Mountain (or montane) woodland consists of short, hardy trees that grow from around 450m above sea level in tough upland conditions where tall upright trees cannot establish. Most have been lost to overgrazing and burning.

These wee trees are important for high-altitude biodiversity, and valuable for protecting steep slopes and reducing flooding as the country faces more extreme weather.

A seed stand is a small group of individual trees planted and maintained in an accessible spot to provide a genetically predictable source of seed to be grown in nurseries or directly sown on mountainsides. They are necessary because remaining montane species in the wild are often in very inaccessible places.