Andy Clark

It seems that lots of different colleges, teach lots of different ways..... two colleges that spring to mind are Myerscough and Capel Manor; both highly aclaimed for the positive steps they take to align the subjects taught, with benefiting the industry. Hats off to both of them. But my experience of teaching Arb at a much smaller local college was unfortunately less admirable....... I taught the Arb based units within the First Dip Hort, NDHort (Arb), NCHort (Arb), and C&G Phase II....... managed to stomach it for one term! For me, i had become part of something that was both watering down the skills within industry, and was building students up for a massive fall. Things like...... The powers that be, expecting students to climb on 9 year old climbing harnesses. I tried to condemn them under LOLER, only to be told by my head of dept. that i could not destroy them, as he was to take them and sell them at a local auction house. The college grounds coming under a Conservation Are notice, so any tree climbing practical sessions had to be carried out off campus. Funding was scarce, so the opportunities to actually get off campus and climb, were minimal. My predecesor teaching nothing but comp. climbing, so my 2nd year students may have been great at footlocking or throwbag techniques, but had no idea of any practical work skills. No understanding of crown shape/balance, work positioning etc. A library containing a grand total of approx 12-15 Arb related book$s. Most of which were out-dated Woodland management or forestry type content. Again, minimal funding for ever getting up to date or relevant material. Student-Teacher ratios well above the recommended size in terms of safety. I believe 1:8 is the recommended ratio for practical sessions...... i had well in excess of 1:15.... sometimes 1:20. 1 ms200t, and 5 (maybe 6) groundsaws. None of which were of a profesional quality. (Makita hobby-saws) Being told to "grade high" on course work, and focus on student retention, in order to reflect good for the govt. funding per head. Often passing work, that my 8 year old son would've put to shame. The list goes on........ Needless to say, after i left, the college went on to score a 4 out of 5 in its next OFSTED inspection....... 5 being that the college would've been shut down! For me, that just afforded me with a big, fat "I told you so". All these things, and more, just shouldn't be happening! As an example of a way forward, Colleges have the ability to teach "secondary learning goals". Why not use them to teach the NPTC certs, thereby only ever turning out students who are fully equipped to enter the work place? Why? Because it's too much about the "bums on seats", not enough about the "ethics" of teaching.

Tom..... if you go back to the page it's on, you can download it!!! It'd be good one to keep the 1st dips happy. :thumbup:

AWESOME!!!! Anyone remember this little beauty????? Internet Archive: Free Download: Shake Hands With Danger You just gotta love the '70s

Agreed on the Windblow overlap...... It seems very much weighted towards the assumption that the tree is to be felled. Admitedly, there is a small portion regarding branch removal/hung up branches, but i get the impression that it's moreso from the perspective of working from the ground. Considering the cs34/cs35 overlap, it seems a bit pointless IMO.

Mark, Try Moulton College up near Northampton. There's Capel Manor as well, but it depends on how far you wanna travel. M.k to Enfield's probably gonna take you about an hour. They also used to run the course at Shuttleworth, but dropped it due to lack of interest.

Perhaps another point to throw in the mix....... do you not find that the type of work changes between summer and winter, possibly meaning that you wouldn't be spending as much time on site anyway??? I mean, summer to me always meant pruning type works. Reductions, thins, rows and rows of crown lifts and epicormics.......oh, and the endless hours upon hours of hedgetrimming. But winter seemed to be more deadwooding, or take-downs, or apple tree snip snipping.

Never having run my own contracting business, i can only comment from an employee perspective...... I've never found a boss yet, that changes prices between winter and summer. Lost count of how many times i've been there on a cold nov/dec/jan evening, rakeing up by transit headlight though. Headtorches tend to come in handy too.

Try, [email protected]

David, Depending on how serious you are about this (and whether or not you wanna invest 15 quid), you could try giving this lot a nod. Local UK big trees from The Tree Register I know David Alderman, the chap that runs their database....... a more knowledgeable man on champion trees, does not exist.

