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Over the last one hundred years or so, the woodland cover in Scotland has increased more than four-fold, from a low of 4 % in the early 1900’s to around 17 % by the year 2000. Figure 1 (Smith and Gilbert 2001) illustrates how much of this increase occurred during the 1970’s and 1980’s, when there were large planting programmes in both the public and private sectors. Figure 1. Scotland: change in woodland area through time (1870 – 2000) This helps explain why there is not a strong history or culture of forest management, and hence forest planning, in the Private Sector. There are a few exceptions in some larger private estates that have been in the same ownership over long periods, but even here the interest in forestry was often a more minor factor than, for example, the sporting interests.