Under an international exchange program, UK-based forester Alex Donaldson has started a work placement with Forestry Corporation of NSW.

Alex, who works with UK-based company Zulu Ecosystems, will spend three months working in the pine plantations of the Snowy Valleys, based at Tumut.

“I work as a forester in the UK primarily in woodland creation, I design and implement these largely native woodland schemes throughout England and Scotland,” Alex said.

“Here in Tumut my work is vastly different focused on softwood plantations.

“So far, I have worked with several teams observing different aspects of the business. From the forest nursery and silviculture to roading and haulage. I am witnessing the whole supply chain within one organisation, which gives me fantastic development opportunities.

“It’s especially interesting learning about the timber products that are produced from softwood plantations over here,” he said.

Prior to his current role in woodland creation, Alex spent four years as a Forest Manager with the UK’s largest commercial forest management company, Scottish Woodlands, after earning a Bachelor of Science majoring in Forestry from Bangor University in North Wales.

“In a commercial sense, the way the softwood plantations are grown here in Tumut, harvested and replanted is on a scale like I have never seen before,” Alex said.

“It is completely different in the UK, certainly two different ends of the forestry scale.

“In the UK, we often talk in tens or hundreds of hectares for planned harvesting operations, but here in Australia I’m seeing harvest areas more than ten times the size and the restocking program out of Tumut this year is around 3500 hectares,” he said.

Alex said from a forester’s perspective it has been interesting comparing the expanse of native forests in NSW to the smaller more fragmentated size of England’s woodland landscape.

“In the UK, we are currently focused on woodland creation to address timber security, climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as helping landowners and farmers diversify their businesses,” Alex said.

“Ultimately, this is helping to reconnect the fragmented landscape to something more recognisable, like how it was before the intensification of farming.

“From my research, I’ve found NSW has significantly more forest cover than the UK.

“There are lots of trees integrated into the farming systems over here, often providing shade for livestock, helping to protect soils and increase soil water retention, much like the agro-forestry you see back in the UK, which is a great credit to Australia,” he said.

Alex will return to England in mid-June.

Under the exchange program, Forestry Corporation Silviculture Supervisor Prue Crundall is currently undertaking a three-month paid international work placement in the UK hosted by the Duchy of Cornwall.

The Young Professional Foresters’ Exchange Program is a collaboration between Forestry Australia, the Institute of Chartered Foresters in the United Kingdom, the New Zealand Institute of Forestry and the Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada.

The pilot program, open to professional foresters under the age of 30, allows participants to build global networks, exchange knowledge and gain hands on experience in another country.

To find out more about Forestry Corporation go to www.forestrycorporation.com.au