BrewDog’s forest failure

THE firm proposed a planting method of ‘inverted mounding’ to allow for flexibility in tree placement, however, campaigner Nick Kempe argued this could have contributed to the mortality rate, with mounds quickly drying in the warm weather.

American investigative journalist Tom Opre, whose film on land use in Scotland, The Last Keeper, premieres in Edinburgh this month, said the Scottish Government had ‘subsidised the destruction of a naturally evolved habitat’ following his own investigation. He added, ‘It is not creating the e…ect intended and knowing the government is spending millions of pounds of taxpayers money to pay for all of this to occur is a travesty.’

Scottish Forestry said public funds on the project were protected.

A spokesperson said: “We need to plant more trees to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as to provide the many other economic and social benefits associated with forestry.

“Every woodland creation scheme that we award grant funding to is fully and rigorously assessed against the UK Forestry Standard and environmental regulations. We work towards the simple principle of the right tree in the right place.

“As regulator for forestry in

Scotland, we have carried out an inspection last year to the Lost Forest project on the Kinrara Estate. Our inspectors found pockets of high mortality of trees that were planted and we believe the most likely cause of this was the very dry conditions last Spring when the trees were put in the ground.

“The public funds allocated to the woodland creation project are fully protected. We will expect the applicant (Lost Forest) to make good through replacement planting at their own cost to ensure that the agreed amount of woodland creation, and at the correct tree density, takes place. If we found that this was not the case then we can reclaim the grant. Scottish Forestry will continue to monitor the site to ensure that the forestry grant conditions are met.”