Mairi Gougeon

SCOTLAND — Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon has said “doing nothing is not an option” when it comes to securing the future of Scotland’s forests from the effects of climate change. With recent examples of violent storms, increasing temperatures, droughts, wildfires and more tree pests and diseases, a new ‘routemap’ has been published by Scottish Forestry which will provide the direction needed for building resilient forests. The routemap, the first of its kind in the UK, outlines a number of key actions to help the nation’s woodlands resist, adapt, respond and recover from the various current climate related threats. The resilience actions cover both immediate and long-term priorities over the next 10 years. …Actions in the plan are wide ranging and include using scenario planning, use of new technologies like AI, eDNA and satellite data, more use of ‘smart silviculture’ and better monitoring and surveillance for ecosystems.