Celebrating Scotland's Climate Week 2026
We are for climate.
Our work tackles the threats from a changing climate, promoting nature recovery and reducing Scotland’s carbon footprint. We do this by capturing carbon in trees and soils, producing sustainable timber, and hosting renewable energy infrastructure.
In fact, our sustainably managed forests and wood products sequester around 2 million tonnes of carbon each year. That's equivalent to around 5% of Scotland’s total net emissions. We also host the generation of 1.3 gigawatts of renewable energy - enough to power over one million homes.
To celebrate Scotland's Climate Week 2026, we're looking back at five of our favourite stories from the past year.
1. Nature restoration in Glen Affric
Our teams have been doing a brilliant job working at a landscape scale to achieve important nature restoration objectives in Glen Affric. They've worked on projects including:
- restoring peatland
- expanding native woodland
- translocating beavers from the River Tay catchment to Loch Beinn a’ Mheadhain
- supporting the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh with their Scottish Plant Recovery Project by planting wych elm, wild apple, and Britain's rarest fern - oblong woodsia
Find out more about this fascinating work in Beat Forester Sam Brown's guest blog.
2. Planting 20,000 trees in the Angus Glens
We've been planting 20,000 native trees along rivers and streams in Glen Doll and Glen Prosen.
Species we've used include downy birch, aspen, rowan, willows, hazel, bird cherry and common alder.
As the trees grow:
- they will help shade the water
- their roots should stabilise banks when flow rates are high
- fallen leaves will provide nutrients to support freshwater species like salmon and brown trout
The project has been funded with a grant from NatureScot’s Nature Restoration Fund and as part of the River South Esk Catchment Partnership.
Learn more: Angus Glens watercourses to benefit from extensive woodland creation
3. Record setting peatland restoration
Back in May of this year, we shared the exciting news that our teams had set a new benchmark in their peatland restoration efforts for 2025 to 2026.
As a key delivery partner for Peatland ACTION, we recorded 1,821 hectares of restoration – that's an area roughly the size of 2,500 football pitches.
Restoration was carried out across Scotland on over 30 sites including forest to bog and open hill areas.
This work is transforming damaged, carbon-emitting bogs into active sinks, storing carbon and aiding Scotland’s net-zero ambitions. It also re-establishes habitats that will improve biodiversity and water quality while supporting rural employment by providing opportunities for locally based contractors and their teams.
4. A83 hillside woodland taking root
Our tree planting programme at the Rest and Be Thankful is taking root.
The first phase of planting was funded by Transport Scotland and saw 160,000 native trees planted on land they purchased for this project. We then planted a further 241,500 native trees on neighbouring land under our management.
Our operations forester, James Hand, said:
“There’s a great mix of locally sourced species in there - downy birch, aspen, oak, blackthorn, hawthorn, alder, hazel, juniper and Scot pine. They're not only adapted to the area but they're species that are also most likely to be resilient to future climate changes."
The hope is that these trees will increase the range of habitats and biodiversity. Plus, as the trees continue to grow, their root systems will bind and anchor the soil, gradually improving the integrity of the hillside over time.
Read more: A83 Hillside woodland taking root
5. Halo thinning: shedding light on ancient woodland and rainforest restoration
We're responsible for a third of the area of Scotland’s ‘core’ rainforest with work to restore this precious habitat supported by Scottish Government funding. We're also a member of the Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest, a network of more than 40 organisations all working together to restore and protect Scotland’s rainforest.
A specialist forest management technique known as halo thinning has been helping us with our rainforest restoration ambitions.
Rainforest Projects Coordinator Simon Turner said:
“Halo thinning involves removing non-native conifer trees from directly around a mature, ancient, or ‘veteran’ native tree...
“The aim is to open up the old native tree so that it survives and becomes more stable and robust prior to the plantation ultimately being clearfelled."
Along with using halo thinning as part of our Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS) restoration work in Scotland’s rainforest zone, we also carry out larger-scale felling where appropriate, ongoing removal of non-native conifer regeneration and invasive species such as Rhododendron ponticum, and deer management.
Read the article: Halo thinning: shedding light on ancient woodland and rainforest restoration
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