Scottish Lowlands Forest District Strategic Plan 2009-2013
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Strategic Scottish Lowlands Forest District Strategic Plan 2009-2013 Click here to begin Strategic plan 2009-2013 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3 About Scottish Lowlands Forest District ................................................................................................6 Section one: strategic context .....................................................................................................13 Context ............................................................................................................................................................14 Strategic priorities for Scottish Lowlands Forest District ................................................................18 Forest policy context...................................................................................................................................19 Section two: how Scottish Lowlands Forest District contributes to the delivery of the Scottish Forestry Strategy ..................................................................................20 Key theme one: climate change ..............................................................................................................22 Key theme two: timber ..............................................................................................................................26 Key theme three: business development .............................................................................................31 Key theme four: community development .........................................................................................36 Key theme five: access and health..........................................................................................................44 Key theme six: environmental quality ..................................................................................................50 Key theme seven: biodiversity .................................................................................................................55 Section three: delivery and monitoring.....................................................................................60 Appendices: ................................................................................................................................64 Appendix one: supporting maps ............................................................................................................65 Appendix two: evaluation of achievements (1999-2006) under previous strategic plan ....71 Appendix three: glossary for forest policy context diagram ..........................................................88 Appendix four: local thematic plans, management plans and guidance notes ......................90 Appendix five: portfolio analysis scoring on the national forest estate .....................................94 Using the document This document is principally intended to be read as an online publication and there are several hyperlinks linking readers to the Forestry Commission Scotland website for relevant publications. Please use the Microsoft Word ‘edit: find’ facility to search for specific words. 2 | Strategic plan 2009 - 2013 Strategic plan 2009-2013 - Introduction Introduction Woodlands can improve healthier lifestyles and bring a boost of urban development across Scotland 3 | Strategic plan 2009 - 2013 Introduction Scottish Lowlands Forest District Introduction The Scottish Forestry Strategy was launched in October 2006 as the Scottish Government’s framework for taking forestry forward through the first half of this century and beyond. This strategic plan defines how Forestry Commission Scotland, through its operating arm, Forest Enterprise Scotland, will implement the Scottish Forestry Strategy on that part of the national forest estate in Scottish Lowlands Forest District. This is a five-year plan starting in 2009 and finishing in 2013. This strategic plan will also provide direction for implementing a repositioning policy that will ensure that the nature and distribution of the national forest estate better reflects its role and purpose. This plan has been amended to reflect the feedback from a formal consultation process during 2008. The summarised consultation responses and the Forest Enterprise Scotland response are both available on the Forestry Commission Scotland website. 4 | Strategic plan 2009 - 2013 Introduction The strategic plan is divided into three sections: Section one: strategic context Section three: delivery and monitoring This section explains how this strategic plan This section gives an overview of how Scottish relates to other Forestry Commission Scotland Lowlands Forest District will effectively and policies and strategies, taking a lead from the efficiently deliver the strategic plan. It includes Scottish Forestry Strategy and the strategic plan for sections on: the national forest estate. • the operating principles that underpin all Forest Enterprise Scotland policies, Section two: how Scottish Lowlands • operations and activities Forest District contributes to delivery of • delivery mechanisms, including the Scottish Forestry Strategy repositioning the national forest estate This section describes the context and specific • the monitoring and implementation process actions that will be undertaken on the national forest estate in the district under each of the seven themes of the Scottish Forestry Strategy: Impact on environment and equality The results of environment and equality and • climate change diversity impact assessments of the strategic • business development plan are available of the Forestry Commission • timber Scotland website. • community development • access and health Review • environmental quality A review will take place towards the end of the • biodiversity period of delivery of the plan. If significant changes are made to the Scottish Forestry Strategy we will, if necessary, prepare a new strategic plan. The baseline figures detailed in the monitoring section of the strategic plan for the national forest estate will be updated and reported on annually, with contributions from each forest district. 5 | Strategic plan 2009 - 2013 Introduction About Scottish Lowlands Forest District The district area covers the main conurbations of Water Scotland from the south Fife coast and the Lothians Our smaller forest areas lie in numerous river in the east, through the central belt to Inverclyde catchments, and comprise only a small part of and Ayrshire in the west. The woodlands vary in the land use cover. The larger forests are more scale, form and composition from large productive dominant in the headwaters: Carron Valley covers conifer areas to smaller broadleaf woodland. the upper reaches of the River Carron, Whitelee Many are in more rural locations, but there are an forms the head of the River Irvine and some of the increasing number nearer to communities. It is the Avon and White Cart, which feed into the Clyde. public benefits that these woodlands can bring to people and communities that is the focus of The forests mainly contain only small portions our work. Maps of the district and the forest blocks of rivers and burns. There are lochs immediately are given in Appendix one. adjacent to forests in Auchineden, Crossrigg, Devilla and Blairadam, and Auchentorlie and Limerigg include shoreline and part of a loch. Natural environment Part of Camilty feeds into the Harperrig Reservoir. Carron and Kilmannan reservoirs are almost entirely surrounded by Forestry Commission land Climate and contain the full length of most of the feeder Rainfall ranges from 1700 mm in the west, to 800 streams. mm in the east. All the main forests are exposed to high winds, predominantly from the south-west, with some locally sheltered forests. The frequency of strong winds and gales is higher than in other parts of the United Kingdom. There is generally more cloud cover in the west with an average of over 1,400 hours of sunshine per year, but this varies west to east. Over the district, the mean annual air temperature is 9°C with an average daily maximum temperature at Glasgow in July of 19°C. The climate variation west to east, and local variation, allows for a variety of woodlands and trees types in the district. 6 | Strategic plan 2009 - 2013 Introduction About Scottish Lowlands Forest District Geology and landform Landscape The majority of the forests lie between 200 m Scottish Natural Heritage’s landscape character and 300 m, but range from Devilla (50 – 90 m ) assessments are available for the whole district. to Campsie Glen (up to 500 m). The predominant The descriptions used in the assessments are landform is level or rolling hills. Whitelee is on a mostly upland in nature: foothills, plateaux and gently undulating plateau of basalt and millstone uplands. Callendar, Clackmannanshire and East grit. The Southern Uplands are steeper and have Dunbartonshire (Twechar) are classed as valley more relief, but are generally rounded in shape. fringe / broad-valley lowland. Upland outliers to the north are of volcanic origin Although some of the forests form part of a larger with gentler slopes on the northern flanks and matrix with private forestry, most are surrounded escarpments on the south, formed by ice action in by agricultural grazing land, often linked with other the last glacial period. woodlands via conifer shelterbelts or broadleaf Coal measures underlie