Annual report Speymouth Forest 1959
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.
It is noticeable in this report that the plantable reserve in now dropping and stands at 1792 acres with a corresponding dip in the annual planting totals to 337 acres in the current year. The numbers of workers are still fairly high at 56 summer time and 79 winter time workers many from the salmon fisheries. In this report Bob Allison does highlight the labour issue and need to consider tapering down the workforce particularly as ploughing and plough draining is becoming more effective and the potential use of chemicals to reduce weeding work in whins. The foresters C S Stewart and C O Mackintosh are mentioned and that L C McCallum had been transferred to Glenlivet.
It is interesting to note Bob Allison’s thoughts on species mixture planting and the potential to extend the use of Sitka spruce in mixtures. He also comments on the very high fire danger throughout the year and that 69 fires were reported and tackled but loss of plantations amounted to only 1.06 acres. Note the list of mechanical equipment on the forest and the complaints about the shear pins in the drawbar of the plough. This latter issue was still evident 30 years later and was partially overcome by using high tensile steel bolts in place of the pins. The shear pins of course were designed to break whenever the plough sock hit an immovable rock or obstacle and thus save expensive damage to plough if the tractor kept pulling onwards.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland