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Forestry Commission

Russell holds an HNC Applied Physics, HC Electrical & Electronic Engineering and is currently taking part-time MSc in Forest Science.  He has worked for the Forestry Commission for 23 years starting as a research technician and then an assistant researcher in Upland Site Studies where he undertook research on forest soils, meteorology and hydrology.  Since 1992, he has worked as an adviser and research project leader on peatlands and peatland forests.  His research topics have included:  impact of forests on peatlands; management of forests to conserve peatland enclaves; deforestation and restoration of treeless peatlands; and ecology of forested wetland habitats. 

Helen Armstrong is a Mammal Ecologist with a B.Sc. (Hons) 21 in Ecology and a Ph.D in ecosystem dynamics.  She started her career working as a research assistant on a joint Edinburgh University /Hill Farming Research Organization study of a double isotope technique of measuring lactation in red deer.  In 1987, she became Scientific Officer with the upland section of the Chief Scientist's Directorate of the Nature Conservancy Council, developing a method of measuring the utilisation rate of dwarf shrubs by large herbivores, advising regional staff on the management of upland sites for nature conservation and on the assessment of optimal stocking regimes for nature conservation.  The following year she became a Higher Scientific Officer with the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, building a computer model of upland grazing systems in Britain to predict, for any site, the proportion of the annual production of each vegetation type removed by grazing sheep.  Since 1994 she has been working with Forest Research carrying out research and advisory work on the impacts of wild and domestic mammalian herbivores on woodlands. She works on computer modelling of large herbivore / woodland interactions and deer population dynamics.

J C Brown has a National Diploma in Forestry, National Examining Board in Supervisory Studies and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters.  He is a Regional Operations Manager with 25 years of varied Forestry experience.  His particular area of experience and interest lies in the field of Forest Planning with particular reference to Long Term Forest Design Plans and Sustainable Forestry.  He has experience with felling licence regulation, grant aid, business planning and forest design plans as well as production forecasting and forest planning.  He is also the secretary of the local deer management group which co-ordinates land owners in the control and humane culling of deer.

James Dewar is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health NEBOSH Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and holds a Certificate in Method Study and Time Study.  His key experience is in Health and Safety information on a wide range of forestry operations ranging from plantation establishment through to harvesting. Work and method study experience in all forest operations.  He has worked as a Forestry Commission Safety Officer for 8 years, where he is responsible for determining and implementing standards on all matters relating to Occupational Health and Safety for the forest and arboricultural industries.  He has had project work experience with the Department for International Development (DFID) based in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.

Dr Richard Ferris holds a BSc in Environmental Science and a PhD in Agricultural Botany from University of Reading.  He is currently Senior  Scientific Officer and Head of Section, Woodland Ecology Branch, Forest Research.  He works on biodiversity assessment and landscape ecology projects, and is a member of EU expert panel on assessment of ground vegetation in Forests.  He is a co-ordinator of Biodiversity Sub-Group of an EU funded research project on indicators for monitoring and evaluation of Forest Biodiversity in Europe.  Prior to this post, he worked as a project leader on Edge Management in Lowland Forests, and lectured in conservation policy, principles and planning in Forestry Commission Education and Training branch courses.

Barry Gardiner holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Durham and a PhD from the University of Manchester. From 1976 to 1979 he worked as a meteorologist/atmospheric physicist with the British Antarctic Survey carrying out surface and upper air meteorological measurements and measurements of the ozone concentration over Antarctica. After completing his PhD in 1979 he worked at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada studying thunderstorm electrification, ice physics and weather modification and in 1982 became director of its Precipitation Physics and Chemistry Laboratory. During this period he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in atmospheric science at the University of Nevada. In 1983 he returned to Great Britain to work at the Forestry Commission Northern Research Station studying the problems of wind damage to trees. During the last six years he has carried out field programmes investigating airflow over forests and complex terrain, wind-tunnel studies of the forces on model trees and numerical simulations of airflow. Recently he has been involved in studies of turbulent transport in agroforests and the effects of heterogeneity on regional fluxes. He is collaborating with scientists in Germany, France, Italy, America, New Zealand and Australia and has recently helped organise an international conference on 'Wind and wind-related damage to trees'. His particular areas of expertise are airflow measurement and modelling, turbulent transport in canopies, tree mechanics and forest stability.

