Surfbirds News

Black Grouse, copyright Tom Marshall

But 10 years on, the reserve has just had its best ever black grouse survey - 57 lekking males - testament to the terrific habitat management that's been carried out since.

The 1,530 hectare reserve had just been purchased in April 1997 as a threatened upland habitat in need of sensitive management to aid recovery of black grouse, as well as iconic Scottish species including golden eagle and Scottish Crossbill. But disaster struck just weeks later when as forest fire spread from neighbouring land into trees on Corrimony.

Pete Mayhew, Senior Conservation Manager with RSPB Scotland said: 'I remember the fire starting on a Thursday evening, and the fire brigade came out and spent a whole the evening and next day battling the blaze. When they left we thought it was out, but it was very dry and the fire must have got into the peat, because by Saturday morning it had flared up again.

'It was dreadful, as we'd just acquired the reserve and thought we were going to lose 40-50 year old pines plus important habitat for black grouse, which would have been nesting at the time.

'We had to spend £30,000 hiring a helicopter to dump water round the clock, and it could have been a scene from Vietnam, with all the smoke, and the chopper going overhead. Eventually the combined efforts of the helicopter, the fire brigade, Forestry Commission staff and many volunteers managed to dampen it sufficiently, but it burned for a week in the end - all told the 'great fire of Corrimony' wiped out 170 hectares of woodland from the 1530 hectare reserve.'

It was feared that this would have a terrible impact on the fragile state of black grouse on the reserve, as at that time there were just 16 recorded lekking males on the site. The timing of the fire is likely to have destroyed several nests, not only of black grouse but also short eared owl.

Thankfully, 10 years on, it appears as if the fire may actually have aided regeneration of the site. Most of the affected area was commercially-planted coniferous woodland, which is not an ideal habitat for the black grouse or other native species. This has allowed sensitive, native planting to take its place, and the grouse this year reached an all time high of 57 lekking males.

Dan Tomes, the current Site Manager, said: 'While distressing, fires are actually important, natural occurrences in forests from time to time, and can play a role in allowing vigorous new vegetation growth to come through.

'While the black grouse probably took a hit that year, the numbers now are evidence of the work we've done since then in replanting native trees and in sensitively managing the whole ecosystem, including removing fences (which can kill grouse) and carefully grazing moorland habitats. We've replanted 130 ha of woodland in that decade and another 60 ha has developed naturally, and this year alone expect to plant 28,000 thousand more trees with the funding we received through the Scottish Forestry Alliance.