey.
“The landscape partnership programme includes a range of large-scale projects, including the removal of non-native conifers in Chatelherault Country Park, community links path maintenance projects and the installation of fish passes on the Avon Water at Millheugh and Ferniegair Weirs.
“The deadwood invertebrates study is an example of what may look like a smallscale intervention, but has vital and lasting impact on the wider landscape.”
The Hunterian Museum are looking for volunteers to assist in regular fieldwork, including trap checking and general surveying duties at the Cadzow Oaks site from now until March 2018. No experience is necessary as training will be given.
The amount of time that volunteers can contribute to the project is flexible, but they should be available through the day on Thursdays and/or Fridays to fit in with the project schedule.
People interested in volunteering to help with the survey should contact Jeanne Robinson, Curator of Entomology at the Hunterian Museum on jeanne.robinson@ glasgow.ac.uk or 0141 330 2303, Monday to Wednesday.