This piece is an extract from our A View from the Forest (previously Forestry Features) newsletter, which is emailed out at 4PM every Wednesday with a round-up of the week's top stories. 

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WHEN the UK's woodland-creation rates reached a modern-day high of 21,000 hectares last year, much of this was down to Scotland and its 15,000 ha contribution, an impressive achievement that was worthy of the praise that came its way.

However, it appears the white flag has already been raised on getting anywhere close to a repeat this planting season. That's at least if we take the John Swinney at his word.

In his Programme for Government (essentially the King's Speech for the Scottish Government), the first minister rightly pointed towards the significant effort that is exerted north of the border in leading the way as far as woodland creation is concerned, with that 15,000 ha more than three times the total recorded in England.

Then Mr Swinney came to the actual headline. "We will ... create at least 10,000 hectares of woodlands." While the "at least" caveat may well bail the Scottish Government out, you won't have failed to notice this is a third down on the tally achieved in the 12 months prior to the end of March 2024.

It's also significantly lower than the 18,000 ha target that was once touted by ministers but seems to have been quietly tossed to one side.

No wonder industry figures are angry.

Within the last 12 months, forestry has seen its budget slashed (a bad thing), funding ringfenced for nature-based projects siphoned off to settle pay deals (a bad thing), and now this (also a bad thing).

"This Programme for Government statement was a chance to recommit to addressing the twin climate and nature crises," said the Woodland Trust Scotland's Simon Ritchie. "[But] the vision for the coming year is threadbare.

"When the First Minister announced that the Scottish Government would create 10,000 ha of new woodland, what he didn't mention was that the current target is 18,000 ha.

"On top of that, there was no mention at all of a National Register of Ancient Woodland - something his government reaffirmed their commitment to delivering earlier this very summer. And there was very little on the future of our farm payments system.

"In the last few days, we've twice seen the government removing funding that's been earmarked for nature and climate action. And only nine months ago, the Forestry Grant Scheme – the main fund enabling woodland creation – was slashed by 41 per cent or £32 million.

"The public finances are extremely stretched. We need to find a way to leverage in more private finance to invest ethically in nature restoration. But then government seems to have stalled on that journey.

"Nature in Scotland is struggling. It needs the Scottish Government to invest far more than warm words."