January 21, 2020
Environment, Scotland

More than 13.9 million trees felled in Scotland for wind development, 2000–2019

Scottish Forestry

[A Scottish citizen made a freedom-of-information request, to which Scottish Forestry replied as follows.]

Thank you for your request dated 26 November and received on the 5 December and the clarification dated 19 December 2019 under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs).

You asked for:

a) the number of trees felled for all onshore wind farm development in Scotland to date.

b) the area of felled trees, in hectares, for all onshore wind farm development in Scotland to date.

I enclose some of the information you requested.

Specifically data covering renewable developments on Scotland’s national forests and lands, which is managed on behalf of Scottish Ministers by Forestry and Land Scotland. The area of felled trees in hectares, from 2000 (the date when the first scheme was developed, is 6,994 hectares [70 km², 17,283 acres]. Based on the average number of trees per hectare, of 2000, this gives an estimated total of 13.9M.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Namely data on renewable developments on privately owned woodlands.

Download original document: “Scottish Forestry information request 19-02646 [1]


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/more-than-13-9-million-trees-felled-in-scotland-for-wind-development-2000-2019/


URLs in this post:

[1] Scottish Forestry information request 19-02646: https://docs.wind-watch.org/Scottish-Forestry-FoI-19-02646.pdf