Develop and promote clear guidance for practitioners on soil compaction and farm and forestry machinery contractors are engaged in ensuring appropriate use of equipment, uptake of decisionmaking tools and training, to minimise and ultimately avoid compaction damage to soils.
Objective 3: Embed nature positive Farming, Fishing and Forestry
Priority Action 14. Ensure increased uptake of high diversity, nature-rich, high-soil carbon, low-intensity farming methods while sustaining high-quality food production
Scottish agricultural advisory services provide guidance on soil compaction risk through farm soil assessment tools such as Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS), which is used to identify compaction and structural damage at field scale and inform management decisions on trafficking and cultivation timing.
The Farm Advisory Service provides practical guidance on machinery use, soil protection, and avoiding trafficking on vulnerable soils, particularly in wet conditions, as part of its soil and land management advice for farmers and contractors.
Scottish Forestry guidance includes operational soil protection standards for forestry contractors, including requirements to minimise soil disturbance, avoid compaction during harvesting operations, and plan extraction routes to reduce soil damage risk.
SEFARI and the James Hutton Institute research identify soil compaction as a key degradation pressure affecting soil porosity, water infiltration, root growth, and carbon cycling, and support the use of field-based indicators and decision tools to reduce compaction risk in agricultural systems.
There is currently no single mandatory national guidance framework that standardises machinery decision-making tools and contractor training requirements specifically for soil compaction prevention across both agriculture and forestry sectors.
SEFARI research shows that soil compaction reduces pore space, restricts root growth, and limits water infiltration, which directly reduces soil function and ecosystem services including carbon storage and nutrient cycling.
NatureScot evidence identifies soil structure degradation, including compaction, as a pressure that reduces ecosystem resilience by limiting vegetation growth and altering hydrological processes that support habitat condition.
Soil Association Scotland highlights that healthy soil structure and biological activity are essential for soil biodiversity and long-term ecosystem stability, with compaction reducing soil life and function.
State of Nature Scotland reports continued biodiversity declines across multiple species groups, reinforcing the importance of protecting foundational ecosystem functions such as soil structure to support habitat recovery.
Taken together, this evidence shows that soil compaction is a well-recognised and well-researched soil degradation pressure in Scotland, with clear ecological consequences. While guidance and tools exist, they are not consistently embedded across contractor practice and decision-making systems. This limits system-wide ecological benefits.
SRUC – Soil Compaction
Farm Advisory Service – Soil Resources for Farmers
Scottish Forestry – Protecting soils during forestry activities
SEFARI – Soil Management Research
State of Nature Scotland
Increase the uptake of integrated pest management across Scottish agriculture to minimise risks and impacts of pesticides to the environment in line with the UK National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides.
Develop a routemap (end of 2025) for soil security in Scotland including a review and update of Scotland’s Soil Framework and action/implementation plan (2030).
Develop evidence-based Soil Health Indicators that can be considered for inclusion in Whole Farm Plans and Forest Management Plans.
Undertake an evidence-based update of currently available information and advice on biodiversity management to farmers/land managers, to ensure it is up-to-date, clear and easily accessible.
Improve information for land managers on how to assess and interpret soil erosion risks and implement measures to avoid erosion (and other impacts on soil health related to climate change), including: i) the impacts of extreme rainfall drought events on soils; and ii) maps of soils that have been subject to anthropogenic degradation and are candidates for soil improvement programmes.
Set up monitoring frameworks to assess change in soil health, based on evidence from the Natural Resources theme of the Strategic Research Programme (2022-2027).
Reduce inputs of nutrients to freshwaters that cause enrichment impacts on biodiversity, by controlling both diffuse and point source pollution through effective nutrient management through agricultural reform and SEPA’s Priority Catchment programme, ensuring compliance with the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (CAR) under River Basin Management Planning.
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