About us
We are people passionate about trees, appreciating trees in all their forms, from individual specimens in gardens and arboreta to copses, small woods to large forests.
We enjoy them because they are good to look at and good to spend time in. They provide shelter and food for wildlife and provide timber for human use. They protect fragile soil from erosion and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and create oxygen, helping to reduce the “Green House” effect”. We enjoy our woods, whether they are natural or planted, native or exotic. Many of us earn our living directly from trees, their management and the timber utilisation.
We continue to provide, for each succeeding generation, a focus on trees and their management. We publish our journal, Scottish Forestry, circulated worldwide, providing articles and information at all levels of interest from the general to the professional and technical.
We hold meetings and field excursions, that cover a wide range of interest, many organised by our five regions throughout Scotland . The Society’s Specialist groups, the Silvicultural Group and the Trees, Woods and People Group, provide further opportunities for members with particular interests.
We hold an annual excursion, usually in May, which provides an oppotunity to further your interests, to meet other members and make friends during a three-day tour in some of the most interesting parts of our country. Overseas Study Tours are also arranged from time to time.
The Society formed the RSFS Forest Trust Co. to create the “ Forest for a Thousand Years” at Cashel. It is a thousand acre project on the east side of Loch Lomond and is creating and restoring native woodlands. The project continues to be is supported by the Society. It was a major project within the Millennium Forest for Scotland .
We founded over 150 years ago, in 1854, as the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society by arboriculturalists, foresters, nurserymen, landowners and tree enthusiasts. The Society’s name was changed in 1930.
Many of the ancient trees and woodlands which lend colour and diversity to our towns and countryside today were planted and managed by RSFS members and, of course, they are still busy planting and managing them toady!
Our Members have among them a breadth and depth of interest, experience and opinion on the whole science, practice and culture of trees and forestry matters unique in Scotland .
What drives the RSFS member today?
The management of Scotland’s tees and forests prior to 1854 was in a dire state – over exploitation, neglect of replanting and maintenance of fences resulted in a mere 4% of tree cover remaining, while our European neighbours had from 25% to 90% of tree cover!
The Society was formed to improve that sad state. The exchange of information to improve and expand the education of foresters and to influence the wider public and to government of the day
Our Society went on to play a prominent part in education, helping to found the Forestry Department within Edinburgh University , and in the creation of the Forestry Commission in 1919.
Woodland cover in Scotland has increased from that catastrophic 4% to over 15%, but this is still little more than half that of our principal EC neighbours. The need for sound forest policy, the sustainable management of our forests and the protection of our natural vegetation are as great now as it was then.
RSFS members believe the Society will continue to ensure that Scotland ’s public and their leaders need to be constantly reminded of their obligation to ensure that Scotland ’s tree heritage and woodland resource are maintained and enhanced for future generations of the Scottish people.
You are encouraged and welcome to join our Society, read your copy of our journal, come and enjoy our meetings, maybe help organise them, and share the friendship of like minded people.
We seek to be the "meeting house" and "conscience" of Scottish forestry and are active in the continuing debate on land use issues that are evolving in a devolved Scotland.
We are an educational charity with no commercial interests.
Click here for application form!