The Forestry Commission‘s director-general has paid tribute to its director for Wales, Ian Forshaw, a native of Aberdeen, who died suddenly on September 20.
Mr Forshaw, aged 51, who took up the top post in Welsh forestry in December 2005, collapsed while attending an Institute of Chartered Foresters conference in York.
Director-general Tim Rollinson said the forestry community throughout Great Britain had lost a great friend and advocate.
“Ian was much liked and highly respected, not only by staff at all levels of the Forestry Commission, but also by the wider forestry community throughout Great Britain,” he said. “His friendly personality, his common sense approach and his advocacy of forestry won him many friends. In particular his intimate knowledge and understanding of the forestry and timber industries earned him great respect in private-sector forestry.”
As director of Wales, Mr Forshaw had promoted Forestry Commission Wales’ work to deliver the Welsh Assembly’s strategy for trees and woodlands, Woodlands for Wales, and strengthened the support that the Commission gives to the private forestry industry. He also oversaw the implementation of a new grants scheme to support Welsh woodland owners.
Mr Forshaw joined the Forestry Commission in 1978 as a trainee forester in the far north of Scotland. After various posts in Scotland, including the appointment as a forest district manager in 1990, he became the forest management and environment officer, based in Dumfries, in 1994. He returned to Inverness in 1997 as harvesting and marketing officer, and was quickly promoted to director of forest operations for Great Britain in 1999.
In 2003 he because head of policy and business development for Forestry Commission Scotland in 2003, a post he held for two years before his appointment as director Wales.
Mr Forshaw is survived by his wife Carol.
