The planting of private and state forests over the last half century has radically altered the landscape of Scotland, especially in the Outer Regions. Although environmental purists have deplored the invasion of open moorland country and some sensitive local feeling has misgivings about the ‘colonialism’ implicit in conifer monoculture, the regular patterns of commercial plantations represents no more than an extension of the planned landscape introduced during the improving movement. Rightly, however, the aesthetic appeal of woodlands is being treated as a highly relevant factor now that recreation and amenity are being included in the cost–benefit analysis. But the significance of the forests goes much further. The stands of homegrown timber have lost some of their strategic importance but they can save valuable foreign exchange at a time of rising world prices. And for remote rural areas the woodlands have often been seen as great community assets because of the employment offered and the prospect of processing industries in the future. Unfortunately these benefits are no longer substantial. Mechanisation of much of the forest work means fewer jobs and the impact of this contraction in remote areas has been strengthened by reorganisation of forest management and the centralisation of labour, with the result that outlying plantations, which may have displaced a farm-based population, have no permanent staff. The local depopulation thereby created by forestry has been much resented in some areas, notably Mull (Argyll & Bute), where the high costs of farming under island conditions make it difficult for indigenous interests to compete with the Forestry Commission.