The council’s Forestry and Woodland Strategy was approved by the Communities Committee on 11 June 2024.
The Angus Forestry and Woodland Strategy contains Angus Council’s policies in relation to forestry and woodland. Section A159 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) introduces a requirement for Local Authorities to prepare a Forestry & Woodland Strategy and indicates the scope of the strategy. It is a requirement that the strategy identifies Woodland of High Nature Conservation Value.
With the twin climate and biodiversity crises, it is more important than ever that our landscapes change significantly to address the challenges. There is an urgent need for significant land use change across Angus with a substantial increase in forestry and woodland. With increased likelihood of flood events due to climate change, forestry and woodland can contribute to natural flood management by slowing the flow of water through river catchments and providing resilient landscapes which can absorb flood water on flood plains. Forestry and woodland can be part of the solution to protect our settlements from flooding. In Angus, forest and woodland cover is currently around 10.7%. Native woodland covers only 2.3% of the area of Angus. According to the Native Woodland Survey of Scotland around half of this is in poor condition and importantly it is often severely fragmented. The Strategy includes policies to protect woodland of high nature conservation value and encourage their management and expansion.
There is substantial scope to increase productive forestry within Angus to help contribute towards the ambitious Scottish Government target of 18,000ha per year by 2024/2025. The Strategy supports new forestry where it complies with the guidance contained within the UK Forestry Standard and within Scotland’s Forestry Strategy 2019-2029.
There is substantial scope for increasing forest and woodland cover in Angus, contributing towards Scottish Government targets:
- On flood plains or along river corridors to increase biodiversity, enhance woodland habitat networks and the resilience of landscapes to absorb natural flood events.
- On fertile lowland areas to grow quality timber, provide shelter, create landscape structure and reduce wind-blown soil erosion with associated impacts on air quality within our settlements.
- On upland farmland to provide livestock shelter and to diversify farming; produce timber; increase biodiversity and contribute towards natural flood management by slow watering flows through river catchments to reduce downstream flooding.
- On moorlands (excluding peat soils) to create a natural tree line with montane scrub; increase biodiversity; potentially produce timber with native trees; and slow water flows through river catchments to reduce downstream flooding.
- Close to towns and villages to increasing opportunities for woodland recreation, link to urban nature networks, produce quality timber and strengthen the landscape setting of settlements.
- To connect native woodland fragments to create woodland habitat networks and landscape structure within which farming and productive forestry can take place.
A copy of the strategy is linked below, together with the Strategic Environmental Assessment and the Habitat Regulations Appraisal.
The Post Adoption Statement for the Strategic Environmental Assessment will be added early in 2025.