Tree and Woodland Plans and Projects
In addition to responding to requests for service and general maintenance, the Tree and Woodland Team prepare tree and woodland management plans and undertake larger scale work on particular sites and areas.
To find out more about these please view below.
Black Moss Wood, Armadale
As part of an overall project for the Black Moss Nature Reserve, parts of the adjacent Black Moss Woods have been felled and replanted.
For further information on this project please see Biodiversity - Projects
There a number of woods around Blaeberryhill Park and to the south of Croftmalloch School which provide shelter, a habitat for wildlife and seasonal interest to the park and local paths linking to the Whitburn Town Walk.
Whitburn Town Walk Greening Project
The restructuring of the woods in Blaeberryhill Park and the additional planting and other work will gradually contribute to the Whitburn Town Walk Greening Project as detailed in Biodiversity - Projects
Recent Felling
In recent months most of the conifers and the fast-growing Poplar trees have been felled and some of the remaining woodland has been thinned out to allow the rest of the trees more room to grow. Some trees which we had hoped to be able to keep blew down during Storm Eowyn.
Replanting Felled Areas
Plans are being made to plant the felled areas with mainly slower growing, native trees, such as oak, birch and alder.
Volunteers Needed!
We hope that members of the public will help with the tree planting and looking after the woods in future.
If you, your family or any local groups would like to get involved please get in touch with your contact details by emailing trees&woodland@westlothian.gov.uk (opens new window)
All data is stored in accordance with West Lothian Council's data protection procedures.
Background to Felling and Replanting
Concerns regarding condition of the woods on southern side of park
As many of you will be aware, there have been a number of issues in the woods to the south of Blaeberryhill Park over the past few years.
A drop-in session and meetings with Whitburn Community Council and representatives from the emergency services were held a number of years ago after which the Tree and Woodland Team worked up plans for the woods.
Approval for Felling and Thinning
After various proposals were considered, approval for felling and thinning of the woods was granted by Scottish Forestry.
Queries
If you have any queries about this work please email trees&woodland@westlothian.gov.uk (opens new window)
Livingston's trees and woods, along with its parks and paths linking these, and residential and business districts, were a key part of the design of the 'new town'. As these have grown up over the past 40-50 years it has become a town within a 'forest'.
When the Livingston Development Corporation was wound up in 1997 the woodland areas were handed over to West Lothian District Council and the Woodland Trust, with agreed terms under which they were to be managed.
Today West Lothian Council is responsible for the management approximately 427 hectares (305 football pitches) of woodland and tree-belts in and around Livingston, with an additional 418ha of open-ground within or adjacent to them. It is also responsible for 9,940 individual trees and a further 1,280 trees in small groups.
Woodland Trust Scotland also manages large areas of woodland and information on these can be found on their website - Woodland Trust Scotland (opens new window)
Many of the tree-belts around newer housing areas are managed on behalf of the local residents by private factors.
The attached map shows the council's woods and those owned by Woodland Trust Scotland - Livingston Woods (PDF, 4 MB)(opens new window)
05/02/26 - Information gathering for a Long-term Forest Plan for Livingston
A "scoping" exercise is underway to gather information for a plan to manage the council's trees and woods across Livingston, over the next 10-20 years.
People living and working in Livingston are being asked to let us know about any important features which we may have missed and issues which need to be considered.
Further information and how to respond is given in the Livingston WLC Woods and Trees Long-term Forest Plan section below.
Benefits from the Urban Forest
These green assets provide many benefits and services to the local community including:-
- an attractive landscape with changing colours through the seasons
- flooding reduction
- reduction of traffic noise and pollution along roads
- shelter
- wildlife habitats
- produce oxygen and absorb CO2
- improved health and well-being
These urban trees and woods will play an increasingly important part in the functioning of the town as we face the effects of climate change and a decline in biodiversity across Scotland.
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Other information can be viewed here - Treeco2nomics (opens new window)
20 Year Plan
A plan is being prepared to guide the management of all the woodland and individual trees owned and managed by West Lothian Council across Livingston.
This plan will include necessary felling and replanting and thinning of existing woods. It has to be approved by Scottish Forestry, as well as the council itself.
It will also include suggestions for planting new areas of woodland.
Storymap summary
Please click on the following link to see a Storymap summary of information about the woods and trees and the draft proposals:
Long Term Forest Plan
A pdf report is also provided below:-
Please respond to this consultation using the questionnaire in the next section.
The Long-term Forest Plan (LTFP) will describe the major woodland management operations planned over the next twenty-year management period and aims to deliver long-term environmental benefits through sustainable forestry and arboricultural practices. The LTFP process is grant assisted through the Scottish Rural Development Programme. As part of the approval process the applicant is required to carry out consultation to explore relevant issues and opportunities.
Update October 2025
At the start of the year contractors undertook felling within some of the woodland areas on the west side of the park, around the golf driving range and down the side of the 1st fairway on the golf course. This included tree safety felling of some of the old beech trees which were beginning to fail and were next to well used paths. Areas which had suffered from storm damage in the past had fallen trees removed and gaps opened up into which new trees can be planted. This will ensure there is a succession of trees for future generations while still retaining some of the old trees and the woodland "feel" to the park.
