Annual report Speymouth Forest 1963
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.
In parts of this report there are mentions of the severe winter weather in 1963 which extended well into the spring planting season and prevented the higher elevations sites in Aultmore Forest from being planted. This caused problems in Speymouth Forest which annually sent a squad of men to work there and as a consequence they had to be employed somewhere within Speymouth and ended up planting extra areas in the forest and doing much high pruning. Note the comments on red deer damage to the trees no doubt caused by a long period of near starvation when all the vegetation was covered. The author recalls this winter in Perthshire with temperatures below zero Fahrenheit for long periods and whole villages without running water.
The late dry spring resulted in a four fires causing the loss of 10 acres of forest. There is a mention of a further programme of aerial spraying of 2-4-5T to control heather growth in pure Sitka spruce plantations which were going into check. Note a reference to a possible opening of a local amenity called the Quarry Garden.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland