Clearing ground

Juat after the First World War only 5% of Scotland was tree covered - a historic low.   The Forestry Commission was established to ensure that such a situation could not occur again, not least because wood  is always a commodity in demand , the lack of which can be economically and socially critical.

Now something approaching 20% is afforested (not always done as sensitively - environmentally or  aesthetically   - as it should have been particularly after the tax breaks made available in the Thatcher years) .  That total is still  lower than many comparable countries but in addition to formal commercial planting the change in patterns of agriculture including the reduction in the number of sheep has led to a great deal of natural regeneration.    

However in  our part of Argyll depredation by deer means that many trees have a hard time in getting going,  but even allowing for that the landscape has changed over the past 50 years and now cutting back is required from time to time , especially where there is a risk of trees falling  from wet bankings and verges.  

Thus today we are having some of our smaller birch trees on the way up to the house cut down, and later in the week some of the growth that has closed in our view of the loch in the last thirty years will also go.   

It also means lots of firewood for the next few years of course .