The Scottish Forestry Trust recently announced the appointment of four new Trustees, including two Chartered members of the Institute, who will take up their posts on 1st January 2022.
Established in 1983, the Trust is a registered charity and has a remit to provide private sector funds to support research and education throughout the British forestry industry. Since 1983, the Trust has provided in the region of £3m to 300 projects ranging from supporting postgraduate education to contributing towards industry applied research and assisting policy formulation.
The Trust typically has 11 Trustees representing a range of interests and experience from across the forestry sector including forest owners, forest managers, timber processing and forest research and education. New Trustees will serve an initial term of three years with the potential for a further three-year term under a recent change to the Trust’s Rules; previously Trustees served up to two consecutive five-year terms. The newly-appointed Trustees are:
Tim Liddon BSc Hons FICFor
Tim is recently retired from his post on the Tilhill Board as Forestry Director where he continued to seek solutions and to raise standards in forestry – from large scale re afforestation, weevil and deer management to protecting the workforce and the environment. Having studied Forestry in Aberdeen graduating in 1980, he went on to join Tilhill as a forest manager. Key career achievements include community woodland creation in Teeside, planning and delivering the Eskdalemuir Timber haul road in 2007 and then in 2009 promotion to Regional Manager for Scotland and responsibility for forestry and landscaping. During Tim’s time in Yorkshire he was also Chairman Yorkshire Division Royal Forestry Society – 1996-1998. In 2014 he became a founder Director of the then Sitka Spruce Breeding Cooperative (now the Conifer Breeding Cooperative), which is a public private partnership to ensure the improvement of productive Conifer continues.
Professor James Pendlebury MICFor
James is the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of Forest Research, an executive agency of the Forestry Commission, and member of the Forestry Commission Executive Board. James is responsible for the strategic vision and scientific direction of Forest Research, the leadership of nearly 300 staff and an annual turnover in excess of £23 Million. He works with colleagues to ensure that Forest Research provides appropriate science, evidence and data to governmental, private sector, environmental and community bodies involved in forest, woodland and urban tree management across the UK. James is Honorary Professor of Forestry, University of the Highlands & Islands and also a member of the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Conservation Committee. James holds a BSc (Honours) degree and a PhD in Forestry from the University of Aberdeen and joined the Forestry Commission in 2002. Prior to this he had a distinguished career in research, management and market development in the timber and forestry sectors in several countries including the UK, United States, South Africa, The Netherlands and New Zealand.
Professor David Burslem
David is Professor of Forest Ecology and Diversity at the University of Aberdeen, and Keeper of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden and Arboretum. He was recently appointed interim Director of the University’s Inter-disciplinary Centre for Environment and Biodiversity. His research and teaching interests focus on forest ecology and conservation science, responding to the linked crises of biodiversity loss and climate change in collaboration with partners in government agencies, non-governmental organisations and statutory bodies. A major theme of his current research is to leverage time-series of forest inventory and remote sensing data-sets for quantifying changes in forest cover, dynamics and carbon storage, and to use these results to inform policy and fiscal interventions that would incentivise forest restoration. David has 30 years’ experience of forest research in the UK and overseas and has authored or edited more than 150 papers and two books.
Dr Ioly Kotta-Loizou
Ioly is a molecular microbiologist specialising in mycovirology, i.e. the study of viruses that infect fungi, and focuses on microbial life cycles and pathogenicity, together with potential applications in forestry, agriculture and medicine. She is based in the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, and holds honorary/visiting positions at the Universities of Manchester and Hertfordshire (UK) and the California Institute of Medical Research (USA). Ioly is the Chair for the Chrysoviridae study group in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, an Editor for the scientific journals Archives of Virology, Viruses, Pathogens, Microorganisms and Frontiers, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a STEM ambassador.
The four Trustees who will be stepping down having served their two terms are Professor Michelle Pinard, Aberdeen University (Michelle stepped down on 31st December 2020); J Mark Gibson, Craigengillan Estate; Priscilla Gordon-Duff, Drummuir Estate, and; Professor John Grace, Edinburgh University. (Mark, Priscilla and John will all retire from SFT on 31 December 2021).
