Our expertise is focused on the upland habitats and land-use systems which are found extensively throughout Scotland and elsewhere in the British Isles and abroad.

STAFF AND ASSOCIATE DETAILS

Gary Servant – Director

BSc (Hons) Aberdeen University

Gary has been involved in the UK forestry and ecology sector since 1998 with a particular focus on native woodlands in Scotland. He has been based in Lochaber since 2003 and since then has delivered over 380 contracts for a wide variety of clients, as well as helping to establish two local community development charities.

Gary’s specialist skills

• Scotland’s Atlantic rainforests and native Caledonian pine forests
• PAWS and ancient woodland restoration
• Forest Plans, woodland management plans and native woodland creation
• Rural development forestry, community forestry and the Scottish Government’s Community Asset Transfer process
• Upland habitats and the National Vegetation Classification (NVC)
• Site suitability for native woodland expansion and woodland creation
• Monitoring deer impacts on upland habitats, and in particular use of the Woodland Grazing Toolbox to monitor impacts on native woodland habitats.
• Wildfire impacts and wildfire risk assessment in relation to upland habitats and native woodlands
• Peatland restoration – especially forest-to-bog restoration projects
• Site-condition monitoring of woodland, wetland and upland habitats.

Other roles

• Associate Member – Native Woods Cooperative (Scotland) Ltd
• Trustee of Achnacarry Bunarkaig and Clunes Community Group SCIO
• Community Forester – Arkaig Community Forest SCIO

Stuart Hood – Associate

Stuart is an experienced native woodland and peatland restoration field surveyor, as well as a sea-kayaking and adventure tourism specialist (owner of Rockhopper Sea Kayaking, established in 2004).

He has been working with Upland Ecology and Upland Forestry Ltd regularly for the last 8 years on a variety of projects in the forestry, ecology and land management sectors. During this period, he has acquired detailed knowledge and practical experience of various field survey methodologies, especially in the context of peatland restoration and native woodland restoration in the uplands. For the last four year he has been in charge of managing the successful eradication of Rhododendron at Woodland Trust’s Loch Arkaig Pine Forest site, using the manual non-chemical ‘lever and mulch’ style technique. He has also worked on peat depth survey, peatland condition assessment and peatland feasibility studies at Loch Arkaig Pine Forest, Corrour Forest, Kinlochteacuis Estate, Fassfern Estate and at Sleat on Skye. He has also carried out various forestry and ecology surveys : Breeding Bird, PAWS, Herbivore Impact Assessment, Native Woodland Inventory, Dothistroma Needle Blight, Mensuration, Stocking Density and Invasive Species. From 2017 – 2020 he was a director of Arkaig Forestry Cooperative Ltd, and he is currently a volunteer director of the Kilmallie Community Woods Company.

• Emergency First Aid at work [+Forestry]
• QGIS – Introduction to QGIS mapping
• BMC – Summer Mountain Leader award
• NPCT Level 2 – Chainsaw maintenance, cross cutting and felling medium trees
• EASI ATV SbS Safety driver course
• RYA – Powerboat Level 2 award
• Rescue 3 International – Level 1 [Level 2 trained] Swift Water Rescue Technician
• BCU – 5 Star Sea Kayak/Level 4 Coach. Kayak/Canoe Level 3 Coach
• BMC – Single Pitch Climbing award

Rebecca Latchford – Associate

Rebecca specialises in global forest certification and in assisting the business community in achieving chain of custody certification and optimising market benefits from supporting sustainable forest management. She has extensive field experience in forest management, sawmilling, certification, auditing and within the trade of forest products and has worked in Brazil, Bolivia, India, Russia and the UK in all areas of this field. Within the trade of forest products has worked on global supply chains of many products across various sectors.