Thursday, 25 June 2020
Forestry and Land Scotland’s team at the Newton Tree Nursery (near Elgin) has started back to work sowing seed to grow the trees of the future that will be urgently required as forestry resumes its climate emergency planting. With national guidance in place to help the forestry sector emerge out of lockdown, the Newton team has been amongst the first FLS outdoor staff to resume work, bene...
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is appealing for help from the people of Campbeltown to keep a felling site at Beinn Ghuilean safe. The call comes ahead of the resumption of tree felling work (29 June) at Beinn Ghuilean – and is in response to vandalism at the site, which has seen some of the safety signage and barriers at the site removed or destroyed. FLS has already referred several report...
Monday, 22 June 2020
Cuningar Loop, the urban woodland park in the heart of Glasgow has proved a real boon to local residents looking for lockdown exercise. Ideally situated for residents of Parkhead, Bridgeton and Rutherglen, the park has had a positive impact on the local area in the four years it has been open – but has proved its worth in the COVID-19 health crisis. Paige Klinkman, area Visitor Services Manage...
Thursday, 18 June 2020
A new method of restoring sand dunes to their pristine and natural condition is being trialed by Forestry and Land Scotland at Morrich More, a site near Tain in East Sutherland. The project aims to remove trees – planted decades ago in a misguided attempt to help prevent dune erosion – and create the conditions that will allow dune vegetation to once more take hold and allow natural processes...
Monday, 15 June 2020
Plans for a £6m project to redevelop the Scottish Crannog Centre on the north shore of Loch Tay are one step closer to being realised, thanks to Forestry and Land Scotland’s Community Asset Transfer Scheme. The project includes plans for multiple crannogs that will become the focal point of a new state-of-the-art museum. Scottish Crannog Centre MD, Mike Benson, said; “Over the past 20 year...
Friday, 05 June 2020
An innovative prototype system for automating tree seed planting and propagation has been hailed as a saviour for Scotland’s tree planting programme impacted by COVID-19 The new system emerged as a response to an open competition - run by the Scottish Government’s CivTech programme in 2019 on behalf of Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) - that challenged companies to find new ways to make bette...
Wednesday, 03 June 2020
A European Protected Species – the endangered Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus) - has been given a boost at its most northerly UK outpost thanks to Forestry and Land Scotland’s creation of a pondscape in a Strathpeffer woodland. Created over the course of around four years with the advice and guidance of local experts, Katie O’Brien and her father David, the ‘pondscape’ dev...
Tuesday, 02 June 2020
Anyone with an interest in how Forestry and Land Scotland’s Glenwhan site, around 9 km east of Stranraer, is managed over the next 20 years is invited to take part in a consultation and give their views. This third generation Land Management Plan being developed for the site includes details of how FLS intends to manage the site until 2030, as well as indicative plans for the 10 years aft...
Tuesday, 02 June 2020
Urgent forestry work required at Puck’s Glen will mean that all access will be stopped – except for the Big Tree trail, which will also have some diversions in place. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is advising the public that felling to tackle an outbreak of tree disease Phytophthora ramorum at Upper Puck’s Glen, (near Dunoon) next month will see the Black Gates trail closed. E...
Monday, 01 June 2020
Forestry and Land Scotland has been working with Raasay Development Trust (RDT) to help keep a renewable energy scheme on track. The Inverarish Hydro Scheme is the first application of its kind to FLS’s Community Asset Transfer Scheme - to build and operate a community owned ‘run-of-river’ hydro scheme. But to secure feed-in tariff for providing power to the National Grid, the scheme...
Friday, 29 May 2020
Laser equipped drones that can ‘see’ the lay of the land beneath a forest canopy are helping Forestry and Land Scotland to plan how it manages woodlands. The LIDAR drones have been helping FLS’s East Region team with planning the felling of trees affected by Phytopthora ramorum, a disease which is steadily making its way towards Drummond Hill, above Kenmore and Loch Tay. LIDAR is a system ...
Thursday, 28 May 2020
As people begin to enjoy the outdoors more following the easing of some COVID-19 restrictions, FLS is encouraging everyone to exercise their patience first and foremost. The call from FLS Chief Executive, Simon Hodgson, highlights that the forestry organisation’s leisure and recreation facilities – including car parks, mountain bike trails and toilets - are unlikely to be fully open before th...