Amelanchier

Pete. How long was the bury in the silver streak? Short enough to tie a helical? Could you make an eye to eye long/short enough for a VT? Would it be worth the effort. What colour socks am I wearing? Will I get that quote from the other day?

I wish I'd done my work experience at your gaff mate! Looks like he got a pretty good overview of the job. My only concern is that there's no evidence that he drank enough tea.

Prionus coriarus - the Tanner or Sawyer beetle Mobile phone shots, sorry guys. However, I am due back on the site so will take a proper camera... This frankly huge beast is Nationally Notable.

Great shots Monkey and a wise lesson. I found a little baby G. resinacium on a Quercus ilex in Overstrand recently.

Hurrah. We need more bugs on this site, way to much of a bias on fungi. I wonder if Steve would give us a bug forum if we had enough shots...

Nod, could you expand on this?? I'm not too experienced with bracing but reading the draft 3998 didn't ring any alarm bells... Is it too restrictive? Cheers

The pores of Daedaleopsis confragosa would also best be described as elongated, it is know as the maze gill after all...

Gawd bless google. http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=phellinus+igniarius&spell=1 It was always the cracking that set it apart IMO, rare to see that in a Gano...

Das ist eine Ganoderma spp., nein?

Prunus padus.

Cut pieces? I bet you could have just pulled bits off it. Dismantle to ground level with bare hands. Hulk smash.

With a catchy title like that, who could fail to click on the link. Summary - 1App becomes compulsory on 1st October 2008. LPAs will be quite at liberty to return applications not made on the 1app form regardless of content. I doubt we will.

AA Technicians Certificate mate. Next NQF level up and a bloody good all-rounder IMO. TreeLife run courses (best bet), and there's a self study route if you feel like torturing yourself into insanity.

I agree with your sentiments Dean, Huck & Steve. All an assessment can ever do is show that you can pass an assessment on a given day. However, I'm a of a different generation and I think that has a major bearing on my attitude to the issue. It was drummed into me at school that your academic qualifications were a way of standing out from the crowd - So get as many as you can, 'cos everyone else is! Point being, in terms of employment, If you and I climb the same, cut the same and cram as much stuff in the chipper but I have a diploma in tree stuff... The boss should employ me. And you should go and get two diplomas for next time! I can't count the number of exams and tests that I have sat, its ridiculous it probably adds up to weeks of my life. And I'm certainly not the best tree worker. But I think, for my personal career path, the relentless pursuit of more and more qualifications has helped, its given me momentuum and drive to improve. Whether those bits of paper actually mean anything? Some of them do, some of them don't. Some of them are an absolute joke. Some of them are quite an achievement. There's this thing called CPD. Continuing Professional Development. That's what we should focus on, and it doesn't have to mean sitting exams or listening to some guy ramble on about cutting edge research into Paclobutrazol - it can just be bettering yourself over time however best suits you. Sir.

They don't read the books...

Lonsdale mentions P. fraxinea.

Is that where you have to clear fell an infinite blackthorn thicket with a blunt folding silky???

Bit like this???

I agree with MisterTee. Not exactly good news for your Ash tree.

I have to agree with Ed. That is probably the best picture of I. hispidus ever!

I'm a tea surgeon.

I used to tell people that an Arborist was a professional tree surgeon...

I see your point, there just didn't seem to be any decayed/altered wood in the tear. Plenty of discoloured wood but no decay that I could see. Perhaps a longitudinal cut would have showed more? Plus Arbs never really do/see those in their day to day work, might give additional insight into the extent of decay?

Defo an arborist. Otherwise you might as well be a remote controlled chainsaw.

Well ultimatley I think its fairly academic - all Rupe really needs to know is the decay strategy and how that will effect the extent of damage. He can then in accordance with the third rule of VTA calculate the strength of the remaining parts of the tree and make his recommendations! So:- Inonotus spp. on Oak = White rot, ductile fracture likely. Tree will tend to show adaptive growth prior to failure. More of a diagnosis problem when I. dryadeus is between buttresses but here its not. F. hepatica = typically low intensity Brown rot. Failure uncommon. Depending on the rest of the tree, maybe not a cause for removal??