Notes on Culbin Forest in the 1930s by H M Steven
This was part of an archived file box recovered from old shed store at Newton by Malcolm Hobson and Ruaridh Maxwell of Forestry and Land Scotland.
It seems that R G Cathie (Bob Cathie) as District Officer covering Culbin Forest had sought some details on how the forest was managed in the 1930s pre World War II and contacted H M Steven who was probably at Aberdeen University. H M Steven had been Divisional Officer for Northeast Scotland before the war and wrote a detailed note on the pre war situation and planting progress. Before 1933 large planting programmes had tackled most of the lower lying and more stable areas of forest but some of the planted areas were at risk from being overwhelmed by the moving sand dunes. Marram grass stabilisation had ceased by 1934 when thatching with broom, birch scrub and pine branch wood from pine thicket areas in the forest was trialled in 1934 and was very successful.
H M Steven describes some of the techniques of the time and machines used and also comments on the roe deer browsing and how it was controlled.
Please see the PDF link below to see the three pages.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Northeast Scotland