Sarah Watts @Watts_SH Twitter profile

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Sarah Watts

3 days

📢Delighted to announce my big new #publication in the journal #Restoration #Ecology is now available online & #OpenAccess : "Montane willow scrub restoration in Scotland: reviewing 30 years of progress to reestablish the altitudinal treeline" (🧵1/10) 👉

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Spotted by a family member today. Shame on you @TheHouseofBruar for encouraging & contributing to the degradation of our #peatland habitats. @AlistairJump @TheMontyDon @TitchmarshShow @JASubke @EileenTisdall @PalyAlly

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Falls of Dochart? Be rude not to. #Killin #LoveWhereILive #FallsofDochart

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Ecologists regularly feel despair at the scale of the biodiversity/climate crisis. But sometimes we also witness nature recovery that literally brings tears of happiness. It drives us to carry on doing all we can. Today is one of those days for me. Stand by for more photos! 👀🥲

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

📢 An incredible development for nature recovery in the Scottish Highlands! #Beavers have made their own way to 460m on @BenLawersNNR using a riparian corridor leading up into #mountain #woodland . Demonstrating the huge success of pioneering habitat #restoration by @N_T_S ! 🤩👏

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

The manager for this Loch Tay development has said "Scotland is the ultimate outdoor playground & is still so spectacularly untouched". That is one massive red flag completely out of touch with rural life, local communities & land-use legacies. @TayT60607

‘It’s all for the rich’: anger in Scotland over huge lochside gated community

No-entry signs are up around the beautiful Taymouth estate as a US developer plans to build luxury homes

www.theguardian.com

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

This is INCREDIBLE - a NEW PLANT RECORD for #Scotland !!! Coral necklace (Illecebrum verticillatum) is a #rare species from Cornwall & the New Forest. We've just found it growing in extraordinary abundance at Loch Treig in the Scottish #Highlands ! 🤯🤯 #Corrour #wildflowerhour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 months

I'm struggling with climate anxiety, ecological grief, & imposter syndrome at the moment. But these beautiful Melancholy Thistles (Cirsium heterophyllum) thriving on the open hill at #Corrour do give me hope for nature recovery & our future. 🙏🤗 #WildflowerHour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

JOB NEWS!! I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I will be taking on the new role of #Conservation #Manager at #Corrour ! An outstanding opportunity to deliver landscape-scale #ecological #restoration in the central #Highlands of Scotland, underpinned by scientific #research 😊

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Officially the highest altitude #Rowan in Britain! I made an epic 30km hike to record the incredible tree at 1150m on Sgùrr nan Ceathreamhnan, a remote peak in West Affric/Kintail @N_T_S . Amazing discovery for #HighMountainTrees ; thanks to Will Gilbertson for telling me about it!

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

6 months

I’m a #botanist trying to learn #birds . Folks say grasses look too much alike, but can we talk about Warblers please? If it wasn’t for song I’d be bamboozled by Willow Warbler & Chiffchaff, & don’t get me started on Pipits! 😂 Gaining a new skill is proving fun! #BirdingBotanist

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

📢There's a brand new record for Britain's highest altitude tree! We found it at 1221m on Ben Nevis, & incredibly it's a #Willow (Grey Willow; Salix cinerea). This tenacious little plant has surpassed Sitka Spruce at 1210m. #HighMountainTrees @BSBIbotany @JimMcIn37952395

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

When you write a post celebrating peatland restoration, and someone calls it bleak and asks when the trees will be restored

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Incredible scenes from above of successful re-wetting at one of our first #peatland #restoration sites at #Corrour . Work is currently ongoing on our next site of 176 hectares, with even larger areas planned for the following two years! Funded by @PeatlandACTION @nature_scot

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

📢We've found the record-holder for the highest altitude native tree in Britain! The Scots Pine sapling was discovered on Ben Macdui at an incredible 1160m. So brilliant to join @JimMcIn37952395 & @PaintingAndrew surveying plants on the summit. #HighMountainTrees #NTSBotanyWeek

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

5 months

What a ecstatic feeling to walk up this hillside at #Corrour through literally hundreds of flowering #Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) that are flourishing due to a reduction in grazing pressure. Confined to inaccessible cliff ledges no more! #WildflowerHour #montane #tallherbs

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Don't tell me mountain woodland & scrub shouldn't belong in the Scottish Highlands! Just look at this fabulous Rowan growing at 900m above Loch A'an in the Cairngorms. 📷 by Matt Brown submitted to #HighMountainTrees . Our upland vegetation has so much potential for regeneration!

