Fears BrewDog's Lost Forest could be lost cause amid late replanting

Replanting is still taking place at the former sporting estate of Kinrara, near Aviemore, which was bought by BrewDog for £8.8 million in 2020.

The brewing company promised to create “the biggest-ever” woodland in the Highlands to help the regeneration of Scotland’s ancient forest after acquiring the land.

However, criticism began when tree planting did not begin until 2022 after a funding grant from Scottish Forestry. The total grant for the Lost Forest’s phase one is £1.2m. To date, £690,000 has been paid as part of the Forestry Grant Scheme contract.

BrewDog had boasted that 500,000 trees had been planted but the Sunday National revealed in February that more than half of the newly planted Scots pine were dead – with the smaller mixed native broadleaf area suffering a “very high mortality” of 95%, The figures were given after a September site inspection by Scottish Forestry. It omitted to count the survival rate among birch which were almost half the trees planted.

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In February, BrewDog told the Sunday National that the dead trees would be replaced but replanting is still going on.

Campaigner Nick Kempe of Parkswatch Scotland said this might not give the new trees time to become established before the summer.

“With shallow roots all it will take is a two or three week drought and they will just go,” he said. “Unless they deal with some of the issues, like the deer eating them, it is quite likely that the whole lot of these new trees will fail too.”

He questioned why the planting had not been carried out as soon as it became clear so many saplings had perished.

“It appears the replanting is only happening because after all the publicity about the dead trees, BrewDog decided it needed to be seen to be doing something immediately,” said Kempe.

“The problem is this decision came far too late in the spring. Brewdog must have known about the dead trees after the Scottish Forestry visit last September and should have started planning to replace them then – had they done so, they could have started planting much earlier this year while the trees were dormant and conditions were suitable for doing so.

“If there is now a hot, dry period, the likelihood is many of the replacement trees will die.”

While there are no fixed dates for tree planting in Scotland, it is generally considered best from mid-November to early March, according to Forest Research, the UK’s principal organisation for forestry and tree-related research.

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“Planting should be carried out when the tree is dormant,” Forest Research said.

“Most native broadleaf species are entirely dormant after they have shed their leaves until spring, while conifer species are usually dormant if the average day temperature is lower than about five degrees.”

Last week, BrewDog CEO and cofounder James Watt announced he was stepping down to spend more time travelling and with his family. He still owns 21% of the business and will now hold the newly created title of captain and co-founder.

Asked if this would have any effect on the Lost Forest, a spokesperson said: “They are currently re-planting all those saplings that sadly didn’t make it through the very hot and dry summer. So that process goes on.”

The spokesperson pointed to a blog post written by Watt just over a fortnight ago in which he stated about a third of the dead saplings had been replanted, with the aim of completing the project by the end of spring.

“That is the current update but I am sure there will be other updates in due course,” said the spokesperson.

The practice of handing out grants to plant trees in order to sell carbon credits is blamed by protesters for driving up the price of land, making it even more out of reach for community buyouts.

Furthermore, planting on peat means it takes years before the trees that do survive begin to replace the carbon released in the planting process.

Kempe said: “The forestry grant system has not been fit for purpose for years.

“The problem is that government ministers have seen tree planting as imperative so what they have done is give lots of money to plant trees and trees are being planted without any regard to the consequences.

“They are still planting on peat less than 50cms deep so they have been funding all these schemes on peat that are putting more carbon into the atmosphere, not less.”

Instead, Kempe argued, deer numbers should be cut in order for the landscape to regenerate naturally with minimal disturbance to soil.

Scottish Forestry said: “As part of the Forestry Grant Scheme conditions, the owner is required to replant the failed sections at their own expense. If this replanting doesn’t take place then we can reclaim any grant monies given.”