Tree Alliance celebrates by recognising two of their own leaders

Posted 10 February 2021

As part of International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11) Tree Alliance is proud to celebrate the work of its female employees, Private Forests Tasmania chief executive Penny Wells and Agriforester Molly Marshall.

By using their scientific expertise of Tasmania’s forests, Wells and Marshall are providing innovative and creative solutions for Tasmania’s farmers and landowners.

Over the last year, Penny Wells and Molly Marshall have helped implement the Tree Alliance marketing campaign, raising awareness of farm forestry and the benefits of trees on farms, and to encourage and facilitate farmers to plant commercially viable trees in the agricultural landscape within Tasmania.

As the CEO of Private Forests Tasmania, which is an independent statutory authority of the Tasmanian government, Penny leads the team to help educate Tasmania’s farmers and landowners on the benefits of planting trees including increasing farm productivity, improving water efficiency and water quality, improving the carbon balance, protecting the land for the future and creating high value timber products.

Penny has over thirty years’ experience in the forestry sector in Tasmania, having been involved in forest planning, policy and management with both the Tasmanian Government and forest industry since the late 1980s.

She has experience on the Board of the Forest Practices Authority, is currently chair of the Tasmanian Regional Forestry Hub (NNW pilot hub), is a member of the national Forest Industries Advisory Council and for the four years prior to her appointment as PFT CEO in 2018, was the Director of Forest Policy in the Department of State Growth.

Molly Marshall

Daskey-Willis was appointed to the role of Agriforester within Private Forests Tasmania in 2020. Molly has been engaging and working with rural landowners, industrial and non-industrial forest growers and managers, as well as service providers and investors to assist them in accessing relevant information regarding private forestry.

Coming from a rural background with a strong family history of farming, Marshall recently completed a Bachelor in Sustainability, majoring in Environmental Resilience, from the University of New England in New South Wales.

Growing the future

Tasmania’s forestry sector is one of innovation, utilising state-of-the-art technology and world class research to lead not only the nation, but the world in innovative harvesting, drying and processing of timber. It is an exciting and rewarding sector.

Australia is the sixth most forested country in the world and female scientists like Wells and Marshall are playing a critical role in the management of our forests and are helping play a role in halting climate change, encouraging the planting of trees that will remove carbon from the atmosphere and when harvested, will provide a renewable resource associated with low carbon emissions.