Importance of the pinewoods.
Forestry policy, private and public landowners and deer management will be under scrutiny next week at the native pinewoods conference in Fort William (28/29 Oct see here). This post examines what needs to happen to save our ancient Caledonian pinewoods and who might lead the way.
The future of our Caledonian pinewoods, descended by natural regeneration over thousands of years following the last Ice Age, is at stake. Felling, invasive non-native species, inappropriate planting and excessive grazing by red deer are threatening many of the 84 remnants of these ancient woodlands, scattered across a vast tract of the Highlands. From the large natural pinewoods around the Cairngorms massif to the small fragments left in the glens of western Highlands, many are in trouble – over 20% are in a degraded state, requiring urgent action to save what remains and expand them over the adjacent landscape.
This conference will see the launch of the Caledonian Pinewoods Partnership Prospectus, involving land managers, government agencies, NGOs, communities and other relevant stakeholders. It aims to develop and deliver a strategy to restore and expand the Caledonian pinewoods. The hope is this will lead to landscape -scale management approaches that prioritise native pinewood recovery through natural processes. Currently approximately 17,000 hectares are reasonably well protected. It is hoped to expand this to at least 135,000 ha by 2030. The main obstacles at present are overgrazing by excessively large herds of red deer, invasion by non-native species, including exotic conifers and rhododendron and planting in places where natural regeneration should take precedence.
Private landowners
Many of the Caledonian pinewoods are in private ownership. Some are in excellent condition, notably on the western slopes of the Cairngorms where the Danish landowner, Anders Polvsen, has reduced deer numbers down to levels that permit extensive natural regeneration up to the natural tree line. Further east, on Balmoral and neighbouring estates, there still is excessive overgrazing despite more than 20 years of voluntary control schemes overseen by NatureScot and its predecessors. The minutes of the South Grampian Deer Management Group (14th May 2024 see here) sum up the problem with Forest and Land Scotland explaining that despite a large cull: “some large herds of deer had been noted on the property, including up to 1,000 on one day, but their origin was unknown”.
It is hoped that King Charles will take an interest in the work of the Pinewoods Partnership. Balmoral has, for many years been struggling to persuade fellow landowners to take the necessary action to reduce deer numbers. Now, however, the arrival of the Partnership, plus recent legislative changes that allow red deer stags to be culled throughout the year, may provide the necessary momentum to get all the relevant landowners to cooperate more effectively in this part of the Cairngorms to reduce overgrazing. That will bring huge benefit to the wildlife and landscape from the heart of the forest to mountain summit. King Charles has the opportunity to set the standard on his own land and provide an example to all the other owners of ancient pinewood across Scotland.
BrewDog
Part of the pressure for a new strategy for the pinewoods comes from the invasion of the Highlands by investment companies and other commercial interests determined to cash in on the climate and biodiversity crises for their own profit. On the front line of that invasion has been the craft brewing company BrewDog with their disastrous purchase of the Kinrara estate near Aviemore. Their decision to erect huge lengths of fencing to exclude deer from large parts of their estate, followed by an intensive planting programme, was entirely the wrong strategy when the adjacent Dulnain native pinewood could have been easily expanded by simply reducing red deer numbers by culling. Instead in some of the planted areas over 90% of the trees died (see here), the fences are a massive intrusion into a wild landscape (see here and here) and over grazing continues outside the fences. Even more remarkable, it seems that BrewDog failed to seek advice from neighbouring estates who have been trying to reduce deer numbers and restore habitats. That is why better dialogue is at the core of the new Partnership Prospectus.
Public bodies
The BrewDog experience, along with other corporate investment adventures, also points to a clear need to reform the regulatory environment for forestry, along with major changes to the financial incentives which support forestry and ecological recovery. Much more priority needs to be given to the support of natural regeneration instead of planting. A better balance is needed between the funding responsibilities of Scottish Forestry and NatureScot, with new guidance provided to Forestry and Land Scotland in the management of the Caledonian pinewoods which they own.
30 x 30 Biodiversity objectives
A new vision for Caledonian pinewood, alongside meaningful action, will make a major contribution to international biodiversity obligations, notably the agreement to get 30% of the UK land mass in favourable ecological condition by 2030. The UK and Scottish Governments should therefore give their full support to the Caledonian Pinewoods Partnership Prospectus.
A significant influence on what has gone wrong with the drive to increase forest cover in Scotland is the old rule that, in general, organisations and people will behave according to the financial/legal regulations, or ‘environment’ that they find themselves in. Consequently with lucrative grants available for forest planting (without the appropriate controls and management), plus the stupidity of carbon offset and trading, the ‘devils’ in the woodpile – Brewdog and ABRDN and many others – cash in. The problem is that our dim-witted Scottish Government just sees the political gain of claiming greater forest and woodland cover in Scotland, and doesn’t want to know about all the environmental damage and gross waste of money resulting from their misplaced policies.
Organisations close to and funded by the Scottish Government such as NatureScot should be providing strong criticism of these broken policies, but don’t seem to have the courage or will to do so.
I wish the conference and the Caledonian Pinewoods Partnership well. They have an uphill struggle, but if we don’t try we will never make the changes necessary.
Gordon Bulloch makes excellent and valid points. All I would add is that a huge impetus for such shoddy practice are the professional agents, whose influence is huge. Within surveying, forestry and land management agency the fees, jobs (salaries) and profit always come first – and although there is change (albeit gradual) the returns from doing the right thing don’t match up to the bish bash bosh approaches we see. I heard last week that there are only two University Departments teaching ‘rewilding’ courses at present in UK. You would have thought that the coverage rewilding gets might have seen a speedier response from professions and training institutions.