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

WOW! 😍 Check out this stunning #Sphagnum moss which is colonising new bog pools created by rewetting at our 2021 #peatland #restoration site. Sphagnum is essential to peat formation in blanket bogs & can absorb up to 20 times its weight in water! #Corrour #peatland #biodiversity

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

11 months

My research @StirlingScience on Restoring Scotland's Mountain Woodland was Highly Commended in the #NatureofScotland Awards! What an achievement as an early career researcher, & superb recognition of the role of our "wee trees" in fighting the nature & climate emergency at scale.

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

A visit to the high-altitude Tayside #beavers who have colonised the #mountain #woodland at #NTSBenLawers @N_T_S . Their dam has doubled in height in the last 2 months. Clearly there's enough materials & forage for them up at 460m, highlighting the benefits of habitat restoration!

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

I started in my new #job as #Conservation #Manager at #Corrour this week! It is an exciting & unique opportunity to combine my passion for #upland #ecology , #habitat #restoration and applied #science ; in such a stunning location in the #Highlands ! 🥰🤗🤩

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

I was very surprised to encounter this Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) up at 780m on an exposed ridge at #NTSBenLawers , associating with Dwarf #Willow (Salix herbacea) in #alpine #heath . Typically this #fungus grows in woodland, often with Birch! #FungiFriday #Fungi #montane

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Adorned on cliff ledges at Corrie Sharroch is Britain's largest remaining patch of relict #montane #willow scrub. Absolutely spectacular, but at just half a hectare it's a reminder of the diverse #treeline we could have without overgrazing in our mountains. 🌿 #montanescrub

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

So very exciting to see the sub-montane birch #regeneration really getting away at #LochOssian with a reduction in grazing pressure. 🤗😍 No fencing & 400m above sea level; showing what is possible if we give natural processes a chance! #Corrour #birchwood #restoration

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

#24montaneplants for #advent Day 6: the striking sky-blue flowered #alpine forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris). A limited British distribution, occurring in grazed #limestone #grassland in the Pennines or on mica-schist rock ledges in the Breadalbanes #wildflowerhour #adventbotany

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Ecstatic to have been awarded major #funding by @PeatlandACTION @nature_scot to undertake a multi-year #Peatland #Restoration project at #Corrour ! 🥳🤩 #Blanketbog is our most extensive habitat type & restoring degraded areas is imperative in the fight against #ClimateChange .

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 months

One of our very rarest botanical sights: only 3 people have seen open Snow Pearlwort (Sagina nivalis) flowers in Britain in the last 10 years! This special little plant is threatened by climate change; I'm thankful for another chance to witness it! #WildflowerHour @PaintingAndrew

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

It's amazing to see #Aspen sprouting on the open hill at #Corrour several kilometres from the nearest mature stand. The rootstock must have been waiting here for a very long time; only having the opportunity to flourish now when released from overgrazing! #woodland #regeneration

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

9 months

I just pressed submit-to-journal on the manuscript of a paper I started work on 13 years ago. I'm literally in tears. 🥲😭🫨This is such surreal moment, but WHAT a journey!! 🤯🫣🤗🥳

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

5 years

One of Britain's rarest flowers! Drooping saxifrage (Saxifraga cernua) only reproduces in Scotland via bulbils and very seldom blooms. Flowering last recorded at #NTSBenLawers in '06 and just a couple of times since the 80s. Took 4 visits to see this flower opened #wildflowerhour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

I've just published an article in @ConversationUK discussing the trees found at record-breaking altitudes in Scotland & why we should be restoring mountain woodland. @StirlingScience @StirUni Link here: Research paper @BSBIbotany :

Trees discovered at record-breaking altitudes highlight why we should restore Scotland’s mountain...

Native trees have been found at new heights in the Scottish Highlands, demonstrating how mountain woodland could recover from deforestation – benefiting humans, wildlife and climate issues.

theconversation.com

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

My #PhD review paper "The benefits of #mountain #woodland restoration" is now published in a formal issue of the journal #Restoration #Ecology ; vol. 30(8). Available #OpenAccess #online since April! 👉 With @AlistairJump @StirlingScience @StirUni

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Grinning from ear to ear having just experienced Britain’s largest patch of relict #arctic - #alpine montane willow scrub at Corrie Sharroch. Thanks to @PaintingAndrew for great company & listening to my continuous stream of WOW LOOK AT THAT!! 🤩🤗 More 📷 to come! #Wildflowerhour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

There's a really #special place at #NTSBenLawers affectionately called the "Lapponum Ledge". It's the single best spot in Britain for experiencing restored #montane #willow scrub. You just can't keep me away from here! 🌿🥰 #fieldwork #habitat #restoration #montanescrub #phdlife

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

Is it just me, or is the #flowering #heather (Calluna vulgaris) looking particularly wonderful this year? The hillside at #BenLawers is ablaze with colour, particularly in the locations where grazing is reduced or absent. #wildflowerhour #fieldwork #callunacuddle #upland #ecology

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

I've been enjoying the underappreciated beauty of ribwort #plantain (Plantago lanceolata) growing abundantly in an #unmown verge in the village carpark. Did get a funny look from the local police officer while excitedly taking these photos! #doorstepnature #botany @BSBIbotany

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

#TreasuredPlants2021 Day5: #Globeflower (Trollius europaeus). Did you ever see a #flower that made you so happy, you cried? 🥲 These did it for me back in June at #Corrour . A wonderful example of regenerating upland #tallherb habitat! 😍 #wildflowerhour #regeneration #tallherbs

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

How high can trees grow up mountains? And how did we break the altitudinal records for 11 tree species in Britain during 21/2022? Find out in my new paper published #OpenAccess in #BritishandIrishBotany @BSBIbotany using #citizenscience . #HighMoutainTrees

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

Here are some #globeflower to brighten up your day - I know they certainly did mine! #5milesfromhome #botany #ecology #montane @BSBIbotany @wildflower_hour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

My #research @StirlingScience on high-altitude trees has made the news! Huge thanks to all who contributed towards the #citizenscience project #HighMountainTrees , & @BSBIbotany who collate plant distribution & altitude data!

Trees found growing at record altitudes up Scotland's Munros

Researchers' discoveries include a rowan found growing more than 3,700ft up a Highland mountain.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

I couldn't believe my eyes!! Wild #raspberry (Rubus idaeus) at 766m asl?!? Turns out it's a new British altitudinal record🤩 I did eat one and it was very tasty; the highest #altitude raspberry picked in this country😂 #Corrour #wildflowerhour #fruits #wilddrupehour #drupe #fruit

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

This year's epic #flowering #heather shows the contrast between different #grazing levels in the #uplands . #Sheep and red #deer have been excluded using #fences and there are fewer sheep in the reduced grazing area. Heritable grazing rights elsewhere #NTSBenLawers #herbivory

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

If you're wondering why I'm so enthusiastic & motivated about my #research .....THIS IS WHY! 😍 #montanescrub #restoration #willow #NTSBenLawers @NnrBen #fieldwork #PhDlife

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

How exciting! A colleague has just discovered a sizeable patch of #juniper scrub habitat AND another #montane willow population! Juniper is rare at #Corrour but here it's growing both on and off the crag, suggesting #regeneration is occurring.🤩 #montanescrub 📷by Allan MacLeod

