Durris Forest Working Plan 1961
Working plans were drawn up to formalise and forecast the work and harvesting programmes for a particular unit. In Part 1 much effort appears to have gone into recording the history of the Durris Forest area from the year 1296 onwards and also describing the topography, vegetation and soils. However the most important aspect was the recording of the areas of quality classes by species of the growing forest stock. From these tables an estimate of the allowable annual cut or timber harvest could be forecast for a period of years into the future.
Parts 2 and 3 of the plan details the objectives of the management of the forest and the future forest work programmes such as new planting, harvesting and road making along with forecast labour and supervision requirements. Note that Amenity does get a mention and the importance of the visual value of the forest in the locality is highlighted.
There is a chapter on the past and present senior and forester staff with the District Officers listed as Bird, Harvey, Woolridge , Maxwell, Williams and McIntyre and the Foresters as Reid, Allan, Kennedy, Milne, Patterson, Gilbert and Masson. Note the summer and winter weekly working hours of 40 and 44 hours respectively, the daily starting times, the number of workers and references to some of the forestry accommodation and personnel transport.
Note that in Part 3 the forest stand enumeration system has changed from the former Quality Class description to the more familiar and simpler Yield Class description. At the end of this part some notes and hand written comments on the plan have been attached.
Note that the plan is shown in the attached PDF and once opened the individual pages can be rotated by going to the double chevron on the right hand side of the dark bar above the page.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland