Doug Howieson Scottish Forestry
Scottish Forestry is the Scottish Government agency responsible for the creation and maintenance of woodland in Scotland, working between economic, social and environmental needs. forestry.gov.scot
“The Forestry Commission, which we were born out of, was established in 1919 to create a strategic timber reserve in the event of another war. There was compulsory purchase of land which was planted with conifer trees from parts of the world with a similar temperate environment. We built up a timber industry which in Scotland currently contributes at least
£1 billion GVA to the economy every year and employs about 25,000 people.
“Undoubtedly, through that process, we planted some wrong trees in the wrong place and the Flow Country’s a classic example of that. Lots of steps have been taken to try to reverse that, and we take a completely different approach now to make sure we do get the right trees in the right place at the right time.
“There is a healthy appetite for new woodland creation in Scotland. We’re currently at about 19% woodland cover and the Scottish Government’s ambition is for that to rise to 21%. Some of that is for new native woodlands, like native Caledonian pinewoods or upland birchwoods. About a third of the schemes that come forward are for new native woodland. We also provide grants for the maintenance, protection and development of existing native woodlands that have deteriorated because of deer pressures, sheep grazing or invasive species and so on.
Generally, we don’t have many problems with new native woodlands. There are more problems where people plant conifers, like Sitka spruce. People are more opposed to those trees.
“Britain imports 80% of its timber. We are the second biggest net importer of timber in the world after China. And we’re not sure how much carbon is released in the production and transportation of imported timber to this country.
“About 90% of our grant applications come from farmers and there’s a lot of good reasons to help farmers diversify. We’ve got an option that we call ‘sheep and trades’ and in that we give farmers a grant to plant conifer trees, because they can get income from that from about 25 years onwards. Once the trees are tall enough to avoid being damaged by it, we allow farmers to graze their sheep amongst the trees. And we also provide them with a grant to put a road in, in order to get the timber out. That’s a combined grant to try to encourage farmers to plant trees and think about a sustainable way forward. Farming and forestry has always been inextricably linked and we try to ensure that remains the same.”