FCA Magazine (FCAtoday) - Issue 52: Summer 2014
FC staff Retirement Association magazine. The content summary below was very kindly compiled by Diane Birkett, Bedfordshire. See PDF attachment below the text to view the full document. A total of 77 issues were completed between 1997 and the final issue in 2023.
Issue 52: Summer 2014
Articles
A Half Century of Work at Alice Holt
An article by Derek Patch records Brian Greig’s half century at Alice Holt. On Monday 10th August 1959 Brian Greig started his professional career in forestry when he joined the Pathology Branch of Research based at Alice Holt Lodge. 50 years later to the day, on 10th August 2009, Brian was joined by his wife, daughter and granddaughter to plant a tree to celebrate his continuing work at Alice Holt Lodge. After a career working particularly on Fomes root rot and Dutch elm disease, Brian retired from Forest Research in 1995. He was able to continue, and expand his interest in tree pathology and wider damage to trees when he joined The Tree Advice Trust’s Arboricultural Advisory and Information Service based at Alice Holt as tenants of Forest Research. Brian is pictured with his family and Forest Research and Trust colleagues helped Brian plant a “Princeton” elm, an elm disease resistant cultivar, in the grounds of Alice Holt Lodge.
Yorkshire Group Activities
Dorothy Munn gives details of the activities of the Yorkshire Group members and the Yorkshire Group AGM which was held at the Black Swan, Pickering. A photograph includes some of the members.
Breckland Group News
Simon Malone writes about the Breckland Group excursions. The Committee meets twice a year to plan and agree the outings they intend to arrange. The current chairman is Eric Rogers supported by Val Marsh, (secretary), Linda Horne, (Treasurer), Jill Wood, John Broatch and Simon is the events organiser. Their most recent excursion was in May to Stoke Bruerne on the Grand Union Canal near Towcester, Northants. A photograph of the Group on a narrowboat heading for the Blisworth Tunnel.
An Early Risk Assessment
Brian Greig recalls the instructions provided by Research Head Forester John Low in Surrey to his assistant Bob Gladman in Wester Ross in June 1959, for the application of an arsenic compound to ring-girdled larch for the control of a root disease. He says many hundreds of trees were to be treated on a slope exceeding 40%. He says it is also relevant that both involved are healthy and in their seventies.
Bark Stripping in Student Days
Brian Greig worked in the Pathology Branch of the Forestry Commission Alice Holt Research Station for 36 years. Since retirement from the FC in 1995 he has been a part-time consultant on pest and disease problems for the Tree Advice Trust. He says oak bark used to play a major role in the tanning industry. He looks back to his student days to recall how it was harvested.
Halcyoné: From Forth to Hebrides - Part 1 Port Edgar on the Forth to Peterhead
From the details in his wife Carole’s diary, Roddie Burgess gives an account of the sailing of their yacht Halcyoné from the home berth at Port Edgar on the Firth of Forth to the port in Arisaig, Camas an T' Salainn Bay, Loch nan Ceall.
Book Reviews
Forest Vision Transforming the Forestry Commission by Roderick Leslie
Roderick Leslie joined the Forestry Commission in 1976 just as it was changing from the massive tree planting programmes of the first 50 years to managing the forests it had created. Because of his interest in birds and conservation, he found himself centre stage in the violent conflicts that eventually stopped new conifer planting in the uplands dead in its tracks. As Environment manager in England, he describes the long climb back from the near fatal unpopularity of the late 1980s to the overwhelming public support that halted the Government’s plans to sell all the Forestry Commission forests in 2011.
A Tune in the Woods – A Memoir of Finlay MacRae
His book “A Tune in the Woods” is a personal memoir as a piper, forester and conservationist.
Letters to the Editor
Martin Fletcher adds a post script to Simon Malone’s article on The Sweet Chestnut Coppice. He says the FC has an interesting sub-compartment or cant of Sweet Chestnut coppice in Surrey. The cant is on a four year walking stick rotation, with a yield of approximately 40,000 stick lengths per net ha.
Rob Guest Writes
The Winter 2012 edition of FCA Today included information about a booklet written by Rob Guest describing the history of Laughton Forest in Lincolnshire. This text is now freely available on the web, see http://laughtonforest.blogspot.co.uk/ Rob has also written an account of some of the special trees around May Hill - a prominent feature just north of the Forest of Dean. This is also available on the web, see http://notabletrees.blogspot.co.uk/
From the Editor
A comment from Richard Toleman.
Obituaries
Graham Hamilton says the world of forestry lost one of its most colourful characters when Finlay MacRae died on 5th June. He was born in 1923 and brought up in Skye. His memoir is mentioned in the Book Review section of this edition of FCA Today.