Royal Celebrations

The Royal Forestry Society (RFS) has celebrated its 125th anniversary with a tour of Windsor Forest and Great Park, and a reception in the prize-winning Savill Building, attended by Her Majesty The Queen, as the Society’s Patron, and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

The Queen and The Duke, who is The Ranger of Windsor Great Park, were shown the Cypress oak presented to Her Majesty to commemorate the anniversary and planted in the new avenue in front of the Savill Building.

Thanking Her Majesty for her support as Patron, RFS President John Besent said: ”We have been privileged to have enjoyed the patronage of the Monarch since 1905 and we trust we have been worthy of it.”

Earlier in the day RFS members had been taken on a tour of Windsor Forest by Derrick Stickler, the Crown Estate Head Forester; Steve Searle, the Assistant Head Forester; Bill Cathcart, Windsor Great Park Superintendent and Ted Green, Conservation Advisor.

The tour included much discussion on yield values from the different plantations and the management issues involved in growing timber in a forest which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and which has a number of Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS).

The tour began in Cranbourne Forest at King Arthur’s Oak – a pollarded oak estimated to be around 1200 years old. It is one of around 1,000 ancient trees identified in the Forest and Park, all of which have been freed from competing trees and shrubs in a process known as haloing.

The visit incorporated High Standing Hill woods and South Forest. Along the way RFS members were shown broadleaved plantations; a Western red cedar plantation, The Deadwood Trail, The Millenium Beech Grove and European larch plantations. Larch and oak from these plantations were used in the construction of the Savill Building.

The RFS was founded by a professional forester and a tree nurseryman at Hexham in Northumberland in 1882 and it remains an organisation dedicated to sharing knowledge and the wise management of forests, woodlands and trees.

The 125th anniversary reception was the third occasion on which Her Majesty had joined the RFS at Windsor Great Park. The first occasion was in 1968 and the second in 1982 when the Society celebrated its centenary. In addition, The Queen invited the Society’s London Division to visit the gardens at Buckingham Palace in 1982 and hosted a reception for them. She also invited the Society to visit her woodlands on the Sandringham Estate in 2005.

Today the RFS has some 4,000 members.