Institute of Chartered Foresters Welcomes New President

The Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) is pleased to announce that Professor Julian Evans OBE, BSc, PhD, DSc, FICFor, formerly its Vice President, has been elected President by members at their recent AGM and national conference in Glasgow.

A Fellow of the Institute, Julian graduated with a degree in Forestry from Bangor University in 1968, eventually going on to become a Professor of Forestry himself, at Imperial College London. Another career highlight includes the role Chief Research Officer (S) for the Forestry Commission at Alice Holt. He is the author of many technical books, was a principal editor of the Encyclopedia of Forest Science (Elsevier 2004), and a past editor of the Institute’s journal, Forestry. Julian chaired two UN Intersessional conferences on the Future of Planted Forests (Chile 1999 and Wellington, NZ 2003). He is a Vice President of the Commonwealth Forestry Association and, in 1997, he was appointed OBE for services to ‘Forestry and the Third World’.  Julian has a long-term research interest in plantation sustainability in Swaziland and silviculture of broadleaved woodland in UK and is a woodland owner, with a 12 hectare site in Hampshire.

Commenting on his election success Julian said, “These are times of great change for forestry and arboriculture in Britain.  We face biological threats to trees and forests and changes in governance and policy, especially in the public forest sector, not neglecting the increasing role of wood and timber in the economy. The Institute’s outgoing president, Fenning Welstead, had a clear grasp of this and, in thanking Fenning for the great success of his presidency, I anticipate these issues remaining centre stage. As forestry and arboriculture professionals, we are best placed to tackle and guide change for the greater good of the nation’s tree and forest resource. The challenge the Institute faces is to remain centre-stage. This has been ably achieved with, for example, our Executive and Technical Director Shireen Chambers’ invitation to join the government’s Independent Panel on Forestry. This is also why the Institute created the new position of Deputy Director, appointing Russell Horsey last year, and also expanded, with a new office-base in southern England.

“I believe the ICF has a crucial role to play, working with our partners in the sector, to ensure the well-being of our trees and woodlands; which are not only our business but are so evidently valued across the nation at large. The nation looks to the professional forester and arboriculturist as custodians of this remarkable resource and long may this continue.”

Also elected at the AGM was the ICF’s new Vice President  David Henderson-Howat FICFor. A graduate of Edinburgh University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, David has spent most of his working life with the Forestry Commission – mainly in Scotland, where he is currently the Commission’s Deputy Director.  He has also headed the Scottish Government’s Agricultural and Rural Development Division and has acted as a consultant for the United Nations Forum on Forests.  Earlier in his career he worked in Thetford Forest; managed a pine and eucalyptus forest in Swaziland; and was Forest District Manager in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs area of central Scotland.

Also joining Julian and David on the ICF Council is Syd House FICFor, FCS Conservator – Perth and Argyll.

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