Woodlands in Scotland : Where have all the flowers gone?

Photo: Kate Holl

Is the grazing balance in Scottish woodlands correct?  Kate Holl, the SNH woodland advisor, provides a view following her Churchill Fellowship exploring woodland in other countries.

Grazing can be excluded from some woodland, but we must not ignore the practicalities of life.  We need woodlands to provide timber and deer and sheep to provide management input and the income to pay for other forms of management.  A completely hands off approach for all woodlands, as proposed by some members of the re-wilding lobby, is too extreme.  Perhaps the answer is a mix and match approach - some unmanaged woodland alongside woodland used for other purposes.