All available scientific evidence would suggest that the Earth has already overshot the amount of native forests and other natural terrestrial ecosystems that can be lost while reliably and adequately maintaining ecological processes such as water retention, wildlife habitat, soil formation, atmospheric cycles, etc. The type of large scale restoration of Scottish native woodlands discussed in the following article will have to occur globally as a matter of some urgency. It is the dawning of the age of ecological restoration.

Return of the native woodland on giant scale

A HUGE tree-planting project aimed at creating an area of native woodland on a scale unseen in Scotland since the Middle Ages will be launched today. The afforestation of an 8500-hectare area, twice the size of Dundee, will begin taking shape across the heart of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park over the next 20 years.