Irvine Bay Regeneration Company working in partnership with RSPB Scotland, greenspace scotland and Forestry Commission Scotland commissioned The Paul Hogarth Company to undertake a piece of work to develop the Irvine Bay Green Network.   Funded through the Central Scotland Green Network Development Fund, the project considered a number of sites across the area and identifies opportunities for environmental improvements and enhanced community and visitor access.

A new grant to help prepare productive woodland creation proposals is now available from Forestry Commission Scotland.  The aim of the Planning Grant is to promote productive woodland planting by ensuring that woodland creation proposals are based on good knowledge of the sensitivities and local issues and are well integrated with other land objectives so as to secure multiple benefits.

Finance Secretary John Swinney today met some of the young people benefitting from Forestry Commission employment programmes in Scotland.

Mr Swinney spent the morning with trainees who are gaining employability skills and experience by helping to improve one of Scotland's main cycle routes near Uddingston in South Lanarkshire. Sustrans National Route 75 of the National
Cycle Network path is also part of the Clyde Walkway. The young people are strimming, tree thinning and pruning to help make the access route a more open and attractive place to use.

The papers of the third Woodland Expansion Advisory Group have now been published on the WEAG website.

There are a number of interesting items (covering topics as varied as vacant and derelict land and ecosystem services) including a report by Bob Stubbs which examines the different barriers faced by landowners and forestry investors, and an investigation by Scott McG Wilson into different models of forestry that could help integrate trees with farming and sporting interests.