NEW figures show Scotland has achieved nearly 80% of the yearly woodland creation target, despite the main planting season being badly affected by a run of winter storms.
The overall woodland creation target was changed to 13,500 ha in 2021/22 as part of the Scottish Government’s climate change plans.
Despite Scottish Forestry’s creation schemes, the target was missed – but a total of 10,480 hectares (ha) of new woodland were created, with 42% being native species.
Scottish Forestry cited the storms uprooting millions of trees as the main reason for failure, with the forestry sector having to divert to replant. Storm Arwen damaged over 8000 ha of woodland over the winter: the equivalent of 16 million trees.
However, the 4000 ha target set out in the Bute House Agreement was reached, as 4360 ha of native woodland were planted.
Woodland Trust Scotland public affairs manager Arina Russell said: “We’re delighted the target for native woodland expansion has been met and exceeded. We want to see the Scottish Government go even further and set increased targets in the upcoming Biodiversity Strategy. These need to be for quality native woodland expansion but also for restoration of existing native woods.”
Compared to the rest of the UK, Scotland’s figures were high, with England creating 2260 ha of new woodland, Wales 580 ha and Northern Ireland 540 ha.
Environment Minister Mairi McAllan said: “Over the last four years, Scotland has consistently created over 10,000 ha of new woodland each year. This has been achieved during the challenges caused by Brexit, the global Covid pandemic, and the worst winter storms for over 10 years.
“While it is disappointing that we have not met this year’s target, Mother Nature dealt us a salutary lesson of the power of the weather and reminded us of the challenges of climate change. Even now, Clear up operations from the storms are continuing, so it is no surprise that they had an effect on tree-planting operations.
“It is good news that we have comfortably met our native woodland target, and Scotland is punching above its weight in creating over three quarters of all the UK’s new woodlands.
“The future is also looking very encouraging, as there is a very healthy demand for woodland creation projects in the pipeline. Scottish Forestry is accelerating applications for woodland creation schemes and is already working on around 13,000 ha worth of new projects.”
