Investigation of the detrimental effects on the environment of modern forestry extraction.
Modern forestry extraction practices see one man able to remove amazing swathes of pine trees using complex but brutal machinery. In the process, the forest floor is ripped up and will take decades to recover. Not just peat bogs that hold peat as most of our pine forests are grown on peat. Older, but much slower and labour intensive methods were considerably kinder to the environment with little disturbance to the forest floor and the bonus of early replanting.
Comments: 4
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24 Jun, '20
Nick MacIneskarThis is a timely suggestion and one that needs investigating given the Land Management Plan (LMP) that will see SSSI areas deforested commencing in 2020 and continuing for some decades. This is the link to Forestry and Land Scotland and their LMP: https://forestryandland.gov.scot/what-we-do/planning/consultations/knapdale-land-management-plan-consultation
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03 Jul, '20
John CraigThanks for the link Nick. Also worth scrutiny is highly questionable tree planting methods. Planting of Alder, Hazel, Birch et al observed on land in the Scourie area sees an excavator digging up a shovel full of soil (ie Peat) and depositing it beside the excavated hole. On this small mound a new tree is planted,presumably to give greater depth for root growth. Multiply this by several thousand and you have moorland ripped apart and negating the assumed purpose of planting in the 1st place.
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17 Nov, '20
Fiona SinclairI'm familiar with some of the extraction methods, just through many trips out to the forest. My interest is in the shrub layer. Galloway is particularly good for blaeberry - as you can see from my now 20 year old report:-
http://www.blaeberry.org/ProjectBlaeberryFiles/ProjectBlaeberry_with_images_compressed.pdf
I think that we're selling ourselves short in Scotland by failing to take account of the full value of a forest. I also don't know of any audit of the flora of Galloway Forest Park, even though it is the centre of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere. -
20 Dec, '20
Nick MacIneskarAn interesting report, Fiona, thanks. The driving force behind Forestry and Land Scotland appears to be all about timber extraction and that process means a complete disregard for the environment. I recently found hundreds of metres of so-called forest track covered in oil, diesel and other unknown pollutants - the mess was incredible. The track itself was literally gouged out, leaving holes filled with a mixture of these chemicals plus rainwater, and all of it likely to leach out into nearby watercourses. There is little regard for forests in Scotland other than as a money-making enterprise. I really hope The Ferret can report on this issue.