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Sarah Watts

@sarahwatts.bsky.social

910 followers 390 following 59 posts

Upland ecologist and manager of nature recovery at #Corrour, PhD researcher at the University of Stirling, and Chair of the Mountain Woodland Action Group. Treeline woodland, restoration ecology, arctic-alpine plants, #HighMountainTrees #MountainFlowers

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Nov 22

Hi, I'm Sarah Watts & I've arrived on #BlueSky! I work on landscape-scale #NatureRecovery in the Scottish Highlands, focusing on #mountain #woodland, tree #regeneration with deer management, arctic-alpine plants, & #peatlands. I'm both a practitioner & researcher, striving for evidence-based action!

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · 4d

Sorry to be that person to ask, but did you get permission from the National Trust for Scotland to use their annotated photographs on your own social media? These photos are from the Mar Lodge Estate Facebook page.

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Reposted by Sarah Watts

BSBI Scotland @bsbiscotland.bsky.social · 7d

Book your #ScotBotanistsConf place now! Its going to be a fantastic day @thebotanics.bsky.social, with brilliant talks on restoring montane woodland, Tufted Saxifrage, urban flora and much much more!
@sarahwatts.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social @botsocscot.bsky.social @naturescot.bsky.social

A small, tight clump of Tufted Saxifrage rosettes just catching the morning sunlight on a steep rock wall, high in the Grey Corries. There are three flowerheads, with the last tiny white petals hanging on as they go to seed. Behind, a pattern of brown-green bryophytes and ledges form a mosaic in the vertiginous, pale grey quartzite, with the rock spires reaching towards a bright blue sky in the far corner of the photo.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Aug 3

My best botanical day of the year! While hillwalking in the #Cairngorms we discovered a new, unrecorded population of the ultra rare Marsh Saxifrage (Saxifraga hirculus). This beautiful upland plant is a protected species & only found at a few sites in Scotland. #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Aug 1

Making the most of flower power! This week at #Corrour we have been repeat #monitoring to determine if our tall herbs and upland calcareous grasslands are continuing to recover after a reduction in deer densities on the estate. It's wonderful to study these lovely plants in a dynamic landscape!

Reposted by Sarah Watts

Trees for Life @treesforlife.bsky.social · Jul 8

Volunteers from our Tree Seed Collection Project recently visited Ben Lawers NNR for their annual trip to learn more about montane tree species.

Montane scrub is a rare and fragmented #habitat found in mountainous regions, where dwarfed #trees and shrubs dominate. 🌿

Learn more 👉 bit.ly/3IfJ2wq

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 23

An interesting early morning start joining #forestry #PhD researcher Ben Wilson from @stir.ac.uk recording the #moths found in light traps set up at Loch Ossian woods on #Corrour. My favourite find of the day couldn't help but be the large & very charismatic Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)!

Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 22

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 22

Here's the delighted face of someone who has just said "This looks exactly like Carex rariflora habitat"...moments before finding Carex rariflora (Mountain Bog-sedge)! We've got our eye in on this Nationally Rare high-altitude plant & the special places it occurs. #WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 22

Lovely time botanising in the #Cairngorms finding Alpine Speedwell (Veronica alpina), Alpine Cat's-tail (Phleum alpinum), Alpine Foxtail (Alopecurus magellanicus), & a new record of Scottish Pearlwort (Sagina x normaniana) last recorded at this site 24 years ago!
#WildflowerHour #MountainFlowers

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 20

You too! Thank you for showing us the Carex x limula 😁

Reposted by Sarah Watts

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · Jun 19

Want to see a map of where mega-rare Alpine Catchfly grows in Britain?
Check out its #PlantAtlas2020 page:
plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
Our online Plant Atlas has pages for 3,495 plants with maps, info on conservation status & trends plus galleries of photos: all free for you to use & enjoy!

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 20

How many #montane #scrub enthusiasts can you fit around a relict montane willow? We found out on a #Mountain #Woodland Action Group field trip to #Dalnacardoch Estate last week, while discussing exciting potential options for #regeneration & #restoration alongside landscape-scale deer management.

Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 16

This is one of the two known Uk sites - with by far the largest population 😄

Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 15

The ultra-mega-rare #Alpine Catchfly (Silene suecica) is only found in two sites in Britain! We were absolutely delighted to see it in full flower today while botanising in the #Cairngorms; growing on a very unusual high-altitude serpentine rock rich in magnesium. #mountainflowers #wildflowerhour

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 15

Here's a plant that only occurs at one single place in the ENTIRE WORLD!! How special to see the #endemic Scottish Mouse-ear (Cerastium fontanum subsp. scoticum) in the #Cairngorms showing off its lovely long petals today, also alongside Cyphel (Cherleria sedoides). #mountainflowers #wildflowerhour

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Jun 11

Delighted to have completed Phase 3 of our multi-year #peatland #restoration project at #Corrour with Peatland ACTION! The 245ha at Loch na Lap brings our total for this particular project to 648ha, & our overall peatland restoration area on the estate up to 870ha. Works by Barker and Bland.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · May 6

How wonderful to receive these photos from the @treesforlife.bsky.social Dundreggan tree nursery who have been growing montane willows for us. These precious plants are to become our future seed stand for Whortle-leaved Willow on #Corrour; a high-altitude specialist listed as Endangered in Britain.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · May 2

One of my very favourite jobs of the year: #monitoring our #montane #willows at #Corrour! These Downy Willow saplings were planted two years ago & they're flourishing, all on the open hill without the use of fencing. I'm looking forward to surveying some of our other planting sites next week. 🤗 🤩

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Apr 24

I had a fantastic #fieldwork day this week planting Downy Willow (Salix lapponum) saplings for an experiment designed by PhD student Rory Abernethy @stir.ac.uk. Their growth & survival will be assessed as part of #research on Sitka Spruce colonisation at the treeline in Scotland.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Apr 10

I had a very interesting, unique & fun day of sunny #fieldwork this week on Ben Ledi with our University of Stirling 1st year PhD student Rory Abernethy who is studying Sitka Spruce colonisation at the treeline in Scotland. We were tagging trees for a planned experiment @stir.ac.uk.

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Apr 7

I had a very productive & enjoyable day of #fieldwork last week promoting #montane #willow #conservation! Great to join a team from @hutton.ac.uk & Catkin Ecology working in Glen Lochay to collect cuttings for creating new local provenance seed stands from five threatened willow species!

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Apr 7

Fantastic weather this weekend for a round of the epic "Fisherfield 6" in the North-West Highlands, featuring plenty of sunshine, wind, deer, mountains, ridges, scrambling, bog, big river crossings, & some very remote Scots Pine indeed. 🔭🤩🥰💪🏔️☀️

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Apr 3

We've begun a #riverwoods #restoration trial at #Corrour through the Loch Abar Mòr partnership. These small unfenced seed islands are intended to provide cover & nutrients along the river where seed sources are currently lacking. I'll be #monitoring their progress! #naturerichLochaber

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Mar 30

Rainy day roadside botanical safari staring the stunning arctic-alpine Purple #Saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) this weekend at Ben Lawers! #WildflowerHour #NTSBenLawers #botany #

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Sarah Watts @sarahwatts.bsky.social · Mar 27

We've planted more trees in our bespoke #montane #willow seed stand at #Corrour! These arctic-alpine Downy Willow are cuttings from wild plants on the estate. The stand has clones from 92 individuals to upscale seed production for the local area. It's the largest stand for this species in Britain!

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