BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Wildheart - the 500 year old scottish tree 02/08/2025 DTSTAMP:20250208T164853Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:189-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n Wildheart - the 500 year old scottish tree 02/08/2025\n\n \n\n https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2841&\;typ e=status\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n WIldHeart on nature\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\ n My Thoughts\n\n\n\n Dippers are the only aquatic songbird in the world\, they live about Scotland and its oldest tree\, humans name Wildheart. enj oy\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n VIDEO\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n Uniform Resource L ocator\n\n\n\n https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/about-wildheart/28213/\n\n\ n\n  \n\n\n\n TRANSCRIPT\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n ♪♪ [ Suspenseful music pl ays\, birds chirping ] ♪♪ -Imagine a tree could tell a tale.\n\nImagin e you could peel back the layers of time... ...to see the amazing events t hat have played out around these ancient branches.\n\n♪♪ This is the s tory of a special Scots pine.\n\n[ Squeak ] [ Tender tune plays ] For 500 years\, it's stood firm here in Scotland's Wildheart... ...growing steadil y alongside generations of animals and people.\n\nThis is the story of Wil dheart.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Ancient\, weather-worn\, an d gnarled\, our Scots pine grows here\, near the heart of the Highlands.\n \nFor a tree of this species to live for five centuries is rare\, but Wild heart has stood guard here on the edge of the forest for all those years.\ n\n♪♪ Few living things spend longer on Earth than a tree and Wildhear t has stood steady here as many generations of animals and people have com e and gone.\n\n♪♪ Living through drought and deluge\, a testament of t he ages is written beneath the scales of its bark.\n\nAnd what a tale it h as to tell.\n\nOf the battles that nature has fought against the rising ti de of humanity and how the wild world has hung on in the face of so much p ressure.\n\n[ Cheeps ] ♪♪ [ Thunder rumbles ] ♪♪ Scots pines start ed spreading across these mountains at the end of the great Ice Age\, when vast herds of reindeer roamed the high tops and wolves still stalked the glens.\n\n[ Birds chirping ] But Wildheart's story begins on a cool misty morning in the middle of the 16th century.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ With seven bil lion fewer people walking the Earth\, nature still rules the planet in the se far-off days.\n\n♪♪ The great wood that the Romans named the Caledo nian Forest still covers vast tracts of the Highlands.\n\nIt's full of mys terious creatures.\n\n[ Suspenseful music plays ] [ Popping ] ♪♪ [ Ras ping ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Capercaillie.\n\nA bird that has an intimate relation ship with the Scots pine.\n\nThey live here\, breed here\, and even feed o n the tree's needles\, when other fruits and berries wither away.\n\n♪ ♪ Common and widespread in Scotland\, their stronghold is here\, in the vast pine forest.\n\n[ Rasping ] The male bird's bizarre popping call is s ummoning the females to the lek.\n\n[ Popping ] [ Popping ] [ Popping ] He re\, in a forest clearing\, they'll compete for the right to mate exclusiv ely with all the hen capercaillies.\n\n[ Pop ] [ Pop ] Weighing in at nine pounds\, this young bird is in superb condition.\n\n[ Popping ] [ Rasping ] [ Popping ] But an older male is up for the fight\, too.\n\n[ Pop ] [ P op ] [ Popping ] [ Rasping ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Rasping ] [ Popping ] [ Popping ] It's time to do battle.\n\n[ Rasping ] ♪♪ ♪♪ They're e venly matched.\n\nIt's simply a question of who gives way first.\n\n♪♪ The younger male is on the run\, handing victory to the dominant older bi rd.\n\n♪♪ Monarch of the glen\, he's retained mastery of the lek.\n\nA ll the females are his.\n\n[ Capercaillie calling ] As the sun rises\, oth er voices ring out across the clearing.\n\nThis is Mary\, Queen of Scotlan d.\n\n[ Mary giggling ] Crowned at just nine months old\, she's at the hea rt of a dynastic dispute as ferocious as the one between the capercaillies .\n\nA pawn in a diplomatic game\, the child is promised as a wife to the son of King Henry VIII of England.\n\n[ Mary giggles ] But the Scots have grown cold on the treaty\, and the child has been hidden away here in the care of her maid.\n\n♪♪ Innocent and happy games are a stark contrast to the turmoil that lies ahead for Mary.