I first came into contact with John Packham around 1970, when he was a lecturer at the Wolverhampton Polytechnic and asked if he could have access to some of my data on woods and hedgerows in Shropshire. In subsequent years, our paths crossed on a number of occasions, which is not surprising, as we had similar interests in trees and woodlands. John studied wood sorrel and yellow archangel for his Ph.D., under the tutelage of Arthur Willis at Sheffield; while I had previously carried out a somewhat similar but briefer study of sycamore and Norway maple at Bangor. Therefore, we had a somewhat similar ecological approach.
We both served on an advisory committee for the setting up of an M.Sc. course in conservation at the University of Glamorgan some years later, and John joined the newly formed Continuous Cover Forestry Group, of which I was chairman from 1991 to 1995. We both attended a field meeting of Pro Silva (the European body that was created in 1989 to promote forestry based on ecological principles) in Slovakia in 1992, where we visited natural and managed forests; including beech forests, which were a particular interest of his. I had visited an area of relatively untouched forest owned by the Church, known as Fiby Urskog, as part of a study of forest vegetation which I carried out in Central Sweden in 1976, and John carried out some more detailed work there, together with Håkon Hytteborn from Uppsala, which was published in this journal (Hytteborn & Packham, Citation1985, Citation1987).
The similarities in our interests were sufficient for John to telephone me occasionally, about once or twice per year in recent years. Although he was almost a decade older than me, he always seemed like the perpetual schoolboy in his openness to ideas and concepts; and he did not assume that his academic position or age gave him any automatic seniority. However, he was meticulous, thorough, and hardworking, in the manner of a true academic; and this combination of characteristics, coupled with the fact that he was free from many of the preconceptions which foresters and arboriculturists tend to have, made him particularly helpful to talk to. His co-authored books on the ecology of woodlands (Packham, Harding, Hilton, & Stuttard, Citation1992; Thomas & Packham, Citation2007), provide a useful introduction to the dynamics and diversity of woodlands and forests, particularly in a European and North American context. I must get around to reading the most recent one more thoroughly, as I am sure that I will find useful information that I had previously missed!
Retired Independent Consultant
[email protected]
– 2015, Rodney Helliwell
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03071375.2015.1075330
References
- Hytteborn, H., & Packham, J. R. (1985). Left to nature: Forest structure and regeneration in Fiby urskog, central Sweden. Arboricultural Journal, 9(1), 1–11. doi:10.1080/03071375.1985.9746687.
- Hytteborn, H., & Packham, J. R. (1987). Decay rate of Picea abies logs and the storm gap theory: A re-examination of Sernander Plot III Fiby urskog, central Sweden. Arboricultural Journal, 11, 299–312. doi:10.1080/03071375.1987.9756362.
- Packham, J. R., Harding, D. J. L., Hilton, G. M., & Stuttard, R. A. (1992). Functional ecology of woodlands and forests. London: Chapman and Hall.
- Thomas, P. A., & Packham, J. R. (2007). Ecology of woodlands and forests. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.