Confor welcomes forestry Honours

Alan Motion was until recently the Chair of the Institute of Chartered Foresters Examinations Board, Alan’s services to the sector was recognised when he was awarded an MBE. Based in Central Scotland and with a background in local authority arboricultural consultancy and private sector land management, Alan Motion provides specialist independent advice in all aspects of arboriculture, amenity tree care, woodland management, and urban forestry.

Alan trained in Forestry at the University of Aberdeen. After 11 years working as a local authority tree officer in both Scotland and England, he spent 7 years with a private land management company based in Glasgow. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and is a senior assessor for the ICF Professional Membership process.

Our congratulations go to Alan on a long and successful career, and, in particular, for his work with the ICF helping to uphold professionalism in the sector.

Paul Andrew Raymond-Barker FRICS was awarded the Medallist of the Order of the British Empire for services to Forestry and Silviculture in Wales.

Paul has many years’ forestry experience throughout Wales and the border counties as an independent forest manager, consultant and valuer of forests and woodlands. He has been a stalwart of the forestry sector for many, many years.

His support for the forestry day and woodlands competition at the Royal Welsh Show has never wavered and has been instrumental in maintaining the competition that we have today. The quality of his work has been recognised by winning many of the sections in the woodlands competition - a long-standing joke in Wales is that Paul had to get a bigger office as he ran out of wall space to hang the certificates on.

Paul was Forestry Partner at Woosnam & Tyler in Builth Wells for many years and established his own forestry management firm in the town in 1999. In recent years, he has joined the team at Andrew Bronwin & Co Ltd, a well-established Welsh firm of Chartered Foresters.

His enthusiasm for the sector is reinforced by his membership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF), and more recently he has been an active member of the Confor Wales Committee.

Our congratulations go to Paul. This is recognition of his many years of hard work and support for the forestry sector in Wales and the borders. Many people have benefited immensely from his help and experience.