\n\n♪♪ In her play\, a cone is cast away.\n\n[ Mary giggles ] It's landed in the perfect spot\, clear of the other trees at the forest's edge.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ Two years on\, and the seed from Mary's cone has become a tiny tree.\n\n♪♪ The capercail lie lek has a new master now.\n\n♪♪ And the young queen has been sent away to France as the child consort of the king's son.\n\n♪♪ Mary's tr ee looks like a survivor.\n\nIts name is Wildheart\, a brave pioneer seemi ngly marching forward across the moor.\n\n♪♪ The open space has given it a head start\, and it's already avoided being devoured by hungry red de er\, mortal foes to Scots pine saplings.\n\nWildheart's animal neighbors a re getting busy.\n\nThe spring of 1549 looks like a fine one.\n\nAnd it's time to search for homes and mates.\n\nThe red squirrel is one of the Cale donian Forest's most dashing residents.\n\nThe aerial world here is full o f spaces to find food\, seek out mates\, and get the next generation on it s way.\n\nRed squirrels spend nearly 90% of their lives in the treetops\, and they're superbly adapted to climb and leap.\n\nWith double-jointed ank les and small\, sharp claws\, they can get up and down trees fast.\n\n[ Bi rd calling ] Early spring is a special time for red squirrels.\n\nAlready pregnant with kittens\, this female is looking for a comfortable nest site \, away from predators.\n\nBut this one is already taken.\n\nShe'll need t o keep searching.\n\nThree months on\, and Wildheart is still holding fast .\n\nA good inch has been added to each springy branch.\n\nThe next few ye ars will be make-or-break for the tree.\n\nA Scots pine can add a foot in height every year.\n\n♪♪ But it's not safe from the hungry deer quite yet.\n\n♪♪ The squirrel has been successful\, too.\n\nThere are kits i n the nest.\n\nNear Wildheart's slim trunk is a bank of spongy moss -- an ideal liner for the squirrel's drey.\n\n♪♪ It's just rather a challeng e to hold onto it all while you transport it to the very top of a pine tre e.\n\n♪♪ A fastidiously clean animal\, the red squirrel mother goes th rough this routine every couple of days.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ And she'l l be stuck with it for a while.\n\nIt'll be another couple of weeks before the kittens can emerge from the drey.\n\n♪♪ [ Thunder rumbles ] As th e 17th century begins\, the crowns of England and Scotland have united.\n\ nMary's son James now rules both kingdoms\, but the relationship remains u npredictable.\n\n♪♪ At 50 years old and 20 feet high\, Wildheart has n ow survived many seasons of the fickle Highland climate\, and the tree is now surrounded by a crowd of neighbors.\n\n♪♪ In the Highlands\, tempe ratures may drop below freezing even in late spring.\n\n♪♪ And snow ca n fall in any month of the year.\n\n♪♪ As the years roll by\, each gen eration of Wildheart's neighbors take their chances against this backgroun d of ever-changing weather.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ Crested tits may be small\, b ut they're the toughest of all the birds living in Wildheart's neighborhoo d.\n\n[ Bird calling ] ♪♪ ♪♪ A true specialist\, crested tits only live in this forest.\n\n♪♪ Even in the 17th century\, they're not fou nd anywhere else in the British Isles.\n\nThe harshest of winters can't de ter crested tits.\n\n♪♪ Like the red squirrel\, they're able to seek o ut caches of food beneath the soft snow\, seeds shed from Wildheart's cone s that will never grow and thrive.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ Wildheart continues to flourish.\n\nA Scots pine can thrive no matter how fickle the climate\, c hanging shape and angle as the years pass.\n\nAs 1650 draws to a close\, o ur tree is more than 100 years old... and 80 feet high.\n\n♪♪ Maturity brings a wider trunk\, and the bark is thickening\, branches spread\, and the pine needles are safely out of reach of the grazing deer.\n\n♪♪ T his tree produces both male and female flowers\, which means it can pollin ate itself\, creating the seed-rich cones which will keep the forest alive .\n\n♪♪ As long they don't fall victim to yet another generation of hu ngry red squirrels.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Thunder rumbling ] The end o f the 17th century brings political turbulence.\n\nCivil war racks the Bri tish Isles\, and English lords have replaced Mary's great-grandson James I I with Dutch-born William of Orange.\n\nBut in the Highlands\, there are s ome who still fight to restore a Scots king.\n\n♪♪ The Jacobites.\ n\n♪♪ These two\, Donald MacGregor and his son Rob Roy\, know the Cale donian Forest intimately.