He’s a Creetown stalwart who’s planted and harvested thousands of trees with the Forestry Commission.
And Eric Houston is old enough – he admits that himself – to see great logs cut from trees he grew from seed half a century ago being shipped along the A75.
These days Galloway’s vast forests, almost entirely man-made, have become Scotland’s biggest source of supply for its wood products industries.
It’s a matter of some pride to Eric that he’s a dyed-in-the-wool forester.
