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This piece is an extract from our A View from the Forest (previously Forestry Features) newsletter, which is emailed out at 4PM every Wednesday with a round-up of the week's top stories. 

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“WOOD burning at home is a fundamental part of life across the country."

For most people reading this, there is nothing controversial in this statement. But for decision-makers in Scotland, the very idea of using a natural, sustainable resource to heat your home appeared to be an alien concept until the political pressure finally told.

We are referring, of course, to the saga that was Scotland's new-build wood-burning stove ban. Quietly announced with the changing of building regulations earlier in the year, the updated law required all new homes to install “climate friendly heating systems”, ruling out any source of bioenergy where electricity was generated from organic matter such as wood. Suitably, this led to widespread anger among the country's rural population and disbelief within forestry circles (you know, the two groups most likely to rely on and supply the timber).

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A backlash led to a backtrack, which, finally, resulted in the permanent quelling of the ban this month (also announced with little government fanfare).

“We are delighted that common sense has prevailed and that wood burning stoves remain available as a choice for all households across Scotland seeking a net-zero carbon, sustainable and renewable way to heat their homes utilising a fuel source that is both abundant and local," Andy Hill, chair of the Stove Industry Association, said. “Wood burning at home is a fundamental part of homes and family life across the country. Its use offers the reassurance of energy grid independence and protection against fluctuating gas and electricity process.

"The acknowledgement that biomass is carbon neutral at the point of use is vital to facilitating a pathway to net zero in Scotland."

Biomass gets a pretty bad rep and some of it is probably merited (many in the industry are critical of Drax and its reliance on imported wood).

But the idea that growing, felling, and burning your own timber is something to be ashamed of – which this ban implicitly suggested – should be consigned to the history books alongside this legislation.