Forestry Commission Scotland

Abstract Emerging infectious diseases are a substantial threat to native populations. The spread of disease through naive native populations will depend on both demographic and disease parameters, as well as on habitat suitability and connectivity. Using the potential spread of squirrelpox virus (SQPV) on the Isle of Arran as a case study, we develop mathematical models to examine the impact of an emerging disease on a population in a complex landscape of different habitat types. Furthermore, by considering a range of disease parameters, we infer more generally how complex landscapes interact with disease characteristics to determine the spread and persistence of disease. Specific findings indicate that a SQPV outbreak on Arran is likely to be short lived and localized to the point of introduction allowing recovery of red squirrels to pre‐infection densities; this has important consequences for the conservation of red squirrels. More generally, we find that the extent of disease spread is dependent on the rare passage of infection through poor quality corridors connecting good quality habitats. Acute, highly transmissible infectious diseases are predicted to spread rapidly causing high mortality. Nonetheless, the disease typically fades out following local epidemics and is not supported in the long term. A chronic infectious disease is predicted to spread more slowly but can remain endemic in the population. This allows the disease to spread more extensively in the long term as it increases the chance of spread between poorly connected populations. Our results highlight how a detailed understanding of landscape connectivity is crucial when considering conservation strategies to protect native species from disease threats.

Native woodlands form a significant and characteristic element of Scottish landscapes, supporting key elements of our biodiversity and providing a context for outdoor recreation and tourism activity.They also have potential to mitigate climate change by acting as a store of carbon, and to furnish valuable woodfuel and carpentry timber.As such they command our attention.However, the longer-term historical development of native woodlands, over several millennia, has seen a steady decline in their extent and condition, through a combination of climate and soil deterioration and adverse human impacts -clearance for agriculture and development and exploitation for wood products at various times.Their extent has been reduced by around 90% since their post-glacial maximum, with only half of the surviving area believed to be in favourable ecological condition.The Forestry Commission, from its establishment in 1919, has had an important role to play in conservation and management of native woodlands in Scotland.Earlier attention focused on the Caledonian pinewoods, with Forestry Commission reserve and research areas established at

Landscape planning and design occupies a major role in forest policy in the UK. Since the 1980s, UK forests have been managed increasingly for multi-purpose objectives, a policy which has been underpinned by international agreements on sustainable forestry. Within this context, there is a need to understand public preferences for forest landscapes in designing policies that meet the needs of multi-purpose forestry. This paper is based on a study to investigate public willingness to pay (WTP) for regular visual and recreational access to a wide variety of generic forest landscapes. A total of thirty-three forest landscapes were investigated, each of which was defined as a combination of the configuration of the planting and the landscape factors. Computergenerated images of each of these landscapes were used to underpin a series of choice experiments conducted as part of a questionnaire survey of over 400 households across Great Britain. The results confirm the importance of landscape in contributing to the social and environmental benefits provided by forests, and suggests that current policies of woodland expansion may generate additional benefits, especially if more woodland is located close to urban populations. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these results for forest policy across the UK.

DRUMMOND HILL Get access JOHN M. MURRAY JOHN M. MURRAY Assistant Commissioner Forestry CommissionScotland Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research, Volume 9, Issue 1, 1935, Pages 17–23, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.forestry.a063406 Published: 01 April 1935