Annual report Speymouth Forest 1954
The reports are courtesy of Moray and Aberdeenshire Forest District, Huntly.
This is one of a series of annual reports written by Head Forester R A (Bob) Allison and describes the year’s work on the forest under a listed set of headings. Each forest would send their report to the District Office who would then compile a report for the whole District this then forwarded to the Conservancy or Directorate Office. This series of reports which have been unearthed, run to 1965, but although a number of intervening years are missing they do give a strong flavour of the annual work programmes; a unique insight into the issues and problems as well as the highlights of managing a forest over a period of fifteen years.
Notable points in this annual report are the large numbers of men and boys employed over the year reaching 127 at one point and averaging out at around 105. There are a number of unit labour costs for harvesting operations showing a total of 6.42d per cu ft at roadside! There are some details on the ploughing and planting programmes and costs along with the species used and the planting positions. Interestingly birch was used as a mixture species in some of the conifer planting. No specific mention has been made of the January 1953 gale and the damage (probably well documented in the previous report - not to hand) but Bob does mention that thinning had stopped and was only beginning late in 1954. The large numbers of men were employed to clear up the backlog of blown timber.
The areas of the nursery are described and the stock of plants growing over for the next year. It appears that the nursery was quite small at around two acres in total and this was its final year before being planted over. In another area Bob Allison makes a case for the supply of efficient smoke masks and special hand axes for use in the fighting of fires describing in detail how they would be used.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland