The Postings of John C. Keenleyside
My 8th and Final Posting on promotion to Forest District Manager was to Inverness Forest District in June 1987 to replace Graham Gill who went to Headquarters on Private woodlands. This was never a grade I had ever dreamed of but the main benefit in taking this posting was that I did not have to move house. In a way this post was similar to the Chief forester post in Ardgartan but had the added responsibility of Private Woodland forestry grant schemes and we had our own sawmill based in the yard near the office.
The area covered was from Glenferness in the east to Farigaig in the west with the boundary linking up with Fort Augustus Forest District on the south side of Loch Ness. The northern boundary was the Black Isle and the southern boundary beyond Kincraig with an outlying area lying down to Loch Laggan, including the Corrour woodlands which I was familiar with from my Research days.
I started the post in June 1987 with a large staff at that time of five foresters of various grades and locations. The industrial staff included several road squad and ploughing tractor drivers as this was their home station but numbers fluctuated but around 50 in total. Three ladies worked in the office and we had three Forest Rangers and camp site staff at Glenmore who were very flexible and undertook a wide range of tasks. One of the ladies acted as my secretary and did lots of records for the private woodlands. She also delivered my tea on a tray and bone china cup. I had never experienced such luxury in my career!!!
Afforestation was still going on with large planting programmes at Glenkirk in the Tomatin area. Some of the lower ground had good soils and was suitable for Douglas fir, also some pure Sitka spruce and mixtures of Scots pine and Sitka spruce further up the hill. Hybrid larch was put in a bit of colour. The tops were bare and now suitable for wind turbines. Red deer and mountain hares were numerous and had to be culled and most of the ground could be cultivated but I was not so closely involved. We had pockets of windblow throughout the district from recent gales which involved some re-stocking.
In Glenmore where there had been some clear felling and we started to encourage regeneration of the native pinewoods but poor viability of the seed, weevils attacking the small seedlings and a presence of bark beetles on the sites made this a difficult operation with only slow progress.
We had a large harvesting programme at that time and some good machines and operators but the best of the men and machines were sent off to the south to clear up the extensive windblow in South England. We were expected to meet our programme with the remaining staff but later allowed to take on one or two small felling contractors with power saws to enable us to clear up our own pockets of windblow and meet our targets. Normal thinning operations were suspended for a short time as we could meet our own targets quicker from pockets of windblow.
We had our own sawmill operating in the yard at Smithton. The sawmill produced fencing materials for North Scotland Conservancy and sold sawn timber to the developers who were building all around us at that time. At that time the yard was utilised at Christmas for Christmas tree sales and open seven days per week. Most of the trees were Norway spruce but smaller numbers of pines were starting to move.
We were heavily involved in upgrading of the visitor facilities at Glenmore camp site by improving the toilet facilities, pitches and making electric points available. Across the road we converted the old office, tool store and church into a new visitor centre with new car parking facilities properly designed by our architect and landscaped with appropriate trees and shrubs to fit in with the natural habitat. Recreation was the in thing and skiing the main attraction to the area so we set up a ski tow on the lower slopes to give children a start in the sport. We then set up a nursery slope within walking distance from the camp site to cater for our clients.
Forest landscaping in Glenmore was important we tried to get rid of the original straight lines at the upper limits by some small fellings and encouragement of natural regeneration of native pine. One casualty to this policy was one of our Pilot plots from the 1960’s which was felled prematurely because it was square in outline. This was after research workers had been humping up bags of fertiliser for years, the end result of which was a grass green blot on the landscape (from the effects of the cultivation and fertiliser) until the heather eventually returns.
Our heavily used forest walks at Glenmore were reviewed, surfaces renewed, drainage improved and sign posting modernised. Husky dog racing in the forest was another recreational activity which attracted enthusiasts from all over the country. The forest roads and tracks provided excellent facilities for the competitors and the hosts of spectators that came to watch.
In private forestry, one our main functions at this time was the processing of applications for the woodland grant schemes, liaising with the planning officials and the landowners or agents. A number of the large estates had dedicated woodlands where inspections were carried out to confirm that work was being carried out to the agreed standards prior to grant payment.
This is an attempt to cover the activities in Inverness Forest District from 1987 to1990 when I retired. We had so many employees and changes to the forester grades that I have avoided mentioning names or singling out individuals for praise. I can say it was a great team effort and I enjoyed my time in charge of that post and found it an interesting experience to round off my career in the Forestry Commission. The official retirement date was 09-02-90 but because of untaken annual leave, I only worked a few days in Jan1990.
The photograph courtesy of George Dey’s family shows John Keenleyside on right helping out Walter Paterson with a presentation to the RSFS on forest nutrition at Strathy Forest. This was the last of John’s Research work just prior to moving to Inverness Forest District.
Groups: Forestry Areas