Consultation on 20-year plan for Ashiestiel (near Walkerburn)
Anyone with an interest in how Forestry and Land Scotland’s Ashiestiel site, 6 km east of Walkerburn, is managed over the next 20 years is invited to take part in a consultation and give their views.
The Land Management Plan being developed for the recently acquired Tweed Valley site includes details of how FLS intends to manage the site until 2030, and gives a direction of travel for the following 10 years to 2040.
The proposals include detail of how FLS intends to establish the site with a mixture of conifer and broadleaf species and in doing so meeting a range of objectives from priority habitat retention and enhancement to productive forestry.
Tom Harvey, planning forester with the local FLS team, said;
“Ashiestiel has a mixture of interesting priority habitats that we intend to manage as open land and where appropriate enhance existing broadleaf woodland with further native broadleaf species, this will provide an important biodiverse network of habitats in the future.
“The site lends itself to contributing to the productivity of its neighbouring FLS block Elibank with good access from an existing forest road network.
“Unfortunately due to the situation with COVID-19 we had to cancel the community drop-in event. It’s clearly not possible to re-schedule at the moment so as an alternative, we’ve put all of the relevant documents on to our website.
“We’d really like to get as much local feedback and input as possible so I’d encourage everyone with an interest to take a look and send us their comments to us.”
For more information contact the local team at enquiries.south@forestryandland.gov.scot or tom.harvey@forestryandland.gov.scot A draft of the current proposals for the management plan along with some landscape illustrations can be seen online.
Notes to editors
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Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manages forests and land owned by Scottish Ministers in a way that supports and enables economically sustainable forestry; conserves and enhances the environment; delivers benefits for people and nature; and supports Scottish Ministers in their stewardship of Scotland's national forests and land.
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Media enquiries to Paul Munro, Media Manager, Forestry and Land Scotland Media Office 0131 370 5059 or paul.munro@forestryandland.gov.scot