Scottish School of Forestry student wins industry award
AN Inverness College UHI student is celebrating after winning an award from leading forestry and timber harvesting company Tilhill Forestry.
Jonathan Hawick, who is in the third year of the BSc (Hons) in Forest Management, won the Tilhill Forestry Award for Best New Planting Application following a report he prepared in his forestry policy and law module on woodland creation.
The 31-year-old, who currently works part-time for Forestry Commission Scotland, was presented with a trophy comprising a carved wooden acorn by Tilhill Forestry’s Phil Di Duca at the University’s Scottish School of Forestry at Balloch.
Tilhill Forestry presents awards to top performing students at universities in the UK which offer degrees in forestry-related subjects as part of its works to strengthen links with future foresters.
Jonathan was tasked with developing a woodland creation operational plan for a hypothetical site near Evanton, similar to the plan most foresters will complete when trying to access grant funding for new woodland projects.
Jonathan, who is originally from Shetland but lives in Inverness, said: “Creating the plan was a great experience. I chose to develop proposals based on a diverse range of coniferous trees so it had variety but would also be resilient to future changes. I had to decide which tree species to plant and work out how much grant funding my plan was eligible for. I was absolutely delighted when my lecturer informed me that I had won the award. It came as a big surprise but it’s great to be recognised and honoured in this way.”
Phil Di Duca, Tilhill Forestry’s North Highland District Manager, said: “It’s great to see students like Jonathan excelling in their studies and learning important skills such as how to draft a woodland creation plan. Tilhill has a long association with Inverness College UHI; it’s an excellent university and some of our past and present employees have studied there. I was delighted to be able to present this prestigious award.”
Forestry policy lecturer Amanda Bryan, programme leader for the BSc in Forest Management, said: “The Scottish Government has a target of creating 10,000 hectares of new woodland every year. Foresters regularly work with land owners and managers to develop proposals to create new woodland and completing this kind of mock application is exactly the kind of work they will be doing when the leave university. Jonathan carried out his own assessment of the site and developed a plan which was first class in terms of quality and content.”
Tilhill Forestry Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BSW Timber Group was established nearly 70 years ago. It is a national company operating from a network of offices throughout the UK. The company provides a full range of consultancy and contracting services to the forest owner and forestry investor. Further information is available at www.tilhill.com
BSW is the most technologically advanced sawmill company in the UK employing over 1,300 people. The Company’s roots date back to 1848, and with seven sawmills in the UK and one in Latvia, has a production capacity of more than 1.2 million m3 of sawn timber which is distributed throughout construction, fencing and landscape markets www.bsw.co.uk
Together, BSW and Tilhill Forestry form a strong partnership in the forest industry that will deliver quality from beginning to end - from creating new forests through to producing timber end products.