\n\n♪♪ Using guerrilla tactics\, it's easy fo r Highlanders to outwit the English Redcoats.\n\nEspecially when the enemy soldier is lost and alone.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ [ Donald grunts ] [ Soldier g runts ] A quick victory.\n\nBut Rob's future won't be so easy.\n\nForced i nto the life of an outlaw\, he'll live on the edges of society till the en d of his days.\n\nBut the Caledonian Forest will always be his home.\n\nHi s knowledge of this living place and its bubbling waterways will keep him safe.\n\nThe Dee is one of Scotland's longest arterial rivers\, an importa nt thoroughfare for Highlanders both human and animal alike.\n\nThe river is an important partner for the forest.\n\nEach keeps the other healthy.\n \nWater replenishes and nourishes the trees\, but the forest feeds the riv er with nutrients from fallen leaves and branches.\n\nOn a tributary downs tream\, a special pair of Highland birds are busy servicing their nest ben eath a waterfall.\n\nThey're dippers -- true specialists here.\n\nThe only aquatic songbird in the world\, they're able to dive beneath the surface to harvest insect larvae and tiny fish for their well-grown young.\n\nBut like the Highlanders\, they live a precarious life.\n\n[ Thunder rumbling ] The brood of chicks is ready to fledge\, but an unseasonal downpour is t ransforming the benign river into a raging torrent.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ The p arents need to coax the chicks out of the nest as quickly as possible.\n\n ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Delaying their fledging even by a few minutes could see the youngsters swept away by the torrent.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ The c hicks need to leave the nest now\, but they've never flown before and have to navigate the slippery rocks while avoiding the raging river.\n\n♪♪ The parents offer tasty morsels to draw them out of the nest.\n\n ♪♪ ♪♪ The winds whip through Wildheart's forest.\n\n♪♪ Lives a re at risk across the Highlands.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ The river still rises.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ But the dipper chicks are all out an d safe.\n\n[ Birds calling ] The unseasonal storm has swept across the who le forest\, and several of Wildheart's neighbors have been felled by the w ind.\n\nSuddenly there is space around Wildheart once more.\n\nFallen tree s and branches are also a valuable home for some.\n\nMeet the timberman.\n \nScotland's longest beetle.\n\n♪♪ He's just emerged into the spring s unlight after spending four years in his larval stage beneath the surface of Wildheart's scaly bark.\n\n♪♪ The spectacular antennae will help hi m locate a mate.\n\nAnd he needs to do it quickly.\n\nHis adult lifespan w ill be only a third of the time he spent beneath the bark as a grub.\n \n♪♪ Four feet beneath him\, the forest floor is dominated by a fortre ss.\n\nA fortress built by ants.\n\nThese mounds grow across generations\, and this one was already established when Mary cast her cone away and Wil dheart's journey began.\n\nWood ants are a keystone species here\, traveli ng through all three dimensions of the forest to capture insects which are moved back to the mound to nurture the colony.\n\nWood ants also farm aph ids high in the pines' branches.\n\nA gentle stroke from a farmer ant prod uces sticky and nourishing honeydew.\n\nAnd in return for the sugary milk\ , the aphids buy protection from their wood ant guards.\n\nAs the fallen t rees decay and collapse\, they provide dens for Wildheart's predator neigh bors.\n\nPine martens are one of the forest's most efficient predators.\n\ nNow at the beginning of the 18th century\, their population is thousands strong.\n\nWherever there are Scots pines\, there are pine martens.\n\nRed squirrels are an important prey animal\, but it will be quite a while bef ore these three young kits are up to catching one.\n\nFor now\, their live s are about scratching behind bark to find bugs and beetles.\n\n[ Marten s creeches ] ♪♪ ♪♪ The world around Wildheart is complex and diverse .\n\nHome to 172 insect species... 200 fungi species... and a rich array o f birds and mammals\, each part complements the other.\n\n♪♪ But this world is about to come under attack.\n\n♪♪ As the Jacobite revolts of the 18th century are suppressed\, the people of the Highlands face a catac lysmic change.\n\n♪♪ Farming and land use is going through a revolutio n of its own.\n\nLandlords are changing the ways farms are run\, creating larger and larger open spaces.