THEY were known affectionately as ‘Lumberjills’ during the second world war.
In 1942 hundreds of women and girls as young as 14 were recruited
to replace male loggers in Scotland who had left to serve their country.
They were expected to do everything their male counterparts were involved in including felling, snedding, loading trucks and trains and
milling timber all over Scotland.
Forestry has long been perceived as a male-dominated industry but decades after The Women’s Timber Corps was disbanded, in August 1946, growing numbers of females are learning the craft.
There are currently 40 apprentices at Forestry Land Scotland (FLS) –
the Scottish Government agency responsible for managing national forests – and 11 of these are women.
READ MORE: Millions of trees at risk from a disease that costs £180million to tackle
A further ten female, mid-year students have joined FLS in the past three years, as part of the organisation’s work-based learning programme.
Female employees include Lesley Reilly, an expert chainsaw operator with FLS, who recently felled a particularly large, diseased ash on the site of a former ironworks – now a woodland – at Wilsontown
in Lanarkshire.
The tree – some 25m tall and around 1m in diameter – was growing alongside a public path, posing a danger to the public and was one
of a number of large, complex, ash trees felled by her recently.
The tree felling process took an experienced FLS team led by Ms Reilly, who is currently on maternity leave, three hours to complete safely.
The 1.25 tonnes of timber from the diseased ash will be put to good use: the wood is destined to be used to create bespoke furniture by a local maker.
Previously a craftsperson working in wood, she started with FLS as an apprentice, in 2013.
READ MORE: Community secures historic £2million buyout to expand nature reserve
Rachel Orchard, an apprentice working in Durris, Aberdeenshire,
has a degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences but says she “quickly realised that
I didn’t want an office job.”
She said: “I’ve always loved trees and was curious to learn more.
“Thankfully, the outdoors lifestyle has turned out to be everything I
hoped for.
“With most forests serving many purposes like recreation, habitat generation, and sustainable timber production, it’s a varied role.
“I find the work stimulating and take great satisfaction from completing tasks that have a physical impact, such as using a chainsaw to safely fell a tree. “
Will Huckerby, Assistant Delivery Manager at FLS Central Region said the sector is “crying out” for new recruits.
He said:”Whether you start at college, sign up for an apprenticeship or learn your skills on the job, there are some great opportunities for building a career.
“A career in forestry is hugely varied: it could see you working
with communities, managing wildlife and helping to save threatened and endangered species, making sure that visitors get the most out of their forest experience or ensuring that the timber we produce gets to market.
"Frontline’ jobs can range from seasonal work to full time employment and can cover a huge variety of roles and activities – from tree planting
and forest management through to harvesting work.
He said other behind-the-scenes roles include business analysts and
HR, finance and procurement.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here