Just under 16 million trees have been cut down on publicly owned Scottish land to make way for wind farms. Conservation campaigners warn that planning regulations for new turbines on wild land are so relaxed they are difficult not to meet.
Mairi Gougeon, the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) Rural Affairs Secretary, last month estimated that 15.7 million trees had been felled since 2000 on land managed by the Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) agency. That equates to more than 1,700 a day.
Mrs. Gougeon, quoted in The Daily Telegraph, said wind farm developers were expected to make up for the losses with “compensatory planting elsewhere.” The SNP’s official website also insists the party recognises “that Scotland’s rich and diverse natural environment is a national asset which contributes hugely to our economy and to our wider sense of wellbeing.” It extraordinarily claims approximately 16 million trees are planted under the watch of the SNP every year—almost 45,000 every single day.
Critics have branded the felling of trees for the advancement of wind power as “hypocrisy.” Scottish Tory politician Liam Kerr said voters would be “astonished” by the figures, adding that concerns have been raised to him “by communities all over the country.” Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage added: “The hypocrisy and damage done by the green agenda is plain to see.”
The story has also picked up attention across Europe, which is hardly surprising given Brussels’ pushing of the Green Deal. Les Patriotes President Florian Philippot said that such actions must “stop,” not least because wind turbines are “useless.” In Belgium, Antwerp City Council group leader Sam van Rooy agreed that “big business under the guise of ‘saving the climate’ destroys nature.”
There are fears that the threshold of regulations developers are required to meet to build wind farms on wild land is so weak that, as the Telegraph reports, “it appears impossible for them not to meet it.”
Responding to press criticism, FLS said it had planted more than 500 million trees since 2000, adding: “Renewable energy generated from wind farms is a key element in Scotland’s response to the climate emergency and the shift towards net zero and the infrastructure on land that we manage generates enough power for 600,000 homes.”
