Chamber and committees

Petitioner submission of 4 February 2022

PE1812/W - Protect Scotland's remaining ancient, native and semi-native woodlands and woodland floors

I implore you to read this New Zealand Government brief about how 'wilding' conifers are out of control in their country and spreading at a rate of 90,000 hectares each year.  This is despite all their efforts thus far to control them.   They state wilding conifers are a major threat to their country's ecosystems, land and farms and the conifer seeds can be blown many kilometres by the wind.  This year they are spending an additional $36 million (over the $100 million they allocated for a 4 year programme) to increase control work.  The conifer species they are fighting are mainly lodgepole pine (which I believe is now illegal to propagate in New Zealand) and scots pine.  These are species the Scottish forestry industry has favoured for decades, along with the extremely high risk sitka spruce.  The tragic consequences of escaped conifers has been acknowledged in countries all around the world, why is Scotland ignoring it?

Every day we do nothing to tackle this devastating problem in Scotland, the invasion spreads.  We must learn from the New Zealand Government and take immediate action to stop this from destroying more of our precious land.  PLEASE invite a representative from the New Zealand Government to join the meeting by video link.

We thank you for the invitation and are willing to attend the meeting.  We most sincerely hope it will be constructive, action focussed and without crossfire.  We are volunteers, not politicians, forestry workers or civil servants.  I am struggling to juggle work commitments, life commitments, lack of sleep, campaigning panic and being contacted by other desperate people appealing to us for help to save their own threatened ancient and native woods.

I note that in addition to the Cabinet Secretary, a representative from Scottish Forestry will be asked to attend.  Scottish Forestry's statement to SKY News on this issue on 28 December was 'There is no evidence to suggest that ancient woodlands are being lost to non-native tree regeneration in the way described. The current, principal threat to our ancient woodlands is from selective browsing by deer, which tend to prefer broadleaves.'

CONFOR Chief Executive Stuart Goodall essentially contradicted this in the same news item by saying: 'The important thing for ancient woodland is that they are managed. If there are trees which are being blown in, by actively managing them we take them out and we would absolutely support that, we want to see our ancient woodland protected.'

The SKY News pieces are here: 

https://news.sky.com/video/forests-face-biodiversity-crisis-12505022

https://news.sky.com/story/scotlands-ancient-forests-facing-a-biodiversity-crisis-from-non-native-tree-planting-12502002