A quiet revolution is taking place north of the river Tweed. Scotland’s forests are expanding at breakneck speed: the share of Scotland that is forested has increased from just under 6 per cent a century ago, to around 18 per cent today. The country now has nearly as much forest as it did 1,000 years ago, according to data from researchers at Our World in Data.
Forests first colonised the country some 11,000 years ago, after the last ice age retreated. By the Roman invasion of England 2,000 years ago, around half of Scotland’s forests were already lost, largely as a result of deforestation.
After the First World War, the government realised that a domestic timber industry was a matter of national security. Scotland was soon covered in non-native pine plantations, which helped boost forest cover, but they were bad news for biodiversity. Since the 1980s, more care has been taken to plant native trees, though concerns remain over the species being planted.
The Scottish government has a target for 21 per cent forest cover by 2032. The rewilding and climate movements mean that reforestation is now wildly popular: some 80 per cent of Scottish people supported the reforestation of the Highlands in a 2021 survey.
RockyL15 on April 9th, 2022 at 16:34 UTC »
I'm told if the Great Birnam Wood reaches Dunsinane Hill, there might be issues.
anon5005 on April 9th, 2022 at 15:16 UTC »
When I first came to the UK, I was invited as a post-doc and my sponsor took me for a tour of Scotland we went 'hill walking.' He showed me streams coming down from the hills that you can drink from, the water going through peat or something has the taste which gives Scotch whisky its flavour.
Then he showed me how many of the hills which used to have sheep and goats are now plantations of Scandinavian conifers. He said, since these conifers are not indigenous, they just kill the soil and undergrowth they acidify it. We went into a forest, he picked up a handful of pine-needles and sand and said, "There is nothing living here."
When articles talk about how much more forest there is in such-and-such country, they ought to explain which is ancient natural woodland, with all its biodiversity and multiplied ability to soak up carbon, versus what is plantations of conifers that kill the ecosystem beneath, and are destined to be cut down and replaced again and again, each generation to be either directly burned, or made into Ikea kitchen units and then burned.
TL;DR Tree plantations are different than natural forests, they hurt the ecosystem and they are cut down and either burned or made into products that are later burned
Laymanao on April 9th, 2022 at 14:45 UTC »
The is great. I hope however that the new forests are indigenous trees and not alien vegetation.