The submission deadline for entries to Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards 2022 is only two weeks away. Here, Angela Douglas FICFor outlines why you should get involved…
Chartered Foresters are modest types on the whole. They go about their work skilfully and professionally, without necessarily shouting about its high quality.
Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards are committed to ensuring foresters do not hide their excellence under a bushel – or a canopy of trees, for that matter. Entries to our annual awards programme – the ‘Tree Oscars’ – close on March 31st for 2022.
After an inevitable Covid cancellation in 2020, we came back online in 2021 with a wonderful crop of entries – including our first-ever Climate Change Champion (CCC). We rewarded fantastic forests and wonderful woods of all kinds, as well as excellence in woodland education in both schools and early years settings.
We’re looking forward to doing the same again in 2022, across a broad variety of categories – supported by the entire forestry and wood sector, including the Institute of Chartered Foresters.
There are three prizes for Quality Timber, including one for New Commercial Woods, won in 2021 by Tilhill Forestry for its work on behalf of landowner Mrs JC Hands at the large new forest at Larriston in The Scottish Borders.
Andrew and Lynne Sinclair won the Whole Forest/Estate prize for Balbeg Estate near Straiton, Ayrshire, and also picked up the inaugural CCC Award.
The Trustees of Scotland’s Finest Woods were delighted with the superb range of entries for the first CCC award, a reflection on how much the forestry sector is embracing its role in delivering Scotland’s climate change ambitions.
A highly-commended CCC also won the Quality Timber awards for a stand or compartment of trees – an arable farm that has embraced timber production in recent years at Auchintender near Huntly, in Aberdeenshire.
What always amazes me is the range of high-quality winners and commended entries – reflecting true excellence across Scotland in all kinds of different settings.
In 2022, we will again be honouring Farm Woodlands, Community Woodlands, New Native Woods, and Schools and Early Years settings, alongside the CCC and Quality Timber Awards.
If you are involved in a fine forest or wonderful woodland project, it’s still not too late to enter – find out more and enter by Thursday 31st March!
Angela Douglas FICFor
