Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2008/January 2009 | Page 72

Changing
face of the
countryside
by Tony Ridd

Finding someone who is dedicated to
their job is rare these days, especially
when that person has experienced almost
every aspect of the job, starting at the
bottom, and advising others on how to
achieve their goals… enter Hugh Milner,
a leading light in the management and
development of Island woodlands.
Without Hugh’s experience and
gentle approach, I am sure the Island’s
landscape would look very different.
Having sat his ‘O’ levels and spent a
year in the sixth form, he decided to
look for a job that guaranteed he would
never have to work in London! At 17
he successfully applied to the Forestry
Commission. His first posting was at
Bramfield in Hertfordshire, cutting and

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felling ‘devastated hornbeam coppice’.
This was coppice where the oak had
been removed in the first World War
and the hornbeam had been used for
fuel wood in London, before becoming
neglected. Sounds straight forward, but
in those days, Hugh only had hand tools,
coppicing with a bow saw and axe!
A stint at ‘Tunstall’ Suffolk gave Hugh
the experience he needed to enter
the FC Training School at the Forest of
Dean. This covered everything ; theory,
practical, supervising and training staff,
qualifying with the ‘Foresters Certificate’.
He was sent to Scotland where he ‘had
to prove himself’. Here he found the
people to be ‘very wonderful, a pleasant
cultural shock’ he explains. Over the years

Hugh has relived many stories to me. I
particularly like the one where, while on the
Isle of Mull, to save him going on a 40 mile
round trip, he would paddle across the loch
to pay one of his workers. Taping the wage
packet to his chest, just in case he fell in.
The wage, a very respectable £12.00, and
all this in his, own, home made canoe!!!
1972, brought him back to England.
Kielder Forest, was and still is the largest
man made forest in Europe, covering
50,000 hectares. The majority of the land
having been purchased from the Duke of
Northumberland, for 2s 6d an acre because
of double death duties. Hugh imparts that
the land was of such poor quality that it
could only support one sheep per 4 acres.
For six years they trialled nearly every

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