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Thinking back to 3 years ago when I was unemployed, nervously preparing a job application & uncertain what the future held. So grateful for the opportunities that have followed! #Corrour 🤗

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Before/after photos tell so much! Our #peatland #restoration site at #Corrour before (left) & after (right) works completed this year by contractor @DalefootCompost . Bare peat replaced by rewetting and reprofiling. 😍Funded by @PeatlandACTION @nature_scot

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

📢There's a new record for Britain's highest-altitude native tree! Ecologist Ellie Corsie found a Downy #Birch at 1205m on Ben Nevis, highlighting #Lochaber 's huge potential for mountain woodland #restoration . @JohnMuirTrust @StirUni #HighMountainTrees

How a Ben Nevis climber stumbled upon a high altitude tree record

THE ecologist who discovered a record-breaking tree on Ben Nevis has told how she stumbled upon the special find.

www.thenational.scot

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

There's a lot of love for #Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) on Twitter at the moment, so here's some photos from our thriving #upland eutrophic #tallherb #habitat at #Corrour 🥰 Exciting to see them spreading off the cliff ledges under reduced grazing pressures. #restoration

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Massive shoutout to @BSBIbotany , without whom my career, hobbies & general enjoyment of life wouldn't be the same. Such a welcoming, supportive & fun society, celebrating #plants + aiding scientific #research with their incredible recording data. 🤗🥰 #WildflowerHour #thistles

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

A new GB altitudinal record for Downy #Birch (Betula pubescens) at a whopping 949m near the summit of Stob Coire Sgriodain. A fantastic find in my quest to record #highmountaintrees . I'm absolutely over the moon! #Corrour #mountainbirch #extremebotany @BSBIbotany @BSBIScotland

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

A new record holder!! 🤩The highest altitude #tree growing on #Corrour is officially this tiny #Rowan seedling I saw on the summit of Stob Coire Sgriodain at an amazing 979m! #HighMountainTrees #extremebotany

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

33 years of pioneering mountain woodland #restoration : a🧵of photos of the Edramucky Burn @BenLawersNNR in 1990 vs 2023. Here the @N_T_S built a large herbivore exclosure & planted upland broadleaves until 1998. Natural #regeneration has flourished since then. (1/4)

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 months

It's very sobering & striking that this site in the #Cairngorms holds "some of the most intact #montane #birch woodland flora in Scotland"! A tiny pocket of tall birch trees at 670m, only remaining in the spot inaccessible to large herbivores. But hopefully that's to change! 💪

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Did you know that among the highest altitude vascular plants in Britain are Meadow #Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) & Rosebay #Willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium)? They're to be found just meters from the summit of Ben Nevis! 🤩🤯 #Wildflowerhour #ExtremeBotany @JimMcIn37952395

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

6 months

Sometimes you have to take risks for nature recovery, & #monitoring is key to mitigation. We planted 1500 Downy Willow at #Corrour last year without any fencing. This #montane species is particularly vulnerable to overgrazing, so I'm overjoyed to report a 98% survival rate! 🥳🤩

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

📢I've published an article in @ConversationUK highlighting why we should be paying more attention to tiny #arctic - #alpine plants which are sounding a warning for #biodiversity loss due to #climatechange . Please RT to help combat #plantblindness !

Tiny but tenacious: arctic-alpine plants are engineers and warning bells

Why we need to pay more attention to these minute flowers and how they survive in some of the harshest places in the world.

theconversation.com

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Absolutely superb day #tree planting with @treesurv on #Corrour for our mountain woodland #restoration project. These precious Downy Willow (Salix lapponum) grow at high altitude and are Nationally Scarce in Britain. We were working up to 850m today! 💪🌿 #montanescrub

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

My new paper on #habitat #restoration is #published @MiresandPeat ! Applied #research using minimal intervention techniques for revegetation of #upland eroded bare #peat . Single author, multi-year study of which I'm immensely proud! #peatland #conservation

