"Why I fell in love with Granny Pines"
Scottish Woodlands’ Senior Forest Planner has described how she "fell in love with Granny Pines" after moving to Scotland from the United States.
Megan Parker also describes her enjoyment of talking to communities about creating new forests, and the challenge of public perceptions, in the latest Meet The Team video.
Megan, who is from California, says: “My favourite tree is the Blue Oak, which is endemic to where I grew up. Having moved to Scotland, I've completely fallen in love with Scots Pine, specifically Granny Pines. These individual trees will have withstood hundreds of years of storms, floods and droughts, and created really complex crowns and internal hollows that can be used by a variety of insect species, lichens and birds. So I'm pretty in love with the granny pine!”
Asked what she enjoys most about her job, Megan says: “Community engagement and public engagement is a big factor. I get to take people into the woods and talk about projects. I enjoy hearing what they value in the woodlands and what benefits they find, and discussing and evaluating potential constraints and opportunities - so we can come up with a good strategy to best manage those woodlands.”
In terms of the biggest challenge, Megan says it is public perception. She explains: "A lot of people view forestry as just one thing - plantations - and it's really not. I've worked on rewilding projects where we've accelerated old growth conditions in forests. and commercial restructuring. Forestry is multi-faceted."
Watch the full video here to find out why Megan chose Scottish Woodlands - and her favourite forest.