Forestry in Scotland: New administrative arrangements

This is the text of a note circulated to Confor members by Jamie Farquhar (Confor - National Manager for Scotland). He has kindly agreed that I may repeat the text in this Blog to provide a pointer to the important changes that are being introduced.

On 5 February 2018, the Scottish Government issued a statement setting out how the Scottish Government will manage and administer its forestry responsibilities when the devolution of forestry in Scotland is completed.

The Government has responded to Confor’s requests for clarity on how it will protect and promote forestry expertise in future arrangements, while enabling forestry to be at the heart of future policy making across important areas like rural policy and climate change.

Confor had proposed that the division regulating forestry within the Scottish Government be given the title ‘Scottish Forestry Service’ or similar and that the post of Chief Forester, which we successfully championed, be the head of the division with a clear role to promote professionalism and continuing professional development. We also asked for clarity and confirmation, again, that staff in the division, and the land management agency, would be encouraged to spend time working in the other body, and in the private sector.

The Scottish Government’s statement addresses all these points.  The full statement, including a diagram of the old and new structures, can be read here.

Another important aspect of the arrangements is that Forestry and Land Scotland, which will manage the National Forest Estate, will remain a public corporation just as Forest Enterprise Scotland is at present. This is essential to ensure the financial flexibility to manage its forests professionally and commercially.

Grouse Moor Management Group - Report from the first meeting

Professor Alan Werritty has provided this report from the first meeting of this Group.

Photo: Adam Smith

The Grouse Moor Management Group held its first meeting on 16th January at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. At that meeting, the Chair (Alan Werritty) outlined the background and context for the Group noting the Cabinet Secretary’s statement on 31 May 2017, following the publication of the 2017 SNH Commissioned Report: Analyses of the fates of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland.   

Terms of Reference

The following Terms of Reference for the Group were agreed:

• The Group will examine how to ensure that grouse moor management continues to contribute to the rural economy while being environmentally sustainable and compliant with the law. 
• The Group will recommend options for regulation including licensing and other measures, which could be put in place without new primary legislation.

It was noted that the Cabinet Secretary has also commissioned a socio-economic study to be undertaken in parallel with the work of the Group, with interim findings made available later in the year.

Framework

In addition to identifying a schedule for meetings, the Group agreed the following framework:

January to July 2018: gathering evidence and identifying key issues

Meeting 2. Evidence 1 (Environmental law relevant to grouse moors, current licensing systems and Codes of Practice, wildlife crime) 

Meeting 3. Evidence 2 (Predation/raptors and mountain hares) 

Meeting 4. Evidence 3 (Muirburn and medicated grit, call for written evidence) 

September to December: written and oral evidence, visit to estate(s), socio-economics

Meeting 5. Written evidence reviewed and oral evidence from key stakeholders 

Meeting 6. Visit to grouse shooting estate(s) 

Meeting 7. Review input from socio-economic study 

January to March 2019: drafting report and recommendations

Meeting 8. Review evidence and initial drafting of report and recommendations

Meeting 9. Finalise report and recommendations.

Presentations were given by Specialist Advisers to the Group:

• Adam Smith (GWCT): Grouse moors and their management: an introduction, 
• Ben Ross (SNH) Current regulatory system governing grouse moor management, and 
• Des Thompson (SNH) Raptor persecution and driven grouse moors.

Mountain Hare Survey returns after 10-year absence

Photo: GWCT

After a ten-year absence, the Game and & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has announced that their Scottish Mountain Hare Survey is making a return.  This follows the recent announcement about the agreed counting methodology.

Scottish Gamekeepers Association and Scottish Land & Estates will be asking their Scottish members to take part in a questionnaire-based survey.

See the full article.

Sustainability of Driven Grouse Moors

This is the announcement that was published by the Scottish Government on 24 November 2017. I have edited this slightly to highlight the key sections.  The membership of the Group may be of particular interest to Forum members.  Adam Smith has input to the Group as one of the specialist advisers. 

Membership of an independent group to ensure grouse moor management practices are sustainable and legally compliant has been confirmed.

The new group will be led by Professor Alan Werrity, who previously chaired a Scottish Natural Heritage review into sustainable moorland management. It includes scientists, moorland managers, regulatory experts and advisers from SNH, Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.

The group has been set up in response to SNH research that found almost a third of golden eagles being tracked by satellite died in suspicious circumstances and that the majority of cases were where land is intensively managed for driven grouse shooting.

The group will look at the environmental impact of grouse moor management practices such as muirburn, the use of medicated grit and mountain hare culls and advise on the option of licensing grouse shooting businesses.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said:

“We have been clear that the continued killing of protected species of birds of prey damages the reputation of law-abiding gamekeepers, landowners and the country as a whole.