Stuart Goodall holds an MA from the University of Edinburgh.  He works as EU and Certification Policy Adviser having joined Forestry Commission in 1988.  His key experience lies in developing policy on Certification and forestry in the EU as well the development and operation of a national certification scheme.  He also has good knowledge of accessing EU funding and implementing EU forestry related legislation.

Patrick Green holds an MSc. in Resource Management, and a BSc. (Hons.) in Forestry.  He is a Biodiversity Adviser whose key areas of experience are in strategic planning, project management and field based extension and training experience in developing sustainable forest management practices, community forestry and biodiversity/ wildlife management programmes in the UK and overseas.  Since 1990 he has developed, co-ordinated and delivered the UK wide work programme for forest biodiversity, under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, including collating information and preparing workplans in partnership with multiple organisations. He has been developing technical and policy papers to implement forest biodiversity programmes and working on ecological and wildlife management advice and training to user groups on some of the UK premier wildlife sites in relation to national and international conservation designations and legislation. He has also carried out training on wildlife (deer) management in woodlands and developed and managed wildlife management schemes on several National Nature Reserves. He worked in Nepal for 2 years (and speaks the language fluently) where he was responsible for strategic planning of the community forestry programme (including the production of a long term management plan for the district).

Alexander Greig started working for the Forestry Commission in 1976 as Assistant District Officer, Moray District, Scotland. Since then he has held a number of management posts both in England and Scotland, as well as gaining experience in the Harvesting and Marketing Division HQ. In 1992-93 he was Operations Manager for the Forestry Authority in England and is currently Forest District Manager for East Anglia. Alexander Greig's experience also includes developing public awareness and environmental education services, recreation facilities and visitor management, and establishment and management of zoning within forests. He has visited Lithuania on behalf of the Environmental Know How Fund to draw up proposals for technical assistance to Dzukija National Park.

Keith Hawkins has 20 years experience as a forestry manager in the UK Forestry Commission and 9 years experience as a training manager responsible for analysing training needs and developing and implementing training events to meet that need.  Since 1996, he has been Head of Forestry Training Services.

Craig Heaney has Thirty five years experience in mechanical engineering services with a strong emphasis on efficiency improvements, cost reductions and delivering new equipment technology to meet demanding and ever changing customer requirements. This is achieved through detailed Service Level Agreements and the business planning process.  Since 1998 he has been Director of Engineering Forestry Commission.  Prior to that since 1994, he was Head of Mechanical Engineering Services Forest Enterprise.

David Henderson-Howat holds a BSc from the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Edinburgh; an MA in Land Economy from Cambridge University; and an MBA from Strathclyde Graduate Business School. He has worked for the Forestry Commission since 1980, responsible for harvesting and marketing in Thetford Forest (East England), as Forest District Manager in Aberfoyle (Scotland) and, currently, as Head of the Economic Planning Branch in the Headquarters' Policy Studies Division. His work includes providing advice on forestry economics, investment appraisal, policy development and planning. Recently, he has been closely involved with the work of the Forestry Review Group - reviewing incentives for private investment in forestry and examining options for the ownership and management of Forestry Commission woodlands. In addition, he has worked on land use and land tenure policy in the Scottish Office Agriculture Department and spent two years employed by the Commonwealth Development Corporation as manager of a eucalyptus and pine forest in Swaziland. He has also undertaken assignments on forestry sector policy and planning, institutional development and increased efficiency and promotion of investment in the timber industry in Ghana.

Richard Howe holds a BSc (Hons) Forestry and an MA Landscape Architecture.  His current role as International  Cooperation Officer implies hosting visits, dealing with bilateral relations and managing the Forestry Commissions international consultancy.  He has experience in policy advice, directing forestry regulation, grant incentives, environmental standards and monitoring.  He also has experience of community involvement in forestry decision making liaising with NGOs and environmental design.

