The Circle Of Life

Deadwood is vital to a diverse range of hidden and seen species and, like loved ones and friends, enriches our world

- POLLY PULLAR

NEARING the end of his long life, incapacitated by the vagaries of old age, a close friend told me, "I am useless, just deadwood."

It upset me to hear this from a man whose 95 years on the planet had made a successful difference.

Mervyn Knox-Browne, of South Loch Tayside, was a revered community member, and he had achieved so much more than he realised. However, feeling useless is sadly something that afflicts many older people.

Mervyn had trodden effortlessly over Scotland's highest hills, on the roughest and steepest terrain, for most of his life-while gathering sheep or merely for pure joy.

He knew the Gaelic names for them and their meanings.

Now he was largely housebound. On a visit, I sat beside him and took his work-worn hand, noticing the raised veins - a latticework like exposed tree roots on a bank, mapping his life and then I replied.

"Deadwood. Deadwood, both standing and recumbent, is vital to the sylvan ecosystem. It sustains life, from the smallest micro-organisms to a vast range of invertebrates, plants, fungi, mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles - a diversity of hidden and seen species.

"It feeds the soil and provides a rich larder for insectivorous species, wood-boring beetles and saproxylic insects, and places for them to lay their eggs, hibernate, and hide. It provide shelter and nest sites. And that wealth of insect life provides food for all these species.

"As a true countryman, you know the importance of deadwood. In the past, you have told me this yourself." He looked at me, nodded and smiled.

I added, "Your wealth of knowledge, understanding of the weather, the phases of the moon, and the work you have done in your lifetime recording the seasonal changes, the arrivals of migrants - the swallow, the cuckoo - and the first frogspawn are all gamechanging.