The interaction between forestry activities and landslides is well-established. Forestry activities can have a significant adverse effect upon instability, but equally well-designed planting that fully considers the local context of the site can have a positive effect on instability. The effects of instability are a cost to the Scottish economy as a whole, whether the impacts of events are on farm or forestry land or they adversely affect infrastructure. Better understanding, and positive collaboration, between the professional roads and forestry communities can only assist the process of managing and mitigating such hazards. To this end the first aspect of this work has been undertaken to generate high-level liaison between Forestry Enterprise Scotland (FES) and Transport Scotland to promote strategic cooperation and mutual understanding with respect to policy, planning and operations. The second aspect of this work has been to examine practices, particularly those from Canada and the wider Pacific North-West, in respect of planting, harvesting and construction approaches that could help to reduce landslides hazards consequential to forestry activities. This report briefly outlines the headline benefits from the drive towards more strategic collaboration and sets out some potential areas of improvement to forest practices in Scotland. The latter must, of course, be seen in the broader context that instability is but one factor in determining forest policies and practices. (Author/publisher)
Abstract