Supplementary guidance on the Cairngorms National Park Forestry Strategy - July 2025

Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance (2025) to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Forest Strategy 2018

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Pine forest at the Ryvoan Pass Dami­an Shields / VisitScotland

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance (2025) to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Forest Strategy (2018)

Scot­tish Forestry and Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, July 2025

Back­ground

The Forest Strategy (2018) is the key doc­u­ment provid­ing stra­tegic dir­ec­tion on future forest man­age­ment and res­tor­a­tion of wood­lands in the Nation­al Park.

Since the Forest Strategy was pub­lished in 2018, a new Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (2022−27) has been pub­lished, nation­al land use policy has evolved, and some com­mon issues and learn­ing have emerged.

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Forest Strategy is not being updated, but this sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance to the strategy has been pro­duced to update policy guid­ance in light of these changes, and to aid the devel­op­ment and assess­ment of forestry applications.

Where you wish to devi­ate from the pre­ferred approach, as set out in the Forest Strategy or in this sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance, then we expect to dis­cuss the jus­ti­fic­a­tion and evid­ence base with you.

The fol­low­ing sec­tion and para­graph num­bers match those in the Forest Strategy doc­u­ment and allow for dir­ect ref­er­ence to where this sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance fits in.

4.1 Wood­land creation

a) Forest hab­it­at net­works – nat­ur­al regeneration

Whilst recog­nising the need for plant­ing, the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan aims to increase areas of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion. Expan­sion by regen­er­a­tion rather than new plant­ing is the favoured approach with­in 50m of seed sources of nat­ive spe­cies, includ­ing the Cale­do­ni­an pine­wood invent­ory sites.

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Scot­tish Forestry will encour­age more regen­er­a­tion by extend­ing this 50m buf­fer where there are indic­a­tions of likely regen­er­a­tion and will not gen­er­ally approve such areas for plant­ing unless regen­er­a­tion fails to estab­lish fol­low­ing pro­tec­tion and herb­i­vore man­age­ment. How­ever, where seed sources are lim­ited, a mix of plant­ing and regen­er­a­tion will be supported.

c) Integ­ra­tion with agri­cul­tur­al land

In the con­text of assess­ing suit­ab­il­ity of land for tree plant­ing, in-bye agri­cul­tur­al land is defined as any land which is or has been enclosed or delin­eated by fences, dykes, hedges etc (includ­ing appor­tioned land) and which has been used for cul­tiv­a­tion, pro­duc­tion of for­age or closely con­trolled graz­ing by stock.

Also, when design­ing new wood­lands please take account of the his­tor­ic char­ac­ter and cul­tur­al val­ues of the land­scape includ­ing his­tor­ic, or cur­rently dis­used, croft land.

d) Integ­ra­tion with peatlands

Whilst there is no plant­ing on peat >50cm deep, there is also a need for applic­a­tions for plant­ing to avoid com­prom­ising the hydro­logy of adja­cent bog and wet­land hab­it­ats, and to ensure integ­ra­tion of wood­land expan­sion with peat­lands. Spe­cif­ic atten­tion will be paid where deep­er peat (50cm or deep­er) grades through into shal­low­er peat (30 – 50cm deep).

Applic­ants should refer to the search­able ​‘Car­bon and Peat­land 2016’ lay­er on the ​‘Scotland’s Envir­on­ment Web Map’ inter­net page for inform­a­tion on likely pres­ence of peat.

For ground pre­par­a­tion – to min­im­ise soil dis­turb­ance, car­bon loss, visu­al impacts and main­tain access – screef­ing (or where cul­tiv­a­tion is pro­posed inver­ted mound­ing) will be the pre­ferred method.

e) Deer management

Fen­cing is an import­ant tool for wood­land cre­ation; how­ever, fen­cing – includ­ing for restock­ing – is par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive in Strath­spey and Deeside, and the

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan emphas­ises the need for fence removal.

To achieve the dir­ec­tion of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan – min­im­ising the use of deer fen­cing and encour­aging estab­lish­ment through herb­i­vore man­age­ment – applic­ants should pre­pare deer man­age­ment plans when devel­op­ing wood­land cre­ation pro­pos­als. These plans should draw on loc­al know­ledge, con­sider if the pro­pos­al can be achieved without deer fen­cing and set out the pro­tec­tion strategy and justification.

The Park Author­ity will indic­ate areas of the Nation­al Park with low deer dens­it­ies and provide advice on the pre­par­a­tion of deer man­age­ment plans. Scot­tish Forestry will seek deer man­age­ment plans on most applications.

f) Deer fencing

As part of the con­sulta­tion pro­cess, Scot­tish Forestry will seek advice from the Park Author­ity and NatureScot on these deer man­age­ment plans and the neces­sity for any fen­cing. Where deer fen­cing is approved, Scot­tish Forestry will con­di­tion the remov­al of the fence as soon as it has served its pur­pose and the trees are established.

i) Wild­fire

There is an increas­ing risk of wild­fire across the Nation­al Park and to its forests and wood­lands. As part of lar­ger forest plans and wood­land cre­ation applic­a­tions, Scot­tish Forestry will ask applic­ants to dis­cuss and identi­fy meas­ures to counter the risks posed by wild­fires. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan also provides a use­ful ref­er­ence and guid­ance information.

4.3 Rur­al development

b) Pro­duct­ive woodland

For restock­ing, the policy guid­ance encour­ages increas­ing struc­tur­al and spe­cies diversity, and the spe­cial role of Scots pine. On less sens­it­ive sites where non- nat­ive spe­cies are felled, replant­ing with non-nat­ives to pro­duce tim­ber can deliv­er value. This sens­it­iv­ity will be informed by the stra­tegic need for native

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wood­land con­nectiv­ity and nature net­works require­ments with­in the Nation­al Park.

4.4 Forests and people

a) Con­sulta­tion / community

In line with Scot­tish Land Com­mis­sion and Con­for guid­ance, there is a require­ment to engage and con­sult com­munit­ies when pre­par­ing forestry pro­pos­als. At this stage, applic­ants will be encour­aged to act­ively dis­cuss their scheme with loc­al com­munit­ies and, where appro­pri­ate, look to integ­rate any ideas that arise for com­munity bene­fit into their proposals.