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

First glance, what do you see? Solitary mature #birch in a grassy heath? Now look closer: there's a #woodland in the making. A product of sustainable grazing management & natural #regeneration . This is the future we need for our uplands #biodiversitycrisis #climatecrisis #Corrour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Spectacular flowering of global #conservation value! #Machair is unique to north-west Scotland & Ireland. This low-lying coastal vegetation forms on shell-rich sand & is a fantastic example of how #grazing management can deliver high #biodiversity . #WildflowerHour #EileanSiar

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Just LOOK at the difference! 🤩🤯 Before/After photos of some of our recent #peatland #restoration at #Corrour . Eroding peat hags have been reprofiled & bare areas rewetted by contractor @DalefootCompost . Project funded by @PeatlandACTION @nature_scot . Before📷 by @tom_edwards76

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

10 months

Spectacular panoramic views on Sunday from Càrn a'Mhaim in the heart of the #Cairngorms . Great #snow conditions under foot, a lovely wee ridge walk & a descent through regenerating #montane #woodland made for a brilliant winter day out! #HighMountainTrees @PaintingAndrew

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

A #mega #alpine #rarity and the jewel of #NTSBenLawers ; alpine gentian (Gentiana nivalis). I was totally besotted with these today. I've been working here for ten years and this was the best #gentian #flowering I've ever seen! #wildflowerhour #montane #botany #alpinegentian

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

🥳An incredible result! Today I monitored 300 of our Downy #Willow planted at #Corrour in May by @treesurv & we've got a 99% survival rate! It's montane scrub #restoration in action without fencing; to boost & connect fragmented populations of this scarce & threatened species.

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Absolutely stunning day on Ben Hope, & second hill day on the trot with this pair. Fantastic panoramic views + perfect weather. Loving being Scottish & loving life! 😍🤩🤗 #BenHope #FamilyTime

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Merry Covid-mas to me….🫠😭 Please post nice pictures of #wildflowers , #trees and #mountains to cheer me up during my festive #quarantine . I’m feeling very rough! 🤒🥵🥶😵‍💫 #covid19 #covid #firsttime #covidchristmas

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 months

A fantastic outing to Creag an Lochain (Ben Lawers @N_T_S ); the best site in Britain for restored montane willow scrub & upland tall herbs. This unique place is the primary location for my #PhD research @StirlingScience & has been within a large herbivore fence since 2000. 🧵1/4

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

The rewilding vs restoration debate has resurfaced again. Honestly, I'm far too busy getting on with the job of whatever -you-want-to-call-it to have time to read all the papers on this. But I am curious - how do academics envisage their definitions being of use to practitioners?

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

One of Britain's rarest plants, snow #pearlwort ( #Sagina #nivalis ) only occurs at #NTSBenLawers above 915m. Observations of fully open #flowers are astonishingly rare; they've only been seen by a handful of people! 🤯🤩🥰 #wildflowerhour #extremebotany @NnrBen

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 months

It's one of my absolute all time favourite plants, & there's nowhere else like this in Britain: flowering Melancholy #Thistle (Cirsium heterophyllum) at Creag an Lochain (Ben Lawers) with other upland tall herbs flourishing after a reduction in grazing! #WildflowerHour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

#TreasuredPlants2021 Day23: #Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). A simply stunning indicator species of #upland #tallherb habitat, which has flourished in impressive abundance when released from grazing at #NTSBenLawers . There's nowhere else quite like this in Britain! @NnrBen

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Happy International Day of Women & Girls in Science! I'm a plant #ecologist & #conservation management practitioner, specialising in mountain woodland #restoration . I love applied science, fieldwork in upland environments & arctic-alpine #botany . 💪 #IDWGS23 #WomenInScience

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Just look at this stunning Red Campion (Silene dioica) flowering way up at an astonishing 1103m on Sgor an Lochain Uaine in the #Cairngorms . It has totally smashed the British altitudinal record for the species! #hairyplants #WildflowerHour #NTSBotanyWeek @MarLodgeNTS @BSBIbotany

