London Tree Officers Association Seminar at Barcham Trees - Thursday 5 June 2014

AGENDA

Starts 9.30am

• Tea and coffee and welcome
• Becky Porter the LTOA and projects we are working on
• Jake Tibbetts Massaria disease of plane a practical guide
• John Parker Sustainable Water Management, Ceratosystis Platani survey and tree pit surface materials
• Richard Edwards Case study of Croydon’s work with the Forestry
• Speakers Q&A

Lunch 1:00pm

• Dave Lofthouse Open Source Canopy Cover Audit (OSCCA)
• Jim Smith London i-tree eco
• Speakers Q&A

Ends 3.15pm

This event is free and if you would like to attend please contact Becky Porter on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 07771976238

Download the flyer here

UKI Ride Finishes

On May 1st Russell Ball completed his solo-unsupported endurance UKI Capital Cities Bike Challenge. The ride was more than 1,000 miles and took over 300,000 pedal strikes. Trees were planted in schools in every capital city: Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and London with over 700 children.

He stated: “This was an epic challenge and remarkably, there were only a few hours of drizzle during the 2.5 week ride and the bike had no punctures! The school visits were the key focus and made all the countless hill-climbs and hours of headwinds worthwhile. At Fund4trees we now hope that Donate1Job and Donate1Hour are now firmly on the map to help us secure a longer-term sustainable funding-stream for much-needed urban tree research.”

http://fund4trees.org.uk/donate/

Fund4Trees would especially like to thank the Ride sponsors Gristwood & Toms and Barchams, and the Trees Officers in all the Capital cities for securing the schools and arranging the tree plantings.

Mount Stewart School (Kenton, London)

Darren Kilby Head of Sales & Marketing with Gristwood & Toms (on left-hand side of photo) with the G&T tree-planting pit-preparation crew (bottom left corner of photo)

Oak Processionary Moth emergence information and management guidelines

Oak Processionary Moth (OPM) larvae have been observed emerging over the last few weeks, signalling the start of the control period. Sightings have occurred as follows:

• 8th April, Kew Gardens (observed on Turner’s Oak, a hybrid of Quercus ilex and Q. robur);
• 10th April, Richmond Park;
• 13th April, Netherlands, near Nijmegen (see attached photo).

This appears to be two to three weeks later than 2014, when the first record of emergence I could find was from the Netherlands on 21st March.

The Forestry Commission will begin operations in the Control Zone next week (w/b 20 April).

BARCHAM'S 2015 BIG BARN CONFERENCE PROMISES TO BE BRITAIN'S BIGGEST EVER

Barcham Trees, Europe's largest container tree nursery, is hosting its Big Barn Conference entitled 'A Day in the Urban Forest' at its Ely, Cambridgeshire, headquarters on Wednesday, 17 June 2015.

The event's organiser, Barcham's sales director Keith Sacre, has secured a group of world-class arboricultural experts as speakers to the expected 550 delegates for whom attendance, plus breakfast and lunch, is completely free of charge. "We believe our 2015 Big Barn Conference will be the biggest arboricultural gathering of its kind ever held in the UK, and I am delighted we have nine speakers from three continents to make the day a truly international event, and one we know tree care professionals will not want to miss", says Keith.

The peer who earlier this year called for stricter bio-security measures relating to tree imports is set to make the opening address. Speaking in the House of Lords in a debate on the natural environment on 15 January 2015, Lord Framlingham expressed his concern at the number of trees imported into the UK and the risk posed by attendant diseases such as ash dieback. He also praised the voluntary code of practice devised, introduced and implemented by Barcham Trees regarding the bio-security of its tree stock.

Compère for the conference will be Dr Mark Johnston, himself a speaker on the history of urban forestry, who will introduce:

• Jim Smith Trees and Woodlands Officer London on the London i-Tree project
• Frederic Segur on urban forest management in Lyon France.
• Mike Raupp: University of Maryland USA on pests and diseases: threats to the urban forest
• Henrik Sjoman University of Alnarp. Sweden on tree species selection
• Nina Bassuk. Cornell University USA on tree species selection for the urban environment
• Dave Nowak USDA USA on urban forest management, and the use of i-Tree
• Cecil Konijndijk van den Bosch. University of Alnarp. Sweden on urban forest governance.

A few places are still available from Barcham Trees. Please e-mail Natasha Hutchison This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.