The Future of Forestry: ADAS graduate wins writing prize

A new graduate agricultural consultant in the ADAS (an RSK company) agriculture and land management team has been awarded the first Future of Forestry Writing Prize in a writing competition designed to stimulate debate on the potential for forestry and wood processing to deliver a more sustainable society.

Lorna Johnson was delighted to receive the first prize for her essay, ‘How can forestry and wood processing help deliver a green Brexit and a more sustainable society in the UK?’, at the Palace of Westminster in London, UK, on 20 November.
The writing competition, organised by Confor, invited applicants to submit an essay based on how forestry can contribute to a green Brexit and sustainable society. Anyone under the age of 30 was eligible to enter. Lorna based her essay on how forestry contributes to biodiversity, carbon sequestration through the construction industry and improving air quality. The judges said that Lorna’s essay “made a powerful case for forestry’s enhanced role in a sustainable future society, with a holistic approach connecting forestry, wood use, climate changes and much more.”

“I was notified that I’d made it into the top-three essays and was invited to the Palace of Westminster to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry AGM. There, I was delighted to find out I’d won first prize,” says Lorna. “This included £500 and a certificate from the event sponsor Tilhill Forestry.

“I’m really delighted to win this award. It was brilliant to meet my fellow winners and so many forestry professionals to discuss the exciting future of this great industry.”

The event was attended by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs David Rutley; Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor; Chris Davies, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry; Peter Whitfield, business development director at Tilhill Forestry; and Emma Reynolds, Labour MP for Wolverhampton.

You can read Lorna’s winning essay on the Confor website. The essay will also be published in Forestry and Timber News in February 2019.