Stobo Residents Action Group Ltd
8th October 2025Stobo Hope: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report being awaited
Stobo Hope, with Penvalla to the right (Simon Butterworth Photography).
Scottish Forestry currently awaiting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report
An enforcement notice remains in place at Stobo Hope, prohibiting forestry works. The forestry developers remain Euroforest Silviculture, who sprayed vast areas of heather moorland with glyphosate long before a forestry contract was awarded.
Forestry managers for Stobo appear to have chosen and contracted its own environmental consultants, Stantec UK Ltd, to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), in relation to the Stobo Hope woodland creation scheme. An EIA report will then be submitted to Scottish Forestry, who will later determine if the forestry scheme can be approved or not.
Independent research (not funded by the forestry industry) by ecologists and other scientists have demonstrated the devasting environmental impacts of Sitka spruce plantations on semi-natural grasslands, wetlands and heather moorland. Remaining pockets of open areas (which also deteriorate due to lack of grazing) are also no longer viable for a range of moorland species, such as curlew, black grouse, hen harrier, merlin or golden eagle.
Do Scottish Forestry understand environmental impacts?
Scottish Forestry’s interpretation of the magnitude of environmental impacts from forestry schemes seems to be based on unevidenced one-line claims, rather than scientific facts derived from independent research.
Sitka plantations on semi-natural habitats result in the permanent and widespread loss of many species. Scottish Forestry do not seem to recognise or understand this, as demonstrated by its baseless claim last year that the proposed Stobo Hope scheme would not have a significant negative effect on the environment.
Spruce plantation: parts of Stobo Hope are expected to look like this in the near future (Simon Butterworth Photography).
Did Scottish Forestry deliberately mislead the public about the herbicide destruction?
As an enforcement notice was served to cease work at Stobo Hope, Scottish Forestry issued a press release on 10 September 2024, claiming they become aware in mid-August 2024 of blanket herbicide spraying, due to pictures of the damage provided by us.
However, documents obtained from Scottish Forestry appear to demonstrate that several senior Scottish Forestry staff became aware (via email correspondence) of the large-scale herbicide damage much sooner, due to newspaper reports, such as in the Scotsman, our crowdfunder, a film and blog article.
It seems to us, and lots of others, that Scottish Forestry should have acted much earlier to stop work due to the herbicide spraying, averting further environmental damage and saving thousands of pounds in our legal costs, funded by your generous donations. For further information, please read the blog ‘Did Scottish Forestry know Stobo Hope was ‘napalmed’ with herbicide long before ‘new information came to light’?’ on Raptor Persecution UK, to whom we are again very grateful for raising awareness about Stobo Hope.
Further news from the Scottish Borders: Todrig judicial review
In our previous update, we mentioned a judicial review to challenge Scottish Forestry’s decision to approve the Todrig woodland creation scheme near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders without an Environmental Impact Assessment. No work on site has started.
Important butterfly species have been found on site, including Scottish Biodiversity List species northern brown argus and small pearl-bordered fritillary, both threatened by conifer plantations across the Scottish Borders.
The Todrig conifer plantation scheme, if allowed to proceed, will lead to the loss of several hundred hectares of extensive moorland and species-rich grassland, supporting many rare species. This scheme is also likely to contribute towards the eventual disappearance of black grouse and curlew across Southern Scotland.
A preliminary, procedural hearing in the Court of Session has been scheduled for 10 October 2025; a final, substantive hearing will be scheduled for later in the year.
For more information, please visit the Todrig crowdfunder. Thank you.
Todrig burn, with farm in distance (Simon Butterworth Photography).
Media article
We are grateful to Parkswatch for a blog article about Stobo Hope, an exemplar of environmental destruction promoted by Scottish Forestry, and questionable claims made by various forestry interests.
Nick Kempe, ‘Stobo Hope, Scottish Forestry & the dubious claims made by commercial forestry interests’, Parkswatch, 23 July 2025.
The Stobo Residents Action Group.