Don Amer at Glentrool circa 1964
Photograph taken at Glentrool courtesy of Don Amer, Blairgowrie.
Don has written an account of his life in the Forestry Commission which will become available in a publication in due course. In the attached PDF he has provided a summary of this account and of his time in Kielder Forest.
Part of Don’s summary reads -
‘ ---------- My first posting was to join the Northern Sample Plot Party under Alex McKenzie in Edinburgh. Our main work here was the setting up of one-tenth acre plots in young plantations of fifteen to twenty year old trees, and recording their growth over three years in order to establish a quality class. We were also involved in measuring the amount of damage caused by the 1953 windblow in East Scotland and the ten year tree census.
On getting married in 1954, I was posted up to Culbin Forest under the watchful eye of Chief Forester Willie Milne. Culbin Forest was the first forest in Scotland to have a radio communication installed and I took a great interest in its development and maintenance.
In 1959 I was on the move again, this time to the great Kielder Forest to serve under Chief Forester Tom Fox at the Mounces Beat. Planting was still going on here and together with thinning operations.
1963 saw me on the move again, this time to Glentrool under Chief Forester Alex McCrae. Here there were large planting and hand draining programmes ongoing, and my job was to allocate work to different squads and measure their work, because they were all on piecework rates.
It was whilst at Glentrool that a job with the newly formed Radio and Electronic Branch was advertised, and I applied for it along with other candidates. We were invited down to SW(E) Conservancy in Bristol to be interviewed by the Conservator, Charles Connell and Bob Linder, who had been a Head Forester at Clashindarroch Forest in East Scotland, and was an amateur radio enthusiast, who Mr Connell had already appointed to establish the unit. I was offered the job and that was the end of my sojourn at Glentrool.
I had to establish a base that was central to the area that I had been given, which was in effect, all points north from North Yorkshire, across to the Lake District, and the whole of Scotland. I finally established my first workshop at Inver, just outside Dunkeld in 1969/70. ------’.
Further details on the book are available by emailing Don at: nandon79@btinternet.com
Groups: Forestry Areas, Radio and Communications