In October, the Royal Forestry Society announced the appointment of Alison Field as its 77th president, succeeding Ben Herbert. Forestry Journal caught up with the outgoing president for a chat about his three-year tenure and more.
FORESTRY Journal first met Ben Herbert, then president of educational charity the Royal Forestry Society, at the Future Trees Trust Annual Supporter’s Day, where he was presenting an RFS Gold Medal to Dr Jo Clark for contributions to forestry. We meet again in September, where during the course of three virtual conversations, Ben discusses his life in forestry, the RFS presidency, becoming immediate past president (IPP) and more.
Well known though he is to the charity’s nearly 4,000 members, there are few published references to Ben, aside from articles published by the RFS at the start of his presidency in October 2022. Then he called for (among other things): the greater use of forestry in the battle against climate change; the need for greater educational provision to support qualified personnel coming into the industry; the identification of tree species that will survive current and future threats from a changing climate and from pest and disease; and encouraging farmers to manage what woodlands they have rather than take quality land out of production.
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That there is little personal information available is “not intentional,” he says, as we begin this first conversation. We start by addressing the rumour that ‘Big Ben’ is named after one of his relatives.
“Yes, Sir Benjamin Hall, MP for Monmouthshire and then MP for Marylebone,” he says. “He was the government’s first commissioner of works, overseeing the latter stages of the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster and the installation of a 13.8-tonne hour bell in the clock tower, which became known as ‘Big Ben’. He was my great, great, great grandfather. I was probably named after him.”
Some people may also have heard of Ben’s father, Robin Herbert.
“He was a quite a force in the horticultural world; a dendrologist, who brought back coastal redwood seeds collected in California and planted them out over an acre at Llanover. In his early days he was chair of the Countryside Commission for Wales, chair of the National Trust, president of the RHS and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Sadly, he died this year.”
Ben, now 60, has always loved the countryside. He grew up on the Llanarth Estate, near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales. He studied Estate Management (Land Agency before switching to Commercial Property) at the Royal Agricultural University (then College) Cirencester, where he joined the RFS. As chairman of the Forestry Society, he persuaded then president Charles Woosnam to come and speak to students.
Graduating as a chartered surveyor in 1986, Ben moved to London, where he spent 10 years managing shopping centres and other commercial properties.
In 1996, he took a four-month break, travelling along parts of the Trans-Siberian railway, through Mongolia and to Vietnam, before returning to Monmouthshire, where he took on the management of Llanarth’s rural estate land and property enterprises. Overseeing the transition of one land agent (retiring after 40 years of managing the estate) to another, and of the retiring head forester to a woodland management company, he also established commercial property companies with people that remain business partners to this day.
The Llanarth Estate comprises 1,360 ha of farmland (six farms, including three dairy holdings), parkland, woodlands with public footpaths and bridleways, fishing concessions and a number of watery tributaries flowing from the River Usk, and commercial and residential let properties.
Covering 729 ha in total, the multi-use and multi-age woodland holdings grow in three different areas of the UK. In Wales, the rural estate (Monmouthshire) woodlands comprise a mix of ‘native’ sporting woodlands (small 2–4 ha blocks planted in fields to break up the landscape) and larger commercial conifer plantations. On the urban fringe of Newport in Gwent, conifer blocks grow in the Sirhowy Valley. In England, small amenity woodlands punctuate residential holdings in East Anglia. In Scotland, there are timber plantations in Dumfries and Galloway.
Ben says: “It is a diversified estate and we produce timber everywhere. In some places it is easier than others.”
In Dumfries and Galloway, the resource is managed by Scottish Woodlands and works follow a traditional management cycle: planting; beating up, some thinnings and clear felling. “Then you do it all over again.” In East Anglia the priority is health and safety, “making sure it is up to speed with annual inspections of trees next to highways and public footpaths, especially the ash”.
In Wales, Monmouthshire-based head forester Andy Smith and the in-house team (comprising a full-time forester and a self-employed sub-contractor) undertake day-to-day forestry work in all the estate woods. They manage the trees growing in and around all of the estate residential and commercial properties. Following increasingly extreme storm events, they clear large amounts of windblow. Forestry agents Bronwyn & Abbey (Robert South) manage the woodland plans and timber sales, while “larger harvesting projects are carried out by contractors, because it is more economical that way”.