Alastair Johnson holds a BSc (Hons) Agricultural Economics, Edinburgh University and an MA Agricultural Economics, Manchester University.  He is an Economic Adviser with experience of research into costs and benefits, including non-market benefits of forestry and economic importance of forestry in the economy of Great Britain and project and policy appraisal and evaluation and economic analysis in forestry, agriculture, fisheries and environmental areas.  Since 1999 he has worked as Economic Adviser and Head of Economics at the Forestry Commission where he is responsible for the management of forest economic research and advice to FC staff and others dealing in forestry.  He spent a year working for the Government of Ghana investigating the long term sustainability of the Ghanaian forestry industry, for optimal returns from the available harvest, encourage the development of a smaller and more efficient timber industry, and promote investment in resource developments.

William MacLachlan holds an MBA, Diploma in Management Studies.  He has 15 years of training needs analysis, design and delivery of training, designing and implementing management programmes.  He has conducted training needs analysis for the Forest Service of Ghana and carried out a development needs analysis and competency review of the entire Forest Officer grade in the Forestry Commission.  He has been working for the Forestry Commission since 1981.

Robert Matthews holds a BSc (Hons) Biophysics, University of East Anglia and an MSc Bioengineering, university of Engineering.  He has 13 years experience in mathematical modelling of growth and yield of forests for commercial and policy applications, development of commercial software for forest management, yield prediction and production forecasting, and evaluation of carbon sequestration by natural and commercial forests.  He started his career at the Forestry Commission Research Agency in 1986 as Scientific Officer, going on to be Project Leader in 1988 on  forest yield modelling and carbon sequestration research project. In 1999 he took responsibility for overseeing development, calibration, validation and commercial release of mathematical models and computer software for forest management and yield forecasting.

Colin Morton holds an advanced Certificate in Photography/Film and Television as well as a Professional Certificate in Management.   He has been the Head of Communications, Forestry Commission since 1996, where his team undertake to provide a full range of communications services to Ministers and Commissioners.  His key experience is in the delivery and management of forestry and Government information media relations, advising Ministers and senior officials of strategic communications and communications systems.  

John Risby holds a BSc Forestry (Hons) and MICF.   He has ten years of field experience in the FC, both at Conservancy and Forest District. His skills lie in budget control, staff management and planning and organising resources with particular knowledge of forest planning, community engagement, effective stakeholder consultation, partnership working, deer management and native woodland restoration.  He currently works as Forest District Manager with responsibility for the management of 45,000ha of FC estate.  His particular focus is on community engagement including development work on the introduction of the FC community woodland supplement in Lothian and Borders, rural development projects at Laggan and Sunart and input to the development of FE community policy

Joined the Forestry Commission in 1976 after completing a degree in Ecological Science at Edinburgh University. Worked as a forest manager in southern England (1976-81) and moved to work in forestry research on growth and yield studies (1981-88). More recently has worked in a variety of policy roles including land use planning (1988-90), parliamentary affairs (1990-93) and as Secretary to the Forestry Commission (1994-97). From 1997-2000 was head of the Forestry Commission in England. In 2000 took up present post as Director of the Forestry Group. Immediate past-President of the UK Institute of Chartered Foresters.

Stephen Smith holds a BSc in Forestry from Aberdeen University and is a Member of Institute of Chartered Foresters.  He has worked with Forest Research since 1997, where he has been managing forest experiments, writing up and presenting results as well as providing advice to the forest industry of best practice for restocking and new planning.  He has a good grounding in practical forest operation and management of an establishment programme.  

Frank Strang holds a BA (1st class honours) from Oxford University.  His current role is Secretary to the Forestry Commission where he has close involvement with high level policy formulation.  He spent four years working directly to Ministers as a key player in facilitating the policy-making process and advising on presentation. He has also spent two and a half years working directly to the Forestry Commissioners, including advising on organisational and structural matters, in particular the FC's response to devolution.  Prior to this he had four years' diplomatic experience with responsibility for Franc-British relations on agriculture and fisheries.

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