Draft Woodland Creation Proposal
About North Logiealmond
The land holding at North Logiealmond extends to approximately 2,185 ha and is operated as a mixed land-use estate, with arable and pastoral agricultural production, sporting use, and a small-scale forestry element.
The principle landuse is sheep farming and the farming enterprise is managed by 1 full time farming family under a contract farming agreement, encompassing an area of 2,170 ha supporting 1,500 breeding ewes.
Potential landuse change:
The identification of woodland creation as an alternative land use to agriculture, and the areas identified for it, arose following a strategic review of the estate’s land management enterprises in 2017. Initially the majority of the contract farming area was assessed for woodland creation potential, but following early consultation with the farmer, the east end of the property was deemed the preferred area, with farming operations continuing over the majority of the remaining landholding.
In 2020, an initial consultation was undertaken on a proposal to convert ~480 ha of the landholding to mixed commercial and native woodland. The consultation resulted in a lot of useful feedback and information, and during the intervening 2.5 years, we have been working closely with Scottish Forestry, Nature Scotland and the RSPB among others, to design a woodland scheme that took account of the concerns raised in 2020, most notable the importance of parts of the proposed site for wader species and other ground nesting birds.
Scone Estates will now retain a larger area in agriculture than previously proposed and following discussion with our contract farmer, we do not anticipate significant reduction in Flock size arising from the revised proposals. The estates will invest in improvements across the remaining farm, so that farming can remain the dominant land use and economic activity in the local area.
A detailed Agricultural Impact Assessment has been undertaken and forms part of our Forestry Grant Scheme application.