\n\n♪♪ The rights of clan members to far m their own small crofts are removed\, and whole communities are being for ced out\, to work on the coast or even encouraged to emigrate to new lives in North America or Australia.\n\n♪♪ The great Caledonian Forest stan ds in the way of these new systems of farming.\n\n♪♪ And by the early 19th century\, Wildheart's forest has been reduced by 85%.\n\n♪♪ ♪ ♪ It's a still\, cool morning in April\, and the forest stands shrouded in mist.\n\n♪♪ Wildheart is now one of the largest trees in the forest .\n\nIt has the strongest and thickest trunk here.\n\nThe cold snap hasn't been enough to deter the black grouse from lekking at the forest's edge.\ n\n[ Grouse calling ] [ Grouse screeches ] Like their larger relatives the capercaillies\, male black grouse display and skirmish in a series of imp ressive dawn battles.\n\n[ Grouse screeching ] It's all about holding onto the best patch\, and the females will choose the male with the most impre ssive dueling skills.\n\n[ Grouse screeching ] As spring turns to summer\, Wildheart gains new tenants.\n\n♪♪ [ Eagle calling ] ♪♪ By July\, a pair of young golden eagles are sitting on a platform of branches and t wigs.\n\nIt's a tribute to the resilience and strength of Wildheart that t he eagles have chosen to build here.\n\n♪♪ It's more usual for golden eagles to choose craggy mountaintops for their homes\, but they feel secur e and confident in the branches.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ And once built\, an eagl e nest can last for many years.\n\n♪♪ The chicks are 8 weeks old and g rowing fast.\n\nBoth parents hunt\, seeking out hares on the bare mountain sides that are just a couple of wingbeats from Wildheart'S ever-shrinking forest.\n\nThey're still a month away from fledging.\n\nBut other youngste rs face change even more imminently.\n\n♪♪ This 10-year-old boy has a date with destiny.\n\nHe's come here to bid farewell to the lochs\, forest s\, and mountains he's known all his life before emigrating with his famil y to America.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ His name is John Muir\, and since he could walk\, nature has been his inspiration.\n\n♪♪ Recording all his though ts and feelings through words and pictures\, his ideas will shape the way that humanity views not just the forest but the wildlife of the entire wor ld\, eventually giving rise to the idea of protecting nature through Natio nal Parks.\n\n♪♪ A month later\, and the two golden eagle chicks are c lose to fledging.\n\nOne is considerably larger than the other\, and the n est is now littered with bones and debris.\n\n[ Flies buzzing ] Soon they will follow their parents into the Highland skies and leave Wildheart's fo rest behind.\n\n♪♪ Young John Muir has also departed.\n\nHe's now a th ousand miles away\, on a schooner bound for a new life in America.\n\n ♪♪ In his new home\, he'll exchange the Scots pines of the Highlands f or the giant redwoods of California.\n\nBut he hasn't forgotten the Caledo nian Forest... and he never will.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ As the 19 century draws to a close\, Wildheart is now a grand old survivor.\n\nMore than 350 year s old\, the tree is one of the oldest in the forest.\n\nBut it's very much on the front line.\n\nThe pine forest's resources are being used for indu stry and war.\n\nIts frontiers have been pushed back by sheep farms and sh ooting estates.\n\n♪♪ The great Caledonian Forest is now a tiny fracti on of what it once was.\n\n♪♪ Less than 5% of what once stood here is left... and the forest is now spilt into 35 fragments\, islands of diversi ty among the bleak\, bare mountains.\n\n♪♪ The beaver\, wolf\, lynx\, and osprey are gone.\n\n♪♪ But some creatures still return here every year... ...animals who have the Highlands at the very heart of their life cycle -- Atlantic salmon.\n\n♪♪ If the natural world has a symbol for surviving in the face of impossible odds\, that totemic animal would surel y be the salmon.\n\n♪♪ Highland salmon travel into the rivers from the ir ocean home after one to four years of feeding in the cold saltwaters of f Greenland and the Faroes.\n\n[ Sea birds calling ] Dolphins wait to ambu sh them in Highland estuaries as they enter river systems... ...tossing an d turning the unfortunate fish into the ideal swallowing position.\n\n ♪♪ The surviving fish power onwards towards distant spawning grounds a mong the forest fragments.\n\n♪♪ But more barriers lie in their wa y.\n\n♪♪ The fish are resolute in their desire to move on.\n\nTheir bo dies are equipped with powerful muscles that spring them across the most c hallenging waterfalls.\n\n♪♪ They will never give up.