Buildings which were constructed using softwood timber previously extracted from the woodland were also part of the tour. A short presentation was given on the Coillbeag forestry building with emphasis on the possibility of using the design to build low-cost sustainable housing from woodland for both a forest village project and for the wider community. The visitors were then shown other aspects of the almost 10 years of woodland management here at Dunbeag, these included Rhododendron control, areas of natural regeneration; food production from the fruit and nut orchards, polytunnels, mushroom logs and forest gardens.

The group as a whole seemed very impressed with the project and found the visit inspirational. It is hoped that what was seen here will feed through into their final deliberations

Woodland milling operations being demonstrated to the Forestry for people Panel.

Photo courtesy of Gordon Gray Stephens.

On the 16th of September, the members of the Forestry for People Advisory Panel visited the Dunbeag Project as part of their remit to look into how communities can be more involved in the management and use of Scottish forestry. The primary reason for visiting Dunbeag was to see an example of a working forest croft (although Dunbeag is not registered as a croft) and to see how small-scale forestry can be used to generate income. The panel was set-up five years ago by FCS to encourage best practice in community forestry. This was their final visit as a group which will now report back their findings.

They were shown forestry operations including the production of sawn timber from coniferous trees using a Lucas Mill and the extraction of the resulting timber with a log-chute.