Cabinet secretary Richard Lochhead MSP has visited Drummuir Castle Estate in Banffshire to look at integrated land-use management, in particular the type of land required for woodland creation to meet the Scottish government’s target of planting 10-15,000ha a year.
ConFor chief executive Stuart Goodall said the visit provided the opportunity to see how increased forest cover could look in practice as part of wider land use, such as agriculture and renewable energy.
“It also provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the practical action required to deliver significantly increased levels of new productive planting,” he said.
The visit followed recent opposition to planting trees on farmland by farmers’ unions in Scotland and a number of negative articles in the farming press. It also came shortly after new information from the Scottish government, in response to ConFor-prompted questions in the Scottish parliament, about the slow uptake of new planting under the Scottish Rural Development Programme.
An initial meeting with NFUS identified that farmers’ concerns could probably be addressed through a better understanding of the types of forestry that the sector, and the Scottish government, want to see and by ensuring that the planting is not seen to threaten Scottish farming.
“There is welcome political support for increased new planting. However, we still need to make progress with improving the grant scheme and we need to ensure that we speak to farmers’ unions to explain the scale and type of forestry we are looking for,” said Mr Goodall. “We hope we can allay their concerns and persuade them that planting trees is an attractive option that should be provided to farmers.”
