PROFILE: PETE BOWSHER
Chainsaw Pete
Three years after first meeting Pete Bowsher at Carve Carrbridge, James
Hendrie met up with Pete at his Moffat base to discuss his forty-odd-year
career in forestry and carving.32 MAY 20 18 FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UKP
ETE is well recognised as one of the top
carvers in the country and known to many for
his appearances at carving championships and
competitions.
Originally from Hamilton in Ontario, Canada,
Pete’s family moved to Devon in 1975 when he was 14.
People sometimes find it difficult to place his country
of origin as a result, although being asked if he is from
Ireland has left him bemused on more than one occasion!
After leaving school he found himself in the local job
centre wondering what career path to take when he saw a
role advertised with the Forestry Commission.
“The job was to become a forest craftsman working
at Smokey Bottom in Neroche Forest, near Taunton,
in Somerset. I got the job and was soon put to work
doing hands-on forestry; everything from planting and
weeding to fencing and general maintenance. I
learned how to carry out establishment and
maintenance forestry work, and this gave
me a real good grounding.” From this
early work, Pete moved on to working
with a harvesting squad after doing a
two-week chainsaw training course in
the New Forest.
These were the days of the ‘Green
book’ which allowed training in
specific work to be ‘signed off’ to
demonstrate competency in the jobs
at hand. Work then followed in the
Broadclyst Forest near Exeter, as part of
a felling team. It was here that Pete fell in
love with the chainsaw! He also enjoyed the
camaraderie of working with the team of hand
cutters, which went hand in hand with a competitive
spirit.
He was lucky during these early days to have a boss
that suggested he should develop his career into a
management role. After studying for, and achieving, a
Phase 1 Forestry City & Guilds qualification, he moved on
to a three year BTEC Ordinary National Diploma (OND)
in Forestry at Newton Rigg College in Penrith which
he passed with distinction. This course, in 1985, was
based on a year studying at the college and then a year
working, which in Pete’s case was at Buccleuch Estate at
Drumlanrigg in Dumfriesshire.
It was while studying at Newton Rigg that Pete saw his
first carving, a basic owl, which inspired him to go home
and carve a windblown apple tree into a stork! This is
where his carving career began. It was initially in tree
felling that he competed though. He went on to compete at
the national championships which, by a quirk of fate, were
held at Dalbeattie in Dumfriesshire at the same time he
was working at the Buccleuch Estate at Drumlanrigg.
Pete came third at this championship, but was oncemore drawn to carving, which
he continued at Drumlanrigg.
Fate intervened in 1987 when
the head forester at the estate,
Bob Jordan, who was also the then
chair of the Royal Scottish Forestry
Society (RSFS), asked Pete to do some
exhibition carving at the Glasgow Garden
Festival. This event, held in the city over five months,
attracted over four million visitors.
“This was my first attempt at carving in public. I
was extremely nervous but excited at the chance to
demonstrate what I could do. I must have done okay
because after doing it for the RSFS for three days, the
Forestry Commission asked me to do carving on their
stand for another three days! This was a great event to
showcase my carving. From it I started to get invitations
to other events and to get carving commissions.”
As Pete pointed out, back in the late ’80s and into the
’90s, there was no internet or social media to help hone
carving skills or to market end products, so a lot of his
time was spent carving, reading magazines, and watching
and talking to other carvers to share ideas to see how they
created their end works.
Following on from the Glasgow festival, and after
the completion of his OND, Pete gained employment
with the Forestry Commission as a Forester at Dornoch
in Sutherland. The acceptance of this position madeAbove: European
Champion 2006.Pete carving at
Sculptree 2006 at
Westonbirt Arboretum.