South Strome Working Plan 1964
Working plans were drawn up to formalise and forecast the work and harvesting programmes for a particular unit. In Part 1 much effort by George Taylor appears to have gone into recording the history of the South Strome Forest area 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.
The forest was started in 1925 with Forester/Foreman W Murray and managed in conjunction with North Strome from then until 1950 after which it was managed as a separate unit.
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.
Chapter 19 (PDF Page 58)covers the past and present senior and forester staff with the District Officers listed as J W Mackay, J Meldrum, D Spraggan, T A Robbie, A M Fraser, A Orr Ewing, R A Innes, D Graham Campbell, D MacLeod and George Taylor:
The Foresters listed as W Murray, D MacDonald, A MacRae, A MacLeman, W Lawson, F McAllan and J Denholm. Note the construction of Dorran houses for forester and workers in 1964 to add to the 8 worker’s houses and 6 Forest Holdings. The new office was built at Achmore in 1963.
The working plan in the attached PDF does give a very good outline of the forest area, its potential, species used and some indication of labour force and housing. There is mention of the 6 Forest Worker Holdings and 8 forest worker houses and of 3 new houses under constriction in 1964 (Dorran Houses?).
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports