Trees of Edinburgh

 It’s some of the best oak in Edinburgh - but this might have been its last summer. You’ve probably never heard of Sauchiebank Wood. We’ve walked past it regularly for thirty years, but never knew it was there until we visited it a few weeks ago.  A local resident alerted Trees of Edinburgh to its imminent destruction for the creation of the Roseburn-Fountainbridge cycle link (planning application 20/03561/FUL).  We love new active travel routes - but we also love woods - so we went to look.  Sauchiebank Wood has sprung up in a hectare of land wedged between Russell Road, the Western Approach Road, the railway line to West Lothian, and the line to Glasgow.  It is now a vibrant, semi-mature woodland with oak, birch, willow, hawthorn, rowan and ash. There is a well-developed shrub layer of bramble and wild rose, a diverse field layer of flowering plants, and a well-developed bryophyte community. The woodland, which can be accessed from Sauchiebank off Russell Road, was full of autumn bir