The timber taken from the woods was sold and the income used to off-set some of the costs of the operation. Some fallen deadwood has been left in the woods and some of the declining trees have been made into "monoliths" (standing dead trees) to provide homes for fungi and bugs, on which birds such as woodpeckers and small mammals can then feed.
After the felling work was completed old drainage ditches were cleared and the ground restored. Areas of invasive Rhododendron ponticumwere also cut back and mulched using a machine. R ponticum is a very invasive, non-native shrub which tends to shade out any natural ground vegetation. Future re-cutting and herbicide treatment will be required to prevent new shoots growing up, otherwise it will re-establish itself.
Storm Eowyn and subsequent storms have brought down more trees and some areas of windblow on the east of the park were cleared along with making a start on creating gaps for planting new trees in these areas has been started.The path around the Driving range has been temporarily repaired and there are plans for this to be further upgraded as part of a park-wide project, for which funds are being sought.
For further information on the plans for all the woodland areas please see the woodland management section below.
Replanting
The felled areas will be replanted with species such as Oak, Silver birch and Scots pine along with a variety of other species. It is hoped that this next generation of trees will be well established and possibly even reach semi-maturity before the remaining old trees succumb to old age or are blown down.
Volunteers Needed!
We hope that members of the Friends of Polkemmet and public will help with the tree planting and looking after the woods in future.
If you, your family or any local groups would like to get involved please get in touch with your contact details by emailing trees&woodland@westlothian.gov.uk (opens new window).
All data is stored in accordance with West Lothian Council's data protection procedures.
Polkemmet Country Park Trees and Woodland
The country park lies to the west of Whitburn and provides much enjoyed outdoor greenspace for leisure activities, including woodland walks, for people in the west of the district and much further afield, with easy access from the M8. The park extends to 68hectares, including 33hectares of accessible woodland with waymarked paths and further woodland belts and individual trees on its 9-hole golf course.
Further information on the country park and its attractions can be found on Polkemmet Country Park.
History of the Woods and Trees
Much of the woodland along the banks of the River Almond are designated as "Long-Established Woodland of Plantation Origin". It is likely that the large, old beech trees either side of the river and also along the old field boundaries were planted in the latter part of the 1700s and are now over 200 years old. From the 1750s, as agricultural improvements were made across Scotland, extensive tree planting was also carried out to create shelterbelts, boundary features and "policy" woods around newly created estates like Polkemmet.
The rest of the park includes woodland and individual trees planted well over 100 years ago. These have been infilled with more recent plantations of mainly fast-growing spruce and larch, probably as part of the development of the country park in the 1980s.
The long-time owners of Polkemmet Estate, the Baillies are known to have an interest in plant collecting and the estate has a varied selection of tree species, including the beautiful Cedar of Lebanon, near to where the old Polkemmet mansion house once stood.
Woodland Management Plan
In 2016 Green Action Trust (GAT) secured a grant for the preparation of a woodland management plan for the woods at Polkemmet CP with Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT) grant from Scottish Forestry.
This included thinning of the woods, removal of the invasive Rhododendron ponticum,tree safety surveys and remedial work and upgrading several of the paths.
Over the past few years more trees have fallen down in gales, particularly a large number of the conifers in exposed areas on the western side of the park. Many of the 200year old beech are gradually succumbing to disease and dropping limbs or falling down, such as the recent large tree which fell across the river. This has led to a revision of the thinning and felling proposals to create more gaps in which to establish the next generation of trees, as described below.
Within the woods patches of young trees have grown up naturally from seed. These saplings are mainly beech, sycamore and ash which can withstand the shade of the remaining tree canopies above. Unfortunately, these thin-barked species are a favourite for grey squirrels. They cause a great deal of damage by stripping the bark off the branches, such that they are never likely to grow into healthy, long-lived trees.
The aim is to supplement naturally regenerated saplings by planting species like oak, silver birch and Scots pine which are less attractive to grey squirrels. These species are "light demanders", requiring much more sunlight to grow into healthy trees, and so larger gaps need to be felled to allow more light into the woods.
It is important to keep the wooded "feel" of the park and in this first phase of work the aim is to fell approximately one third of the woodland in groups across the park, keeping mature trees along the paths. The opened areas will be replanted. Patches of the young beech and sycamore will also be retained, as will young ash trees to see if any escape severe squirrel damage and the ravages of Ash Dieback Disease.
The intention is also to add to the collection of interesting individual trees to enhance the Polkemmet Arboretum.
In 2023 a drop-in session and a "walk and talk" for the public were held at the country park along with an information stand and questionnaires left at the visitor centre to describe woodland management proposals above and others such as, the removal of invasive Rhododendron ponticum. This was followed by a revised application to Scottish Forestry for a revised Felling permission to create larger gaps in the woodland.
It is hoped that many of the remaining trees can be retained for at least another 50years or more by which time the next generation is at least semi-mature. At this point other groups of mature trees can be felled and replanted.
Urban Forestry Challenge Fund Project
The council has secured support from Future Woodlands Scotland's Urban Forestry Challenge Fund for an urban tree planting project to be undertaken over the next few years. This project focuses on the Deans area of Livingston, which has relatively low tree cover. It is also currently supporting an orchard project.
For further information on this project please see Biodiversity - Projects
