Woods In and Around Towns: Forestry Commission Scotland
www.forestry.gov.uk
Woods in towns provide more benefits than you might think. They can be a place to retreat from the hustle and bustle of urban life and to get active - contributing to our health and well-being. Woodland is a cost-effective way of transforming derelict and post-industrial land and is a natural tool to help encourage urban regeneration.
Woods have a unique ability to improve the quality and setting of urban spaces and help make towns more attractive places to live and work. Better quality places attract economic activity and investment - they are also places that allow wildlife to thrive, increase Scotland's biodiversity and make wildlife more accessible for enjoyment and learning.
Urban woods also improve the quality of our environment. Trees aid the dispersal of particulate pollution, retain atmospheric carbon as they mature and also help to improve peak drainage flows in flood-plains.
There is a growing awareness that woods in highly populated areas provide much more than just recreation opportunities - they contribute to people's well-being, stimulate new economic activity and investment and benefit the environment. Forestry Commision Scotland's Woods In and Around Towns initiative (WIAT) aims to increase the contribution of woodland to the quality of life in Scotland's urban and post-industrial areas.
FC Scotland works closely with the Central Scotland Forest Trust to deliver the benefits of woodlands to areas in the central belt and provide a special Locational Premium for woodland creation in the central Scotland forest area. Stewardship grants for developing community involvement and woodland recreation are also available.
As well as managing Scotland's national forests, including those woodlands that lie in and around towns, the Forestry Commission is experienced in restoring mineral and derelict sites to woodland as well as developing community woodlands with local people - and have recently appointed a ranger to focus on derelict land in central Scotland
A £190K partnership project with Glasgow City Council to manage 100ha of urban woodland for the 40,000 people on the Bishops and Easterhouse estates in East Glasgow.
The Easterhouse partnership project will involve:
- recruitment of a full-time community ranger to involve local people in managing and using the woods;
- provision of training for long-term unemployed;
- constructing 2200 m of new footpaths;
- upgrading 1500 m of existing paths;
- removing 100 t of fly-tipped rubbish and litter;
- thinning 14 ha of woodland to let in more light and create space