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Nothing says #ExtremeBotany like this photo of @JimMcIn37952395 & Dan Watson recording the GB altitudinal record for Moss Campion (Silene acaulis). We were teetering at the edge of the North Face of Ben Nevis with a massive vertical drop plummeting into the clouds below us! 😱🫨

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

#24montaneplants for #advent Day 21: melancholy #thistle (Cirsium heterophyllum). A beautiful #tallherb which doesn't have prickly spines and thrives in the #uplands when #overgrazing is reduced. It was traditionally used as a cure for sadness! One of my favourites. #adventbotany

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

5 months

It's always absolutely delightful to see the first flowering #Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) up on the hill at #NTSBenLawers 🤩 This #TallHerb is flourishing after overgrazing was removed at the site over 20 years ago. #WildflowerHour

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

As a new multi-year #peatland #restoration project gets underway this week at #Corrour , it was great to look down on some of our previously #restored peatland & admire the #rewetting from above. Previously there was dry bare peat here. Funded by @PeatlandACTION @nature_scot .

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

This is not just any #Hawkweed .... this is the new WORLD RECORD HOLDER for the highest altitude Shaggy Hawkweed (Hieracium holosericeum) on Earth! At 1238m in the #Cairngorms & only found in Britain (an endemic). #NTSBotanyWeek @MarLodgeNTS #WildflowerHour #hairyplants

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

"Jersey's Durrell Wildlife Trust takes on Scottish estate" A very exciting opportunity for nature recovery at #Dalnacardoch including huge scope for mountain woodland & montane scrub restoration! @DurrellWildlife @cairngormsnews

Jersey's Durrell Wildlife Trust takes on Scottish estate

The 100-year rewilding project plan includes the recovery of a rare bird and woodland restoration.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

@adriana_lowe @DaniRabaiotti @ARIES_DTP @UKRI_News @NERCscience That is seriously offensive. Baby-sitting?!? Some of us actually have kids of our own to care for!!

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1

151

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Woolly #Willow (Salix lanata) is the rarest of our #montane willows, with only a handful of viable populations left in Scotland. It is vulnerable to overgrazing & threatened by reduced snow-lie, but also so charismatic - look at the size of those furry leaves! 😍 #WildflowerHour

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153

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 months

What a special find at Creag Meagaidh! These little red bean #galls may not look like much, but they house the larvae of Euura dolichura, a rare #sawfly which only associates with the #arctic - #alpine Downy Willow (Salix lapponum). #Biodiversity value of montane willow scrub! 🤩🤗

4

22

157

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

What an amazing discovery! Creeping water-plantain (Baldellia ranunculoides subsp. repens) has just been found on #LochOssian at #Corrour ! It only occurs at a handful of other places in Britain including #LochTay & #Anglesey . 🤩 #wildflowerhour #lovemyjob #botany #newplantrecord

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24

154

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

55,650 individual measurements, 1050 downy #willow & 31 field days in 1 field season - I've only gone and collected the data for the first chapter of my #PhD ! 🥳That's one way to enjoy the #restored #montanescrub at #NTSBenLawers ! 😍 #fieldwork #phdlife #Salix #lapponum

7

12

151

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

5 months

Most extreme flowering plant in Britain? Mega rare #arctic - #alpine Diapensia lapponica occurs on just one exposed quartz outcrop. Apt that this windy mountaintop gave the coldest June temperatures I've ever experience in Scotland! #WildflowerHour #ExtremeBotany #MountainFlowers

0

17

152

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

My #research on #montane woodland #restoration @StirlingScience has made BBC News! I'm collating records of extreme high-altitude trees above 900m & working to bring back #treeline #woodland & scrub to our uplands. #highmountaintrees

Recording Scotland's extreme high-altitude trees

Researchers are collecting information on where trees are growing hundreds of metres up mountains.

www.bbc.co.uk

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151

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Lovely carpets of deep red #Alpine #Bearberry (Arctostaphylos alpinus) on Ben Hope this week. A classic #montane plant of exposed upland heaths that I never tire of seeing! 🤗 #WildflowerHour #botany #BusmansHoliday

