An area of Wester Ross wiped out during the Highland Clearances will be home to a newly planted community forest.
Torgarve forest was taken into community ownership in 2021 but is now the site of a four-year project to improve biodiversity and benefit those living there.
Trees already on the site have been cleared and the first new trees have been planted.
Amy Clarkson, woodland development officer for Applecross Community Company, said: “The first big decision was to clear-fell eight hectares of the Sitka spruce that was growing here.
“The Sitka was planted 50 years ago, and it grew very well. But it was planted in among the archaeology and it was just a complete monoculture.
“Nothing else was growing beneath the Sitker, so the community decided to clear-fell the majority of the site and restock it with native woodland species.”
The project will see more than 5,000 trees planted in the Applecross area.
Projects are under way to collect seeds from around the local area in a bid to help repopulate the site.
The first 400 trees are now being planted and people from across the community are getting their hands dirty.
Calum Macrae, who lives nearby, said: “We’ve been putting in hazel, birch and oak and all the natural trees that would have been here.
“In Carnoch Wood, just next door, it’s an old Atlantic forest. It’s a beautiful place to walk.
“It’s very important for the bees too. They’ll get a lovely kickstart in the early part of the year.
“It’s very important that we hand this onto the younger generation. They will have a much better place than we did when we were younger. It was all wrong.”
The project will also create a meeting hut built from the cut wood of the old forest, where the community can come together.
Ms Clarkson said: “We’ll have a whole range of training events, from coppicing, basket weaving and planting an orchard.
“Through the duration of the four years, community involvement is at the heart of everything we’re doing.”
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