The largest project so far this year has been felling blocks of P1970 Sitka spruce over 4 ha on Newport’s urban fringe. Back in the 1970s, given the terrain these woods were planted on (steep valley sides with little or no forestry access) felling was impractical, as Ben explains. “The timber markets were not buoyant following the demise of the pit prop market. Until second thinnings, forestry was a loss-maker. It was also becoming more complicated. You had to be sharp on your marking, as well as on species selection and also to apply for as many grants as possible, and that required professional advice. We spent 15 years wondering what to do. We were going to fell them, replant with broadleaves and then close the gate. It was uneconomic.”
In 2011, thanks to biomass, a floor was put in the market. Having invested in site access, the 50-year-old Sitka crop was finally harvested earlier this year. “The site produced a total 1,366 tonnes, equating to 341 tonnes per hectare of timber. 82 per cent was sold to Pontrillas for fencing and construction. The remaining 18 per cent was sold to Kronospan for fencing and woodchip. We were able to do this because the markets had improved.”
The 4-ha site will be replanted with ‘improved material’. “With improved species genetics, you can now grow a conifer rotation (Douglas fir, Sitka and Norway spruce and western red cedar) in 35 years rather than 60. We are repositioning all our woodlands, so that they contribute positively to our cash flow on an annual basis. We are reducing our monocultures by introducing a mix of species, Douglas fir, western red cedar and Sitka spruce, because if disease hits the spruce, it would wipe it all out.”
How much a resource is affected is down to “how you deal with disease and climate change.” He speaks from experience, over the last few years having sanctioned the felling of most estate larch and ash trees. “We have Dothistroma needle blight, ink spot, Phytophthora, chalara. The list goes on. You don’t know what is around the corner and not every disease out there has been identified yet.”
In our second virtual session, we ask about the duties of RFS president.
“Being president takes up approximately a day-and-a-half a week,” says Ben. “You are effectively the PR person, a non-executive director of the organisation, liaising with HQ and the chief executive, chairing and attending council meetings.”
From student membership, Ben went on to become chair of the RFS South East Wales division and (until 2015) a trustee. Following two years as the RFS vice president, he became president in October 2022. In October 2024, he was succeeded by Alison Field.
Memorable moments include presenting the annual Excellence in Forestry Awards, and, between April and October, attending all 20 divisional meetings, held as far south as Cornwall and as far north as Northumberland and in Northern Ireland.
“The divisional meetings are the lifeblood of the organisation,” he says. “Topics covered can be summarised as markets, tree species, pests and disease and manpower shortages. Each meeting covers at least two out of four subjects.”
Llanarth (Monmouthshire) hosted one such meeting in October 2023 in a 72-ha conifer block (Talycoed) acquired from the Forestry Commission in the 1980s.
Amid the conifers, members witnessed Llanarth’s resource restructuring in practice. “We restructure the woods by working out what species are successful and what are not. If it’s not successful, we don’t replant it. For example, we felled (FC-planted) grand fir and it was difficult to sell because the markets had changed. We replanted with Douglas fir.”
On the periphery, members saw a two-year-old species planting trial of (UK-grown) tulip trees, three species of hickory, liquidambar and Tilia platyphyllos (large-leaved lime). The trial’s aim is to identify species that will suit Llanarth’s future treescape in a changing climate. “The white wood of tulip trees is good for kitchen furniture. I would like to experiment with eucalyptus, which is resilient to drought but is susceptible to frost.”
Moving to a smaller 10-ha mixed block (beech, American red oak, Douglas fir and Scots pine), members saw how 40 years of continuous-cover forestry management, felling small coups little and often, has resulted in the successful natural regeneration of American red oak, supplemented with plantings of Douglas fir.
Llanarth’s experience of pest and disease is that since 2020, roe, fallow and muntjac deer have become a much bigger problem. “During COVID, they were not being disturbed as much, so they bred faster. And whilst on the subject, it is the same for the squirrels. Our gamekeeper and the local rifle club took 1,200 last year and so far this year it’s 800.”