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13

151

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 months

Delighted with my 200th Munro this weekend: the remote mountain Càrn Dearg in the Ben Alder range. Couldn't resist also visiting Britain's largest Woolly Willow (Salix lanata) population sitting at 1000m+ on nearby Geal Chàrn. A wonderful day out! 🤩🤗 #WildflowerHour

2

15

151

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 months

What an absolute treasure! Very special indeed to see open flowers of the gorgeous #arctic - #alpine plant Veronica fruticans (Rock Speedwell) on Ben Lawers. Just look at the deep vibrant blue colour & red-ringed white "eye". Utterly captivating! #WildflowerHour

2

14

153

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

4 years

How many #photos of #purple #saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) are too many? Asking for a friend.....🤔😉😂 #wildflowerhour #upland #botany @BSBIbotany #NTSBenLawers @NnrBen

7

13

149

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

So uplifting taking a walk through this developing #woodland in #GlenNevis ! 😍🤩 #Lochaber #regeneration #LochaberLandscapes #mountainwoodland

5

13

149

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

The highest altitude Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala) in Britain, at 1049m asl. Although there were plenty of #Seedheads , amazingly one plant was still in full bloom! Here it forms an important component of the Woolly Willow (Salix lanata) #montanescrub . 🤩 #WildflowerHour

2

20

144

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

If you need cheering up, these melancholy #thistles (Cirsium heterophyllum) from #NTSBenLawers will certainly do the job. This plant was traditionally used as a cure for sadness. ❤️ #upland #thistle #tallherbs #botany #tallherb #restoration

3

16

144

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

11 months

15 years ago today I was travelling back from South Georgia on the icebreaker HMS Endurance when she suffered a catastrophic flood & we were literally bailing for our lives in freezing water. Read this incredible account of the incident by @TomSharpe134 👉

7

13

149

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

5 years

Utter joy! My first ever sight of fully open snow pearlwort flowers ( #Saginanivalis ) after 6 years of monitoring (my predecessor waited 30 years!) Also tiny rove beetles visiting; could this be pollination? #wildflowerhour @BSBIbotany @RoyEntSoc @BritEntSoc #NTSBenLawers

3

21

142

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Absolutely superb day on Ben Nevis recording plant altitudinal records with @JimMcIn37952395 , Dan Watson & Lewis Donaghy. Amazing finds including Britain’s highest #altitude vascular plant, & a new champion for #HighMountainTrees . More details to follow! #Lochaber @BSBIbotany

2

10

144

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

Celebrating the 1st anniversary of starting in the #newjob role of #Conservation #Manager at #Corrour ! It's been a brilliant year, featuring #tallherb habitat monitoring, plenty of new #montane #willow records & the discovery of coral necklace (I. verticillatum), new to Scotland!

3

7

142

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

3 years

Let's take a moment to appreciate the wonder that is #roseroot (Rhodiola rosea)🤩A succulent with thick rootstock & a dense cluster of tiny lemon-yellow #flowers . It grows on ledges, cliffs & streambanks, & is also an #indicator species of the #tallherb community. #wildflowerhour

3

12

141

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

My big #PhD dataset of the #fungi co-occurring with montane willows in Scotland is complete! I collected soil samples for #eDNA metabarcoding & now it's time for data analysis. But news just in: we've found species of #ectomycorrhizal fungi new to the UK! 🤩 #Corrour @MarLodgeNTS

3

9

141

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

1 year

Thrilled that we unexpectedly refound the only Cairngorms site for Mountain Bladder-sedge (Carex x grahamii). It's a hybrid & thus the preserve of upland sedge enthusiasts, but surely this Nationally Rare plant deserves a place in the botanical limelight too? 🤩 #WildflowerHour

5

18

141

Sarah Watts

@Watts_SH

2 years

Mountain tree #regeneration : the elephant in the room. Is this the "best" example of #Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) #treeline in the Highlands? They are advancing right towards the summit of Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn) at 985m. An opportunist non-native invasive. #HighMountainTrees

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136