Comments on: Men Only – Are we excluding women from UK woodlands?

By: Hilary

Hilary — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:42:23 +0000

You only have to Google “women” & “chainsaw” to see how much sexism there is around this subject. There is absolutely no reason why a woman cannot handle chainsaws, particularly if they are doing manual work every day. Since I bought my chainsaw, I have had several men suggest that I shouldn’t be using one: this is without enquiring either about skills experience or training, and is therefore based solely on my gender. Very tedious and yet another area in which some men seek to mystify & exclude womn on the basis of not very much at all.

By: fiona

fiona — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:33:57 +0000

Just as an after-thought and to illustrate my point about strategist males and creative females, The Chief Exec of The Woodland Trust is Sue Holden and the Small Woods Association, of which I am a trustee, is lucky to have Judy Walker as Chief Executive and Di Woods as Commercial Manager.

By: fiona

fiona — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:44:31 +0000

It is unusual to find a woman who uses a chainsaw regularly and I still prickle when the guys in the stores talk to me in words of one syllable. That said it is a comparatively rare woman who has the physique and inclination to do this kind of work.The family members who come to help me are all the boys who get a thrill from using power tools. Men are strategists and women are creative, let’s glory in the difference and work together to cover all aspects of what sensitive and responsible native woodland management requires. That having been said,chaps, when I come in to your store to buy wedges, please don’t point out that actually the one’s I’ve picked up are plastic, I know that already! And, yes, there is reluctance to appoint women into the forestry industry but it’s much more usual to find a man who has had the relevant experience, eg. Contracting,to give them ‘industry’ knowledge, with the nurturing sort of ‘woodland management’ only in recent years being resuscitated.
We are responding to social, ecological and landscape needs and our time will come.

By: catherine

catherine — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:36:01 +0000

It’s worth noting that LANTRA are offering grants for training to women in forestry thro’ their Women in Work programme http://www.lantra.co.uk/businesses/england/womenandwork

By: Tracy Pepler

Tracy Pepler — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:20:43 +0000

Hi Bernie

The wellies are the cheapest ones, leather are so expensive anyway! I have found that they are very comfortable, but worth trying on before hand, as the boots are much bigger than normal sizes!

By: Bernie

Bernie — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:12:31 +0000

Have a look on the internet regarding the Timber Corp which was the woodland option for the land army during the war, also some good old photos relating to the scottish forestry industry if you look under CRAWLER photos

Ps. Had difficulty getting toe capped wellies for Theresa because of small size but eventualy got them for £20 ish from / via Dunlop
Also difficult / imposible to get Chainsaw boots that are non leather ie Vegan except in Wellies style

Bernie

By: Tracy Pepler

Tracy Pepler — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:32:10 +0000

Well, if getting chainsaw gear is anything to go by…. our local shop didn’t stock trousers or boots in ladies sizes, the smallest boots they had was a size 8 I think, and they wanted to charge an extra £10 to order a 5!

By: Chris W

Chris W — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:40:57 +0000

Firstly the colleges named teaching forestry all seem to be in the Highland region so are probably teaching this type of forestry. Other colleges, such as Sparsholt in Hampshire teach Lowland forestry which is not quite so plantation orientated now.

We are in the medium woodland scale as far as the Forestry Commission are concerned, and have found them very helpful with the gradualist approach including natural regeneration, coppicing and bringing the coppice back into rotation. Grants are available for small owners, but there is some paperwork involved and the FC want to know what you are doing, and that public money will be well spent

Car parking, tool storage etc are not only a problem with the Forestry Commission who do not see it as ‘just a little bit of wood cut down so the owner can put in …’, but the overall loss of perhaps 1/2 acre per 5 acres of woodland, but mainly to do with planning authorities. Planning authorities generally do not like any change of use, and we found them unhelpful and unknowedgeable about what we could actually do.

Women worked in the forests during both world wars. They were nicknamed ‘Lumberjills’ I came across quite a lot of stories about them in a book; Stories of old countrywomen I think. Some were employed on quite responsible jobs, but mainly on cutting (with axes and two man saws).