Llanarth may hire a professional stalker. “England has grants for stalkers, in Wales you don’t. Targets to plant 30,000 ha are pointless if they are killed by vermin. Not only do deer affect the trees, they’re starting to interfere with agriculturally productive land. Thermal imaging with drones will tell us how many we have and we can then work out how many to cull. There is little money in venison, so it will be a cost until we have a reliable outlet. It is a healthy meat. Government could put it into their supply chains (schools, prisons, hospitals, the MOD).”
Last but not least, the meeting covered bird surveys and dormouse management. “We like dormice. We have someone that makes nesting boxes for us and we actively encourage people to put them out.”
Further presidential highlights include attending study tours at home and abroad. “Last year, the (annual) RFS whole society meeting went to Kent. We visited many interesting estates, including Sittingbourne, Torry Hill and Hole Park Estate, where we witnessed the production of chestnut coppice and the planting of cricket bat willow. This year, we travelled to Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, visiting the Grimthorpe and Wellbeck Estates and also a community woodland project near Boston.”
2025’s study tour will come to South Wales. “Although I won’t be president, we have already formed a committee to organise the tour. The aim is to visit some private estates and woodlands managed by Natural Resources Wales, to see how they manage their forestry and how they use their land for renewables (wind turbines). Although not everyone’s cup of tea, wind turbines are part of the Net Zero jigsaw. If we can grow trees and have wind turbines, it has to be a good thing, doesn’t it?”
In 2024, the RFS organised a tour to Slovenia. “It was enlightening seeing timber managed in an eastern European country, the different management systems and the heavy state control determining what they can and can’t do. Once their trees reach 150-foot high, they are not allowed to harvest them. Slovenia has few timber processing facilities, so they export everything (mostly to Austria) and import it back, losing out on the uplift between wholesale and retail prices.”
Reflecting for a minute, Ben says the most rewarding experiences of his presidency have been meeting recipients of the Long Service Award and presenting it the RFS’s highest honour to those that have made extraordinary contributions to forestry. “This year, I presented two Gold Medals, to Dr Jo Clark of the Future Trees Trust and to Professor Julian Evans. It is an award given out sparingly. The last time was in 2019, to Geraint Richards, head forester at the Duchy of Cornwall.”
During Ben’s Presidency, the RFS retained Royal Patronage. King Charles III himself was RFS president from 1982 to 1983.
Our third conversation focuses on the future. Explaining his role as Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Gwent, Ben says: “The King has a representative in every county, a Lord Lieutenant. Every Lord Lieutenant has various deputies to assist when they are not available. We represent the King at remembrance services and at other events where the King is a patron, and also at citizenship ceremonies. These are humbling experiences as some of these people have gone through heaven and hell to become naturalised within the UK.”
Asked what he would like the new government to address, he says: “We have to tackle climate change, pest and disease, future species selection (remit of the FC and Forest Research), grants, and to encourage future generations into forestry.
“Government wants 30,000 ha of new woodlands a year planted until 2050. Last financial year, 5,500 ha were planted, before that 3,600 ha. The RFS would like the devolved powers to clarify what future funding will be available. England and Scotland have different rules to Wales, leaving Wales at a potential disadvantage. We had an outcry when the Welsh government wanted 10 per cent of every farm to be planted with trees and 10 per cent for biodiversity. You can argue this is nationalisation of farmland. Now that this is on the backburner we are in limbo, not expecting anything to happen until the Royal Welsh Show in 2025. Planning ahead is difficult when you don’t know the financial regime you will be working under.”
As for what’s next for Ben Herbert, he concludes: “I wouldn’t mind getting involved with the Future Trees Trust, either as a trustee or to help with fundraising. I will continue to make Llanarth’s woods resilient and profitable and do my best to encourage the young to come into this sector, perhaps offering someone a placement here. The young resonate with climate change and it is in the public imagination. There has never been a better time to be a forester; with climate change, net zero and carbon sequestration, forestry ticks all the boxes.”
For the full suite of educational initiatives offered by the RFS, please see: www.rfs.org.uk/learning/
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