FORESTRY and Land Scotland has appointed a head of harvesting support to provide strategic direction and practical support to its staff, partner organisations and customers on timber harvesting.

Mark Crowley, who has enjoyed a career in forestry since graduating from Aberdeen University in 1996, took up the newly created role at the end of September.

As well as taking the lead for technical matters related to timber harvesting, he will lead FLS engagement with industry initiatives facilitated by Scottish Enterprise, Confor and the Strategic Timber Transport Forum. Mick Bottomley, as FLS head of marketing and sales, will continue to lead on managing the overarching FLS relationships with timber customers.

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Mark said: “As we work towards getting all of our forestry operations back on track following the initial impact of COVID-19, I’m looking forward to driving forward an ambitious programme of continual improvement around FLS harvesting operations. This includes investigating how we can recover more fibre from harvesting sites and how we can use technology more to better understand crops and product breakouts to help FLS and its customers add value to the wood processing supply chain.

“It’s going to be a challenging but very rewarding role and I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues across the country – and with a wide range of our customers and partners – to make forestry in Scotland an even more integral element of our economy and our climate change effort.”

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