Scottish Forestry

forestry Savills has brought a rare opportunity to purchase a small woodland plantation close to Glasgow to the market

Skiff wood, Howwood, Johnstone, Renfrewshire, PA9 1AE : Offers over £655,000

Savills forestry investment team has launched an attractive small woodland plantation to market. · Skiff Wood in Renfrewshire represents an opportunity to buy a highly accessible plantation which includes an attractive mix of woodland, close to Glasgow. The property extends to an area of about 43 hectares in total, with the primary timber species being Sitka spruce.

While parts of the wood date back to the 1920s and 1950s, the majority of the commercial timber at Skiff Wood was planted in 2000, with areas of replanting carried out in 2012 and most recently in 2020. The wood has great character that can be enjoyed from a circular track, with scope to clear and improve a number of viewpoints. · James Adamson of Savills said: “With far reaching views over the Renfrewshire Hills and towards distant Ben Lomond, Skiff Wood provides a buyer with the opportunity to get back to nature and enjoy an area of woodland they can call their own, but also beneft from a commercial timber investment over time. The timber on the property mostly at mid-rotation stage, so probably 15 years away from harvesting.

“Given the current price forecasts for forestry and the race to purchase outdoor rural space of all kinds, it is no surprise that Skiff Wood is attracting a great deal of interest from both commercial investors and lifestyle buyers.”

Growing trees and your farming business

By Virginia Harden-Scott, Scottish Forestry

Planting trees to boost a farm business can offer can offer considerable benefits and there’s a wealth of support out there too to make it happen.

Smaller woodland owners, farmers and crofters accounted for almost 200 of the 320 woodland-creation schemes approved under the Forestry Grants Scheme (FGS in 2021.

In Central Scotland, where I work to promote woodland creation, the average size of a new woodland was around 20 hectares, so we are not talking large scale forestry at all.

Scottish Forestry is working closely with farming communities to help them weigh up the benefits of adding trees into their existing businesses.

The main mechanism for financial support is through the Forestry Grant Scheme, which is run by Scottish Forestry.

Farmers can receive grants of up to £6,210 per hectare towards the costs of new woodland planting, with monies for fencing and tree protection available too.

Landowners located within the Central Scotland Green Network area may also be eligible for a special contribution of up to £2,500 per hectare.

The FGS is a competitive scheme and open to applications all year round, which means that farmers are able to complete applications in less busy periods. Under current rules, land planted under the FGS remains eligible for the Basic Payment Scheme.

In my patch, the Central belt, around £60 million worth of grants, covering 10,299 hectares of woodland creation, have been approved over the past few years.

A relatively new initiative that we have launched is the Small Woodland Loan Scheme. It provides a loan to allow landowners to carry out the work required, before receiving the Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) claim.

I have also been running free Farm Woodland Assessments in the central belt. These assessments help farmers identify the opportunities for integrating trees into existing farm businesses – detailing grant options, exploring predicted expenditure and cash flow through the Forestry Grants Scheme until the woodland is established.