Blog

Top 5 Winter Walks

Tuesday, 08 December 2020

  The forest can be a wonderful place for a walk at any time of the year, but the crisp quiet of a wintry day is both calming and inspiring. Here’s our top 5 forest walks for when the tempera…

Tree Trials: Testing trees for the future

Wednesday, 18 November 2020

With more frequent occurrences of extreme weather, and increased spread in tree-based diseases, how do we prepare forests throughout Europe to meet the strain of climate change? Back in 2012 several t…

Inside the Complex World of Lichen

Tuesday, 17 November 2020

Lichen is a hidden gem in our woodlands, often overlooked and underappreciated.  Scotland is home to over 1,500 different species of lichen, which makes up around 87% of all lichen found in Brit…

Forest Operations and Red Squirrel Conservation

Monday, 16 November 2020

Scientific Name: Sciurus vulgaris Population in Scotland: Around 120,000 Population on FLS land: 50,000 Population health: decline Greatest threat: Grey Squirrel Fun fact: Red Squirrels…

Managing Woodland For Sea Eagles

Friday, 06 November 2020

White Tail Eagle Facts:  Scientific Name: Haliaeetus albicilla Population in Scotland:  There are now more than 100 territorial pairs in Scotland Population Status: Still a rare spec…

Bats at Tentsmuir Forest

Tuesday, 03 November 2020

Until recently conifer woodlands were not known to be great places for bats, but Tentsmuir Forest was at the forefront of changing these perceptions. In 1985 the first bat boxes were put up by the Fi…

Why Do Trees Lose Their Leaves?

Friday, 30 October 2020

The changing of seasons from summer to autumn brings about a startling change in many trees with vivid greens giving way to bright yellows, oranges and reds. Then, the leaves fall leaving bare trunk…

Spooky Stories

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

Autumn might be full of colour, but when night falls, the forest can be a scary place. Dark trees, eerie sounds, a cold that steals your breath away. Give yourself a chill this halloween in some of …

Big Douglas

Tuesday, 20 October 2020

While the majority of our timber harvesting is in fairly standard coniferous trees, occasionally something out of the ordinary comes along. Recently, a stand of extremely tall Douglas Fir came to ligh…

10 things you didn't know about conifers

Thursday, 01 October 2020

To celebrate National Conifer Week, we’ve delved into our archives and mined information from our foresters to bring you 10 fun facts about this ubiquitous family of trees. 1: Latin The word ‘co…

Slow Burn: Charcoal production in Callander

Friday, 25 September 2020

Back in 2019, Forestry and Land Scotland partnered with the Callander Landscape Partnership to excavate and research multiple sites of charcoal burning found in Leny Woods. This initiative became the …

Mesolithic map makers

Wednesday, 29 July 2020

Imagine the world of the wild harvesters, living within the wildwoods of Scotland over six thousand years ago. Our Mesolithic ancestors were at home in their environment, hunting, fishing and gatherin…