“This new group will look at what we can do to balance our commitment to tackling wildlife crime with grouse moor management practices, so it continues to contribute to our rural economy, while being sustainable and compliant with the law.

“The group membership reflects the complex nature and wide range of issues that need to be considered and I look forward to hearing their advice in due course.”

Professor Werrity said:

“This is truly challenging work given the traditions underlying moorland management and the concerns coming to light over some mal-practices. 

“My earlier work chairing the SNH Moorland review also sought to reconcile nature conservation interests with promoting the rural economy. I will be taking an evidence-based approach, and for this we have the right mixture of experience, expertise and knowledge on the group to get to grips with the subject. I look forward to getting started on this review. ”

Background

Read in the birds of prey report.

Group Membership

The confirmed membership of the group includes:

Scientists

Professor Ian Newton, Professor Alison Hester, and Professor Colin Reid 

Moorland Managers 

Alexander Jameson BLE MRICS FAAV and Mark Oddy MRICS CEnV MIAagrM. 

Specialist advisers to the group

Dr Calum Macdonald, SEPA; Professor Des Thompson, SNH; Dr Adam Smith, Director Scotland GWCT; and Susan Davies, SWT.

Soil Association Events - 26 July & 7 August

The Soil Association Scotland is hosting a range of events for farmers, growers and crofters across Scotland.

Buzzing About Grassland (Caithness, 26th July) will look at how we can better utilise species rich grassland meadows and what revenue is available for managing them. 

For Peat’s Sake (West Linton, 7th August) will look at the opportunities peatland restoration may offer to farmers and how that impacts farming and upland grazing. 

These events are free to farmers, foresters and land managers. Book online, or call Jane on 0131 666 2474.

Keeping up-to-date with snaring

Reprinted from the GWCT members' magazine 'Gamewise' by kind permission of GWCT.  www.gwct.org.uk/scotland

I would welcome contributions to this blog covering topics that will be of general interest to a range of Forum members.

The report to Scottish Government by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) on the use of snares in Scotland was published in March. This meets the requirement for the regulation of snaring to be reviewed every five years.

The main thrust of the report is that current legislation is working and that no fundamental changes are needed. However, SNH does recommend some changes with regard to fox snares and to the Code of Practice. These proposals are as follows:

Hardware

• Require each snare to have at least two swivels — this follows the findings of research by Defra and the GWCT to further minimise risk of a snare breaking should a single swivel become clogged with vegetation with resulting welfare issues.
• Require the stop position, which determines the minimum noose size, to be 26 cm from the running eye — this follows research by the GWCT to identify the optimal stop distance whereby hares are more likely to escape while not affecting the retention of foxes.
•  These hardware changes would bring Scottish snaring practice in line with the recently published Codes of Practice in England and Wales (2016). 

Other proposals in the report include:

Training

• Standardising attendance methods and 'pass' criteria.

Code of Practice

• Clarifying authority and responsibility where another person is required to provide 'sick cover' for the original operator.

Record-keeping 

• Implementing a maximum period for updating snare records — SNH is proposing within 48 hours.
• Reducing the time allowed to produce snare records for inspection. This currently allows 21 days, but the proposal is to reduce this to 'immediately' when requested by police on location, or otherwise to be produced at a police station within seven days.

Penalties on conviction of an offence 

• Introduction of the power of disqualification for a snaring offence, although it is not clear how this would operate, how long disqualification would last, or whether there would be a system of appeal.

Overall, the report found that snaring related incidents had reduced and therefore further changes were not required. Any changes to come from the review will be delivered through the Snaring Code of Practice.

Next steps are likely to include consultation with the Snaring Technical Assessment Group (TAG) and possibly wider public consultation.

Changes to fox snares, such as the introduction of a double swivel and change to stop position, will require amendments to the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which could take time.

We do have concerns over the sanctions being proposed and these will need careful discussion and consultation. It would certainly be wrong if very minor mistakes, as opposed to blatant abuses of the Code, could result in disqualification. We will need to wait and see the detail.

Working for Waders

This is a working title for an initiative that is developing to follow the Understanding Predation project.  To help develop the concept, one or more workshops are being proposed in early May to gather views from as many people as possible about the sort of initiative that would match the range of different aspirations amongst stakeholders.

A save-the-date notification has been placed on the Moorland Forum website and anyone with an interest in the potential of this work is invited to indicate which of the three workshops they would like to attend.  A decision about which workshop to run will be made in response to demand - please complete all the workshops you will be able to attend.