Records of the Forestry, Mines and Lands Board: Forest Registers

The series comprises 3 volumes which furnish a granular account of the day-to-day management of the forests and woodlands controlled by the Forestry, Mines and Lands Board. For the purposes of effective management, the Board's forest and woodland assets were divided into administrative compartments and sub-compartments with crop rotations generally being affected every 30 years.

5 form types were produced in order to streamline the administration of compartments throughout the forestry life-cycle of pre-thinning, thinning and maturation.

• Form 1 - furnishes information on the land parcel's name, the compartment number, the date of first registration, the acreage, the species planted, remarks and any treatments undertaken;
• Form 2 - provides a work log of activities undertaken at the Board's instruction in order to ensure the proper management of forest and woodland assets;
• Form 3 - details ingoing and outgoing monies associated with the management of the compartments;
• Form 4 - serves as a 'Nursery' record documenting the transplantation of saplings affected during the general forestry stocktake, which occurred annually each August; and
• Form 5 - details the appreciation in value of compartments over the course of their life-cycle.

In 1947, Tynwald agreed to purchase all Crown property on the Island including common lands, minerals, quarries, forests, foreshores and territorial sea.

The new Board drawing its name from the legislation which established it - The Forestry Mines and Lands Act, 1950 - took on the responsibility for the management of a number of the aforementioned assets, namely: forestry, minerals and lands.

The Board's land management function was transferred from the Common Lands Board; while its forestry management function was transferred from the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. The Board ceased to exist in 1986 when its core functions were in turn transferred to the newly created Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).

Registers are arranged in roughly chronological order with a degree of overlap occurring between volumes within the series.

This series in open. For information on visiting the Isle of Man Public Record Office please see our website: www.gov.im/pro

Please see our website for catalogues: www.gov.im/pro

Series level description created by Gavin Rowan, IOMPRO, 17 Jan 2017.

Selected for permanent preservation in Nov 2015, Angela Skitt, IOMPRO.

Records in consignment C630 were transferred to the Isle of Man Public Record Office as a temporary consignment under section 3(8) of the Public Records Act, 1999 in Mar 2010 by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Forestry, Amenity and Lands division). The records were fully transferred to the Isle of Man Public Record Office under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act, 1999 in Jan 2016.

No accruals are expected.

Also held at the Isle of Man Public Record Office:

• S59 - Records of the Isle of Man Forestry, Mines and Lands Board: Minute Books;
• S60 - Records of the Isle of Man Forestry, Mines and Lands Board: Outgoing Copy Letter Books.