Annual report Speymouth Forest 1962
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.
This report details an extensive helicopter spraying programme to kill of scrub so that the area could be planted with more productive conifers. There are detail of chemicals used (2-4-5T), the mixture regimes and the efficacy of the process.
Planting appears to be confined to around 100 acres but collecting of cones was a very significant 1074 bushels of which 150 bushels came from specially selected seed stands. There is mention of the forest survey team still working in the forest and that they expect to finish the following year after which the detailed forest maps will be produced. It looks as though the whole survey process will take over two years to complete.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland