Around 100 specialists from the UK and Europe attended a three-day conference in the Highlands to discuss the management and restoration of large native pinewoods.
Delegates learned how factors such as climate change and grazing by animals had affected the range and structure of forests over the centuries.
Conference organiser Jonathan Humphrey of Forest Research said more needed to be learned about the ecological processes involved in forest development.
“We don’t know much about how these woods got there, when species began to colonise and how the range of species has shrunk and expanded,” he said.
He said recent studies revealed that climate change had had a profound effect on how forests had evolved and that the success of present day pinewood projects would hinge on current weather and climate change models being taken into account.
Delegates also had a field trip to Glen Affric, Scotland’s newest nature reserve, where they saw how restoration work is altering the landscape.