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ Finally\, back in the streams where they themselves hatched\, the salmon spawn before their lives end.\n\n♪♪ But their bodies are carried back to nurture the living forest.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ As Wildheart lives through the first half of the 20th century\, the forest is at its lowest point.\n\ n♪♪ But things are changing.\n\n♪♪ Across the far Atlantic\, young John Muir has grown to inspire a new vision of the natural world.\n\nHis ideas have inspired a network of American National Parks\, places where th e natural world nurtures\, revitalizes\, and complements humanity.\n\n ♪♪ Places where rare species can recover.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ It's a mild sunny day in March.\n\nWildheart still stands at the edge of her forest.. . ...new saplings fighting to earn their place around the base of her gnar led trunk.\n\nSomething special is about to happen -- the return of a trav eler who hasn't been seen here in many decades.\n\n[ Bird calling ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ It's an osprey\, a specialist hunter that has come to reclaim this patch of forest and river.\n\n♪♪ Although ospreys have been missing from Wildheart's forest since the turn of the century\, cond itions are still good for them here.\n\n♪♪ Lochs and rivers still have a healthy population of trout\, an osprey's favorite quarry.\ n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ This expert fisherman has a superb technique.\ n\n♪♪ But not every dive produces a catch.\n\nThree out of four strike s is unsuccessful.\n\n♪♪ Despite the osprey's superior eyesight and a dive speed of 80 miles an hour\, a trout can easily evade the hunter's tal ons.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ A successful strike.\n\nBut the fish isn't beate n yet.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ The hunter's inward-curving claws and adhesive sca les on the inside of its feet grip the fish tightly.\n\n♪♪ But it's tr ying to swim down\, pulling the osprey with it.\n\nPredator and prey are c lose in weight.\n\nLifting off from the water will need a titanic effort.\ n\n♪♪ ♪♪ Summoning every last drop of resolve\, the osprey uses th e power of its long and broad wings to lift the trout from the surface.\n\ n♪♪ A perfect prize for a mate.\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ Not far away is the o sprey's nest\, the first to be built in Wildheart's forest in half a centu ry.\n\n♪♪ But this nesting attempt will not succeed.\n\n♪♪ Illegal egg collecting is still a popular activity in Great Britain.\n\n♪♪ Os preys will need help to colonize Wildheart's forest.\n\n♪♪ [ Footsteps approach ] By the late 1950s\, a new breed of wildlife warrior has emerge d.\n\nThis is Roy Dennis... a young English ornithologist with a passion f or Scottish ospreys.\n\nHe has a job as the warden protecting the only bre eding pair of ospreys in the British Isles.\n\nEndlessly vigilant\, he's d etermined to give the ospreys the best possible chance of success.\n\nThat means trimming low branches from trees that could give egg collectors acc ess to the canopy and organizing volunteer patrols.\n\nBut\, above all\, w atching and waiting day and night... ...until finally\, in the summer\, th e ospreys succeed.\n\n[ Ospreys calling ] ♪♪ ♪♪ And the first chic ks fledged in Scotland in the 20th century take to the skies.\ n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ But what of Wildheart and her kin?\n\nCan the Scot tish forest also return from the edge?\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The tree st ands alone and in the open now.\n\nAt 480 years of age\, Wildheart is near ly as old as a Scots pine can be.\n\nIts life will be over soon.\n\nAnd wh at times it has born witness to.\n\nTimes in which humanity has pushed the planet into a dangerous place.\n\nTimes in which so many species have van ished from the forest.\n\nBut things are changing.\n\n♪♪ And now in th e 21st century\, there's a new sense of awareness that people can and must do something.\n\n♪♪ In the last 20 years\, organizations like the Joh n Muir Trust have planted more than a million successors to Wildheart.\n\n ♪♪ Although the ancient tree itself may be closer to the end\, the chi ldren of the 21st century are not prepared to let her kind die.\n\n♪♪ For the sake of Scotland and to safeguard the future for us all\, Wildhear t's descendants are marching forward across the hill.\n\n♪♪ The Caledo nian Forest will rise again.\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250208 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR