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The sheer scale of Forestry Commission Scotland is astounding. The quango now owns a staggering 1.6 million acres - roughly eight per cent of the nation’s landmass – which makes it by far and away Scotland’s largest single landowner.
The Commission has its roots in the First World War. During the conflict, huge quantities of timber were required to support the trenches and to be used as the pit-props in coal mines. However, after centuries of deforestation, caused by, amongst other factors, agricultural expansion, ship-building and charcoal production, only five per cent of Great Britain was wooded. With a timber crisis imminent, the government was forced to act.
Consequently, politicians realised, to ensure the country didn’t have to rely on wood that had to sneak past lurking German U-boats; it was essential to ensure a steady and sustainable domestic supply. After three years of consultation, by which time The Great War had ended, ‘The Welsh Wizard’, David Lloyd George, passed the Forestry Act. The Forestry Commission, and with it, the start of a programme of planting on a scale almost unprecedented in Europe, was born.
In this month's issue Alan Cochrane writes about new penalties for wildlife crimes. Do you think it would be fair to ban keepers for life for certain wildlife crimes?
