Paul Barton

I don't know why the link is showing like that but if you click on it it should work anyway.

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This looks to be a good website...you can search a database of species and associated fungi. Obviously not the 'bible' but could be a useful resource. </title> <style> h2 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; color = #99cc99; margin = 6px } h3 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 12px; color: #aa0000;} h4 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-siz

A bleeding wound shouldn't affect overall tree health or vitality due to the loss of sap. When you think about it, due to the organisation of the vascular system that carries specific nutrient flow from roots to shoots, the sap lost is only the sap that "fed" the specific limb that has been removed. As far as I know the rest of the tree does not lose out on its food as a result...

What the......??! What you been up to Mick?

Good post. At the risk of de-railing completely.... the arb 'industry' is no more blameless than the arb 'profession'. Most consultant arbs are writing reports on how to shoe-horn new developments in to the last bits of green space in our towns and cities thereby defeating what most of us would agree is the aim: to increase tree cover in urban areas. Under the flag of 'responsible development' and with claims of caring for trees we are squeezing buildings under trees just because we can now use inventive construction methods to allow it without compromising tree roots. I realise this is an aside to the idea of this thread, but I want to avoid any feelings of certain parts of the industry always bashing the climbers on the head with their "superior" knowledge.

Hi all, Can anyone recommend a tip site for woodchip and logs in this area? Many thanks, Paul

That's true but a tree is a living organism and the Eiffel tower is a non-living engineered structure. The 'holes' in the Eiffel tower are not there because the Eiffel tower has been degraded in some way, but trees get cavities because they are under attack from other living organisms. I get the point you are making but am not convinced by the analogy. I agree that far too many trees are felled as a knee-jerk reaction to symptoms of decay and I admire your VTA skills and confidence to put your neck on the line and propose to retain decayed trees. It is a shame that the people Stevie was working for were (unnecessarily) alarmed by the tree. Perhaps this case was a case of 'wrong house, wrong place' rather than 'wrong tree, wrong place'. She was a beauty of a tree that's for sure.

You are obviously a very intelligent chap, but that is a rather ridiculous analogy!

I think it was Warwickshire bat group - our office is not far from Warwickshire. If you need some volunteers around Worcester and Hereford let me know. I would value more of an insight in to the bat world.

Keith of Cotswold tree surgeons does alot around Swindon and is a good egg - you might want to call him?

We offered to install bat boxes for free for the local bat group last year but they haven't taken us up on it yet.

Don't I know it - I've just put in an application to fell some that you TPO'd Tony but they have been refused...

I have always though that obelisk better describes what we do to a tree anyway. 'Monolith' is just a geological feature that doesn't need to be a particular shape. Wikipedia again: A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are most often made of very hard and solid metamorphic or igneous rock. The word derives from the Latin word monolithus from the Greek word μονόλιθος (monolithos), derived from μόνος ("one" or "single") and λίθος ("stone").

Welcome to the forum bearded tree monkey! I hope you find this place useful and enjoyable. I have noticed that people, especially students, looking for advice/opinions etc to help them with college work/research get a good response from the forum users if they ask a specific question about the subject. For example, you could start a poll on your chosen subject with a question like "Is the government adequately handling the P.ramorum situation?". People may choose to expand on their answers which will help you. What doesn't get a good response on the forum is when students appear to be asking everyone else to do their work for them! Hope you don't mind this advice.....perhaps I will be proved wrong and you will get a flood of replies to your original post!

I think he means one 65 foot tree and one 30 foot tree rather than a 165 ft tree and a 130 ft tree.

I think it is Marishal Thompsons attempt at an approved contractor scheme. They do mostly subsidence related insurance work so maybe insurance companies have heard of it. Otherwise I don't think it holds much kudos.

Excellent choice! In my former life I used to sell treks and safaris and Hoopoe was my ground operator of choice!

OK. What I am saying is that this is not the place to speculate who the company is.

Thanks Dave. I have spoken to their technical support on that number - I was warned that Arbortrack is not really built to import data collected in other systems but I simply can't believe this. My cynical side tells me it could be a ploy to get you to buy Arbortrack for the survey.... It must be based on a database of some kind so moving data in and out can't be impossible. Can it?!

I may be wrong but I seem to remember Dave saying that old level 3 tech certs would be upgraded to level 4 as most people have regarded the tech cert as being more advanced than level 3 gave credit for.

Does anyone know what file format Arbortrack uses? Is it easy to import data in to and export from?

Nice one! Sorry to hear about your buddy though. Altitude is not to be under-estimated! I walked the Machame route back in 2003 - your photos have brought all the memories flooding back. One of the best experiences of my life so far. Out of interest who did you book with? I am impressed by the quality of the tents in your pics. Did the porters have decent accommodation and gear too? I remember this being an issue when I did it...especially when on the first night they realised they were one tent short for the tourists so I kipped in the porters tent!

Best not to spread speculation and rumour about this in my opinion.... The AAAC scheme may not include an assessment of scruples.

Great thread! Included forks and ears have always perplexed me. I am looking forward to hearing more of Duncan Slater's research in to this. I agree that the presence of pronounced ears shows a symptom of an internal defect, usually an internal crack. However, many trees present this symptom for many years before failure occurs and it currently seems hard to predict what the tipping point is. Obviously management of trees with these symptoms depend on the local environment and the presence of targets that could be affected by the potential failure. I personally find it a hard call to make in the scenario where you have a high value tree of overall good vitality located in a moderately high target area showing these symptoms. To do nothing could be perceived as negligence! My gut tells me that imminent failure is unlikely, but given that included unions and 'ears' are indeed a recognised defect it seems very difficult to do nothing. I would think that crown reduction to minimise the stresses on the weak point makes sense, but in the long run if the two opposing stems are incrementally thickening against each other it seems inevitable that at some stage they are going to peel apart. Would value your thoughts on this....