Amelanchier

I can't believe you don't remember David http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/tree-health-care/21495-spotted-fomes-fomentarius-norfolk.html

We have F. fomentarius about 5 miles down the road from me. Furthest east I'll wager.

Natural pollards? You mean trees that have had bits fall off them? So you disagree with Fay & Green et al insofar as you would say that not all veterans have survived because they have been cut?

Of course if all our veterans have been 'cut' then we have nothing to judge that claim against do we! Neatly unfalsifiable.

On a duller but less sarcastic note I suspect (I hope?) that Tony and I simple disagree over whether we are speaking in the context of individual trees versus whole populations of them and the definitions of the words;'need' and 'pruning'. In the context of the sentence 'Trees don't need pruning', I simply mean; 'Generally speaking, the survival of trees is not contingent on people cutting bits off them'. I would imagine when Tony protests that trees do need intervention he means; 'It is desirable to extend the longevity of some trees by the careful removal of those parts that may predictably foreshorten a trees lifespan'. If so, I doubt either of us has a problem with the others opinion. Boring huh?

Thanks Gerrit. I thought there might be more to it!

Persecution complex huh? The trees need you? You make trees better with your saw? I suppose we should be glad you're not a physiotherapist.

I'm wrong because I don't spec as much work as you might? Sigh.

Mostly planning, but I don't spec much work when I do hazard assessments either. I have a light touch. Its a very different situation to speccing contracting work!

I'm very grateful. I've just been playing with changing the hatch to represent different foliage densities, definatley opens up the options - thanks again. I have a site with approx 500 individual / group trees which could do with a decent shade analysis for dwelling layout so that should tell me how many trees it should cope with!

This is an interesting approach, could you flesh it out a bit more? I presume you don't mean remove all roots? How do you deal with those that are grafted?! How did you arrive at 10 cubic metres? Doesn't the specification to remove all roots (even just the significant ones over 25mm diameter) neccessarily involve the removal of more than 10 cubic metres of soil (excavations of approx 4.0m x 4.0m x 0.6m for example)? Anyhow, isn't Armillaria endemic to most soils inhabited by trees? Isn't it useful recycler in such situations? I suspect it is far easier to manage infected / declining trees than to manage host soils.

Works very well Rob. Simple installation process and I had it working on an existing survey first time. I have been looking for a simple plugin like this for ages to supplement our BRE209 stuff so thank you very much. See example below for the winter solstice this year (yellow arcs were drawn using our existing software) - I changed the density of the hatch and rounded it a little.

In many ways this is why I prefer my desk job to my climbing job. I can inspect hundreds and hundreds of trees, specify that no work is done to any of them, and still get paid.

Beat me to it! No changes in Wales.

Ha ha

If you'd turned up on Sunday you would have got your prizes!

Great news Paul. Whilst they might be the competition, it really raises the profile of the scheme which benefits us all.

Yeah please, been looking for something like that to add to the arsenal.

Well, I've mostly dried out now. Many thanks to everyone who turned up to spectate, compete and judge. Also thanks to our sponsors, Husqvana, Oregon, Rouse Power Equipment, Arbtalk (cheers Steve!), Arbjobs, (cheers Nick), Alderhill, MDH Arb hire, MJ Tree Services and anyone I've forgotton! Finally, thanks to Chalky and Gillian for ultimatley organising the whole thing and feeding the masses. The individual results were as follows: Tree Climb / MEWP: Hayden Platton Chris Willis Dan Curtis Pole Climb: Hayden Platton Lee Mitchell Ian Flatters Chainsaw: James Hoddy Alex Laver Daniel Fortuna As with every year, we encourage competitors to try their hand at every event to find the most rounded (and arguably most employable!) individual. This year we had just shy of twenty competitors who braved the torrential rain (in a drought year?!?) and the high winds - so here are the final combined results: OVERALL RESULTS Hayden Platton Chris Willis Alex Laver Ian Flatters Rob Bell Kristian Garnham Ben Mercer Dan Curtis Oli Husar Alex Talbot Sam Heath Seb Pettersson Daniel Fortuna Alan Garnham Tom Rawlings Matt Warden Joe Mercer Matt George Josh Morgan So well done guys. Incidentally, the top two places (Chris and Hayden) were seperated by 0.4 of a point. Having run through the calcs a couple of times; one second less on the pole climb or three more centimetres on the limb walk and we would have a different winner of the whole thing. Bad luck Chris and well done Hayd! Finally, this year we had a new prize in memory of Daryl Platton - the most competitive. Anyone who knew him would have to agree that he certainly was. Last year, while he was working in Sweden he wasn't able to make the competition, until that is, he heard that his brother Hayden was winning at the end of day one. That night he got on a plane, arrived on site in the morning and won the climbing and the overall titles. Anyhow, the first winner of the 'Most Competitive' award showed similar determination in ignoring the rain, wind, soggy ropes and bitter cold. Congratulations Dan Curtis! Full scores and the byzantine method by which I arrived at them are all included in the attached spreadsheet. C&C2012.xls

Ever looked to see which way they twist?

Whether natural inclusion adds anything to the existing framework of knowledge.

No news to me G. Tony, you may as well ask our learned friend now that he's here. I'm just an arboriculturalist...

Look man, you can listen to Robert Allen Zimmerman but you can't hear him. There's a difference man. Just because you're listening to him doesn't mean you're hearing him.

Most modern evolutionary theory doesn't exclude what is often called mutalism (or even altruism for that matter - being nice to others). Cooperation and symbiosis can evolve as a successful strategy within the conventional Dawinian (or neo-Darwinian) framework. Its just a way of living and moving some genes onwards, any sense of a particular strategy being a 'better' way of doing things is just a reflection of our own morality/ethics. As for my opinions on natural inclusional theory, I don't think it brings anything to the table that isn't already there in plenty. But you must know that by now...

Cheers. Probably my round next huh?