Chillington Hall forester honoured with RFS Long Service Award
Congratulations to Alan Jones of Chillington Hall Estate.
Alan Jones, Forestry Practitioner at Chillington Hall Estate in South Staffordshire, has been recognised with the RFS Long Service Award for his lifelong dedication to the estate’s woodlands.
Alan, 57, has lived and worked on the estate since joining under the Young Training Scheme (YTS) in 1982. Over the decades, Alan has been involved in every aspect of woodland management: from sawmilling and felling to planting, fencing, ride maintenance and tree clearance. He particularly enjoyed the work of direct seeding and bare-root planting.
Forestry runs in the family. Alan’s brother Chris once worked alongside him in sawmilling, planting and felling before retiring on medical grounds. Today, his nephew Michael continues the tradition, taking on all tasks, including modern innovations such as robo-flailing.
The Chillington Hall Estate spans 4,000 acres, with 800 acres of diverse woodland. Spruce, larch and oak thrive, with some parkland oaks reaching 350 years old.
In the last 25 years, around a quarter of a million trees have been planted, the majority by Alan himself. “He knows his way around all the woods like the back of his hand,” the estate notes. “That’s because he has planted most of these trees. Their care and welfare has always been his first priority.”
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