Forestry

Once covered with a mix of great trees, Scotland's forests were denuded centuries ago.  The huge forest of Caledon was much destroyed by the time of the Reformation, and the broadleaf woods of Fife and central Scotland were used to supply timber for shipbuilding in the time of the Stewart kings.  By 1905 a mere 4.5 % of Scotland was woodland, - some 351.000 ha.  In the 40 years from 1950 to 1990, there was a massive increase in tree planting, some 860,000 ha being restored to forested condition.  Today over 17 % of Scotland is woodland, compared with 8.6 % in England.  There are 10,700 persons employed in managing Scottish forests and in primary processing of the timber.

Conifer trees dominate the Scottish forests, with Silka spruce, Scots pine, and lodgepole pine being the main species. Broadleaf trees comprise only 24 % of the woodland areas, the chief species being birch, with some oak, beech, ash, and sycamore being present.   The Forestry Commission and Forestry Service control less than 30 % of the Scottish woodlands, while the remainder, over 60 %, is in private hands.   Some 148,000 ha of Scots forest are considered "ancient", and 133,000 ha designated semi-natural.  These woodlands are richer in plants and animals than other more recently established forests.  

How does Scotland's 2.1 million trees, 1,330,000 ha of forest, compare with other temperate countries ?  England has 1.3 million trees, and 1,100,000 ha of woodland.  But England has three times as much broadleaf forest as Scotland where the trees are mainly conifer.  In Europe, only Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, and England, have less woodland than Scotland.  Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, have on average, nearly twice as much forest land.  Austria, Greece and Portugal have nearly three times as much each.  Italy, Germany, Spain and Finland have from 10 to 21 million ha of forest each. 

On average, from 1999 to 2004, Scotland was planting 8,000 hectares of forest, and re-stocking another 8,000 ha.  Two-thirds of the new planting, and two-thirds of the restocking, was of conifers, and the remaining third of broadleaf trees.   Scotland has 43% of the farm woodland in the UK.  Its share of farm woodland has been increasing by about 10% a year since 1994.  Although Scotland has large forest parks like galloway, Argyll, Queen Elizabeth, and Tay, and has more sites mentioned on the forestry Commission wbsite, than for England, the number of day visitors to Scottish woodlands is less than a tenth of those in England, - only around 20 million visits compared to over 250 million in England.