Forestry and Land Scotland’s (FLS) ongoing work to restore and protect globally important habitats is being celebrated as part of World Wetlands Day(Sunday, 2nd February) .

Through a combination of best practice and its own innovative techniques, FLS is balancing commercial forestry with protecting and enhancing wetland habitat including landscape-scale peatland restoration, valuable river restoration and the creation of new ponds in suitable parts of its estate.

In the past year, FLS hit the milestone of setting 10,000 hectares of peatland on the road to recovery through ‘re-wetting’ sites across Scotland. This included playing a key role in the restoration work in The Flow Country, which recently became the world’s first peatland World Heritage Site.

Colin Edwards, Head of Environment with FLS said:

“World Wetlands Day is a great way to help maintain everyone’s focus on the importance of restoring these habitats.

“Every wetland site we restore, protect and manage is an integral part of Scotland’s contribution to tackling the global climate and biodiversity emergencies. It is also sustainably adding to the scale of the contribution we make to our environment, water quality, to our future, and to the people of Scotland.

“Our staff are rising to the challenges that come from looking after and enhancing wetland habitats in combination with sustainable commercial forestry – often in highly designated and sensitive landscapes.”

FLS harvesting, civil engineering and peatland teams work in tandem to ensure that sites identified for harvesting are left in the best possible condition for successful restoration to a natural bog state. An example being the use of brash and lower density material to construct most of the extraction routes.

The restoration process itself is benefiting from new techniques pioneered by FLS. These include ‘stump flipping and ground smoothing’, which being less invasive and offering better protection to existing peatland vegetation, leads to faster recovery. The technique has delivered impressive results at landscape scale in Scotland and has been adopted in Ireland.

During land management planning, FLS now also identifies all the watercourses that need conservation action. Across its regions, FLS will be restoring these by establishing permanent buffers of native woodland and scrub to give every watercourse the breathing space it needs.

Colin added:

“FLS looks after 9 per cent of Scotland's national forests and land. Wetlands, in a wide variety of forms and size ranging from hectares of bog to small ponds, make up a very important part of the habitat we manage.

“Sustainable management and restoration of these ecosystems is essential to delivering positive action for both the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis.”

The restoration of FLS wetland habitat also plays a part in our work to support the Scottish Government's strategy for the wider reintroduction of beavers and helps to save vulnerable species such as water voles. Recently, an additional two adult beavers and three kits were released at Loch Ard after FLS staff created a network of ponds and planted new native woodland along riverbanks and streams. Other wetland areas in good condition are being naturally colonised by these water engineers as the population across Scotland grows.

Ponds created on land managed by the organisation support a wide range of aquatic species, such as water beetles and pond skater and are protecting and boosting the numbers of some of the rarest dragonflies in the British Isles.