Problems of Afforestation in North Scotland

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The forest area of north Scotland has been almost trebled since the end of the second world war, and the planting rate is still accelerating. The British forestry effort is becoming increasingly concentrated in the Scottish Highlands, and rapid afforestation has in places been associated with land-use problems. Most of the land undergoing afforestation is open moorland carrying only light stocks of hill sheep. Gradually forestry is being forced on to poorer quality land as the available area of better quality land diminishes. Poor quality land means that rates of tree growth are slow, and the profitability of the forestry enterprise is doubtful. Also the age-class structure (the proportion of trees of different ages) is highly abnormal, since most of the forests are young, and most of the production is in the form of small roundwood (small logs) rather than sawlogs. Marketing difficulties have arisen over the supplies of small roundwood produced as thinnings, despite the establishment of a pulp and paper mill near Fort William. Although the labour force directly employed in forestry is declining as a result of mechanization, forestry is still a more intensive employer than the land uses with which it competes, and employment provision is an important element in forest policy. SINCE the second world war, large areas have been afforested in north Scotland (defined on Figure i), as in other parts of Upland Britain, and the traditional pattern of land use dominated by sheep farms and deer forests' has been considerably diversified. Afforestation has taken place mainly on an open landscape of extensive rough grazings and moorlands capable of supporting only light sheep stocks. The population density in the moorland areas is extremely low, falling to one person per 25 km2 or more, compared with the Highland (Crofting Counties) average of eight persons per km2. The sparsity of rural population, except in the crofting areas of the north and west seaboards, where in any case forestry potential is extremely low, means that afforestation has had little detrimental effect on rates of depopulation. Most of the land is held in large, privately-owned estates, which may operate both sheep-farm and deer-forest enterprises, and apart from the lowland areas and the crofting fringe there are few family farms. Both state and private enterprise are involved in afforestation schemes through the Forestry Commission and estate owners respectively. At present a third category of woodland owner is beginning to emerge in the form of commercial companies or syndicates, but as yet most of this type of involvement is confined to the better forest land in the south of Scotland. There is at present no well-established tradition of vertical linkages between forestry and the woodusing industry. Equally, there is no tradition of involvement in forestry on the part of the general body of the rural population, so that the seasonal dichotomy of occupation between farm and forest is not part of the Highland scene. THE ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTRY POTENTIAL Although the environment of parts of the Scottish Highlands is well suited to rapid tree