FUTURE TREES
This was a well attended seminar with over 100 delegates. The main speakers were Keith Sacre of Barcham Trees plc and Martin Kelly of Capita Lovejoy and the Trees & Design Action Group. It was organised by the Arboricultural Association Irish Branch and held at the National Botanic Gardens conference centre, Dublin.
As chairman of the Arboricultural Association Irish Branch, I introduced the seminar by outlining the two ideas behind its organisation.
Firstly, the towns and cities of Ireland have obviously grown and developed over the last 50 years. Tree planting has largely failed to give us the quality treescapes and canopy cover our towns and cities need. This is largely due to often simple mistakes; mistakes in spatial planning and design as regards where trees are planted; poor plant quality and species selection; mistakes in the spacing between trees and other structures (given mature size), and mistakes in installtion, including failure in design of tree planting pits. Most arboriculturists are employed to assess and manage estblished or mature trees - trees planted 20 or 200 years ago. Tree planting, especially in urban situations, needs to be better informed by arboricultural knowledge. The failures in urban tree planting are not down to one profession or industry group; there are a multitude of professionals involved and influencing the management and planting of urban trees. One profession or industry on its own cannot therefore solve this problem - cannot tackle this challenge - on its own.
This leads to the second idea behind the seminar. We need a structure, a group, made of key people in all the professions and industries affecting urban trees and tree planting. This includes not just arborists and landscape architects, but engineers, planners, and many other 'stakeholders'. We need to talk to and inform each other. This it seems to me is our hope of really improving things.
Keith Sacres work in developing the new BS8545 is a perfect example of addressing the first issue - greater input of arboricultural knowledge in tree planting and intergrating best practice from nursery production through to planting and aftercare.
The Trees & Design Action Group (www.tdag.org.uk), originally founded in London by Martin Kelly, is the perfect example of the sort of group or forum I believe we need. I'm happy to say that we are now beginning to plan the establishment of a TDAG Ireland.
Roy Goodwin