Awesome!!! Look at all the shiney stuff!!! I'm having trouble typing now, thanks to all the dribble on my keyboard.

Well now you come to mention it.... i seem to remember something about one of those also......

TERIBLE! "It's TERIBLE that the public use such people...... If only there was a way of improving public awareness......"

After the past few days, I'm just impressed at how restrained everyone's being at not mentioning the "T" word. Talk about tongue biting!

Arbortrail is good. As are the ArborCAD/shadow progs..... especially if you're going to be getting into BS5837 surveys. But they're really only intended for data collection and mapping.... if you want a full on management programme, probably best off looking at Ezytreev. Welcome to EzyTreev.com ... for the complete tree management system

http://www.wmcce.org/files/AWM/090902%20BLD%202012%20AWM%20Briefing%20-%20Sep09.pdf This is the Sept progress update for the contract works....... Page 8 onwards is a list of all the current tenders. There's a few mentions of Tree/Arb/Landscape, but not much.

Cheers Kev, I did think of dropping Mr Matthews a line, but not sure of the response I'd get TBH. I'm trying to be a bit "kid glove"ish and just see what info's actually out there, without getting into the realms of direct contact....... I mean, there's obviously a reason behind why it merged with the AA, and when it comes to things like this, it's sometimes difficult to gauge peoples loyalties/standpoints on the political front. You know what it's like..... you start off doing a bit of harmless research, and the next thing you know you've opened up a whole pandoras box-esque can of worms, with people asking "Why you wanna do that?" or "Ooooh, don't talk to me about the ABTSA!". The good ole' Arb industry grapevine. Great, ain't it?

A good find..... Thanks Anne/Margaret

I just wanted to pick everyones collective brains, if I may...... In a moment of boredom today, I found myself flicking through back issues of a few Arb mags/journals etc. In one (essentialARb issue 27; article re Derek Patch), I came across a reference to the Association of British Tree Surgeons. Now, although I've been around in the industry for 18ish years now, I can honestly "hand-on-heart" say that I have never EVER heard of this org before, so I decided to put Google to use and do some digging. So far, i've only managed to find one other reference to the Assoc contained within the background history section of the AA website. It appears that it was set up some time during the 60's, but amalgamated with the AA some 10ish years later, to singularly form what we now know as todays AA. Now to my way of thinking, that would mean that for at least 10 years, this organisation was run, managed and maintained as a separate entity...... but can I find any other info relating to it?? Erm, no! So my question to all Arbtalkers out there (mainly to the old war horses), is if anyone else has ever come across or has any relative info regarding the org?? Founder members, principles/standards...... absolutely anything. Cheers

Erm.... clean it up! Just the same as you would if it was a Hamster cage, or a Cat litter tray. Plenty of newspaper and wood-shavings in the bottom of the cage, remove the droppings daily, and change the paper and wood-shavings weekly. Simples.

Not at all mate, if you've already added, then i stand corrected. Was it on this thread though?? As i've already said, Stevie B is trying to put together a comprehensive resource for us all to use...... it doesn't have to be good/bad, as somebody somewhere may find some aspect of the info useful.

Rubbish!!! They make GREAT pets!! If you knuckle them from a young age (feed them your index finger knuckle, when they try and bite it, push you knuckle gently but firmly into their gob), they'll never bite again. As for the smell, it's mostly from the Hob..... get them spayed, wash them regularly and feed them plenty of FerretTone, and you'll hardly catch a whiff. As for working v pet....... just keep them entertained. If indoors, then a nice BIG cage in the living room (mine used to sit and watch telly for hrs!) with plenty of toys, hammocks and tunnels..... similar for kept outdoors, bit with more of a clearer segregation between play/sleep area. Try a split level rabbit hutch, with a built in run.

Geek!

As penance, thou shalt now read http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19993242.htm

Overall, less than AA membership. Plus more of a chance of competing with the PROPER big boys, that don't bother with trade assoc. membership.