Forestry Commissioners Tour of Rannoch Forest 1963
The notes are courtesy of Duncan Menzies, Banchory, who was stationed at Rannoch at the time.
The tour notes outline the staff numbers, houses and programmes. David Woodburn was District officer, Pat Garrow as Head Forester assisted by Doug Elliot and Duncan Menzies Assistant Foresters. Planting had started modestly in 1949 following acquisition of part of the current area. A total of 14 houses had been built and of the original 26 houses acquired from the Estate all but 8 had been sold on, some to the Rannoch School and the rest privately. The work force consisted of 34 men.
Details of fencing, planting, deer management and road programmes are stated including a mention of extensive discussions with the Red Deer Commission.
On the Black Wood it seems Forest Research first studied the area in 1948 and an extensive report on the condition of the forest was produced based on 7 two acre quadrats located throughout the wood. Research experiments started in 1949 with two trials one of which was in two small fenced off areas to study the results from natural seed fall supplemented with some hand sowing of seed (very poor results for pine but birch and rowan started to grow) and secondly fertilising and weeding existing natural seedlings on knolls and drain sides but here again the seedlings failed over time succumbing to drought, frost, heather, weevil, deer and capercailzie!
Interestingly seed collection traps were set up and monitored over several years. The traps indicated 200,000 seed per acre fell in 1956 and 600,000 to 1 million in 1958 whereas negligible results in 1957, 59, 60 and 61. Hardly any seedlings resulted from these seed falls.
The PDF contains the full visit guide including a map. The map can also be seen in the large image.
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Groups: Forest Research, Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports