BatiArb

Well it is the Weald Wood Fair next week. Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum :laola: Another year past as time goes by all to fast…… We will have our usual stand just into the woodland area so please come and say hallo. Meanwhile, Navin Sehmi of Touch Trees has organized a climbing competition, which will be held on the main lawn area of Bentley House just as you come into the wood fair. The competition is sponsored by Honey Brothers and the prize is either an MS200T or MS260 (depending on which CS units you have). .

Thermal Imaging Training Brisbane 18th to 22nd October and Melbourne 25th to 29th October This posting is to follow up on my recent article in Australian ArborAge (see attached) and to let you know that Marcus Bellett-Travers will be in Australia this October to offer training in the application of thermal tree assessment and the use of his Tree Thermal Matrix System (TTMS) software processing. Workshop places will be available for up to six people at each venue. Training will be provided in the use of thermal imaging in the assessment of tree health and vitality, followed by the use of TTMS software to determine their reactive functionality. The latter can be of particular value when it comes to considering pruning work or the tree’s ability to respond to the presence of decay. Marcus will also be covering the use of thermal imaging for the identification and monitoring of tree pests, specifically wood boring insects. The workshop charges are dependant on numbers, but will be no more than AU$4,000 and the aim is to discount up to 25% as places are booked, that is, if all six places are booked then the total cost is AU$3000 per person. For example there are currently 3 provisional bookings for one of the workshops so that the current cost is AU$ 3,500 per person. The cost includes full training as detailed below in addition to a three month TTMS software license with full support and updates. If you want to continue with product support beyond the initial three month period the annual subscription will be AU$1500 covering support and regular updates. However, there is no obligation to subscribe to an annual license because trained users can still utilise the software without support at no extra cost. Special hire rates have been negotiated with FLIR Australia who offer a variety of cameras capable of being used for surveying trees. The training includes: Theory: • Introduction to thermodynamics (the study of heat); • Heat properties of wood; • Heat movement in the environment; • The use of thermal imaging cameras to monitor environmental heat; • The relationship between surface temperature and wood properties; • The relationship between wood properties, structural stability and vitality of trees; • Thermal properties and water stress; • Identification of tree pests with thermal imaging. Practical: • Using a thermal imaging camera to measure the surface temperature of trees; • Introduction to the translation of temperature data within thermal images (thermograms) in relation to what that can tell the tree thermographer about the wood properties. Understanding the Tree Thermal Matrix System (TTMS) and the use of TTMS Software: • Using the TTMS to calculate percentage functional wood in tree and how this can be used to assess the volume of decay; • Using the TTMS to identify tree pests such as wood boring insects; • Using the TTMS to identify water stress in transplanted trees. For more information please reply to e-mail [email protected] or if you would like further information on the use of thermal imaging in the assessment of trees, please do not hesitate to ask. Alternatively if you are not at the stage where you want to undertake the workshop training then there will be an opportunity to learn more about thermal imaging at a conference organised by the Australian ArborAge to be held in the Autumn next year (2011). Thank you for your time in reading this posting. Regards, Andrew AusArborAge ThermalRev June10.pdf

. Well it has been an enjoyable catch up this morning. Last nights posts on this thread were thought provoking and amusing. A fantastic contribution to stimulate a fulfilling life. I find agreement on both sides but equal differences. This is the way of life isn't it. Things are always the same and different at the same time. A word to Tony (both)- When I dipped into the world of morality and ethics it did not take me long to realise that: Whatever you believe, or believe you believe, you will find an equal and opposite set of beliefs somewhere in the world (or on ArbTalk:biggrin:). Whatever you stand for, someone else stands against it. What's so great about that? You might think about it like an arm wrestle: As two people pit their strengths against one another, each grows from it. When you realise that other people have their own values, spiritual or scientific ideas or idealism's and that this actually helps you strengthen your own, you might find yourself more able to honour and embrace those who believe something different from you. I do think that the mere act of labeling something like inclusional thinking naturally creates its own barriers and boundaries that inevitably contradict the very philosophy behind it. This whole thread has been a testimony to that very issue. It seams to be a human obsession with order, a need or desire to defy entropy you might say....... Our existence equally defines and defies the universal nothingness at the same time..... This is the ultimate and universal paradox. I would subscribe to the saying said to be derived from the ancient Egiptians that says: Spirit without matter is expressionless, and matter without spirit is motionless. The two together make up existence as we know it....... I think you could say that the ultimate in inclusionality is equilibrium it could therefore follow that entropy is an inclusive process. To fully subscribe to inclusionalism so we need to dissolve our resistance and give up the fight that defines our existence? We should surely be celebrating our individual uniqueness that makes our self-aware consciousness so rewarding and essential, but at the same time maintaining an equal and opposite acknowledgement of our inseparable connection with everything around us. .

Science is philosophy is science and that is inclusional........ .

Thanks Tony, and excelent contribution to this thread.

Well isn't that ironic....... .

Tony, Well that saved me doing it. Thank you for a great explanation combined with your inimitable style and humour. Love it.... .

Tony, This reminded me of an article I wrote following an inspiring series of seminars and workshops with Claus Mattheck. . VisualisingForceFlowForm 08-2010.pdf

Arguing the validity of the theory and it should not be possible to ‘step out from it’…… However, principles of the theory aside, I do consider the current human population to be evolving, and at the present time I believe this is at a really fast rate. We have predators, they are just a lot smaller than us. Germs - Viruses, Bacteria and Fungi.... Yes, I used to have those thoughts on a regular basis myself. Usually with a pint or two down my neck. However, this is evolution, and you have said it yourself..... This is another reason why the next evolutionary step will not necessarily be a physical change, but a mental one. . . No we are most definitely moving forward and that is the whole point of this thread. This is an invitation encourage you to think about it and open your mind to the next evolutionary step.... .

OK so how are we evolving then? The natural selection within human populations is dictated by how we think, one way or the other. . . Absolutely this is the fundamental basis for scientific enquiry. .

. Tony, Like it or not you are included along with every other individual within 'secular society' or any other society for that matter. This is not something that affects the function of everyday life, because it is the belief and reality behind it that is what we are talking about here. Consciousness in its purest sense....... However, it is still your choice which perception you choose to see/believe and for that matter how many. That is the beauty of conscious experience as a human. You are already doing a fantastic job Tony keep it up .

. Lets put this in some historical context: This thread is yet another step (no matter how small) in our new spiritual awakening, which is creating a more complete worldview, to replace a five-hundred-year-old preoccupation with secular survival and comfort. While this preoccupation with technology advancement was an important step, out awakening to life’s coincidences and connectivity is opening us up to the real meaning for our human lives on this planet and the real nature of the universe within which we reside. The personal discovery and insight occurs when we grasp the historical importance of our awakening. This allows us to see how we have existed in a secular slumber for centuries and that the awareness of transformative movement in our lives represents an awakening from what has been a preoccupation with material security and comfort. The European Renaissance began when human society lost faith in the ability of medieval churchmen to describe our spiritual reality. A mandate was thereby created for science to investigate the world around us and to discover our spiritual nature. Until recently, scientists focused solely on discovering the forces thought to be governing our world. However, the loss of certainty brought on by the fall of the churchmen left a legacy of uncertainty, insecurity and mistrust within society. What was the real meaning of human life? What is our place within this boundless universe? Society eased its insecurity with a preoccupation with ‘self’ by perusing another goal: physical progress. We decided to settle into this Earth of ours, improving our conditions in the physical world – at least until we learned our true spiritual situation. During the Industrial Revolution, society saw major technological gains, reaffirming the mind-set of “progress.” The need for spiritual knowledge was almost lost. The society preoccupied itself with secular concerns, by accepting the illusion that we lived in a rational and predictable universe, where chance occurrence had no meaning. In the last decade of the 20th Century, led by science itself, this worldview, devoid of spiritual mystery, began to disintegrate. Now we have the opportunity to grasp this insight for ourselves when we understand the historical momentum leading us to a new, more mysterious, more spiritual life view. We are not one, not two but both one and two, because we are interconnected with ourselves and everything around us. This is inclusional thinking but it is also found in the fundamental practice of Zen, which is said to predate Christianity by over 500 years, but this is limited by written records. However, as Tony has already said there are connections with the Pagan societies of Europe, particularly within British Isles, which have been recorded as having a strong connection and relationship with their natural environment. We are part of this natural world within an infinite and dynamic universe. Our rational minds have created a separation for ourselves so the challenge now is to just let go and cut loose…….. Are you ready for it……? .

. At the end of the day Tony it is totally up to you whether this 'adds anything' to your meaning of life or not. It is an individuals right and choice to say alone in this world. However, at the end of the day this is only a perception held by the individual, because they cannot truly be separated. . "The problem resolves as soon as it is appreciated that Nature is, at root, a dynamic togetherness - not a static singularity from which negativity subtracts material content. The tangible and intangible, responsive and receptive aspects of Nature are inseparably coupled, with each both shaped and being shaped by the other in a universal dynamic relation of figure with ground, information with space. This inclusional appreciation implies a very different meaning for ‘positive’ and ‘negative’, so that rather than being treated in effect as ‘material’ and ‘anti-material’, they become regarded as counterbalancing potentials on either side of ‘zero’. This zero is hence not a material absence, but rather a place of dynamic balancing. It is simultaneously a source and a sink where informational and spatial both zoom out and zoom in from in a loop of one with the other. It is the seat or gravitational centre of the complex self-identity that combines inner whirl with outer whirls over all scales through its dynamic boundary, like the ‘eye’ of a hurricane, a flow-form that cannot be abstracted from its atmospheric context. " .

. As I am sure Hamma is well aware it is not solely the people contributing that are the important ones. They do enable the thread to generate the valuable content and Tony S is extremely good at dragging this out and creatively stimulating the descriptive responses that provide the information that other people read. It is however the other people reading this..... the ones that may not even consider contributing...... but none the less take something from it..... no matter how small. Keep with it Tony you have the hide of a blue whale and the stamina of a migrating bar-tailed godwit... .

. This paper is actually derived from the content of two others, which were both seminal papers that are truly inspirational……. Boddy, L & Rayner AMD – 1983 - Origins of Decay in Living Deciduous Trees: The Role of Moisture Content and a Re-appraisal of the Expanded Concept of Tree Decay – School of Biological Sciences, University of Bath, - New Phytol 94, 623-641 & Rayner AMD – 1998 – Fountains of the Forest: the Interconnectedness Between Trees and Fungi – Department of Bilogy and Biochemistry, University of Bath – Mycol Res. 102 (12) 1441-1449 And YES that first one really was published in 1983 In addition to these of course there are a great many others: Alan Rayner's publications :party: .

I'm with Tony on this one. Would not want to water it down and dilute the message. .

. Nice one Tony .

. that was exactly my thoughts with this one. I was waiting for the confirmation that it has been here for a while. Now with John Altringham and his students double checking their survey records it has been shown that bats have been miss identified and Alcathoe bat has been here for potentially a decade or more. NEW species - to who and to where? .

It appears that the UK’s ‘new’ bat, Alcathoe bat Myotis alcathoe, is not really new, but has probably been lurking amongst our other species for some time. First formally identified in Greece in 2001, it has since been found in a number of European countries including the north of France, so it was expected to arrive here in the UK at some point. However, not only were 70% of randomly genotyped small Myotis bats found two Sussex sites recently positively identified as M. alcathoe, but also 10% of bats captured between 2003 and 2009 at swarming sites in North Yorkshire, 350km away and originally identified as M. mystacimus (whiskered bat) or M. brandtii (Brandt’s bat) have since been confirmed as M. alcathoe. This limited evidence suggests that Alcathoe bat may be a widespread, if rare resident. Superficially it resembles a whiskered sized Daubenton’s bat with small feet! It s summer habitat is old deciduous woodland; all three confirmed UK swarming sites are within or close to protected woodland. After the announcement of this discovery earlier this year, bat workers handling bats were warned to be suspiciaous of any whiskered bat looking slightly different, and to be even more suspicious if the forearm measured less than 33mm. With local bat group surveys now looking out for this bat new records are now coming in from other counties across the UK. the most recent I am aware of was confirmed in Kent.

It appears that the UK’s ‘new’ bat, Alcathoe bat Myotis alcathoe, is not really new, but has probably been lurking amongst our other species for some time. First formally identified in Greece in 2001, it has since been found in a number of European countries including the north of France, so it was expected to arrive here in the UK at some point. However, not only were 70% of randomly genotyped small Myotis bats found two Sussex sites recently positively identified as M. alcathoe, but also 10% of bats captured between 2003 and 2009 at swarming sites in North Yorkshire, 350km away and originally identified as M. mystacimus (whiskered bat) or M. brandtii (Brandt’s bat) have since been confirmed as M. alcathoe. This limited evidence suggests that Alcathoe bat may be a widespread, if rare resident. Superficially it resembles a whiskered sized Daubenton’s bat with small feet! It s summer habitat is old deciduous woodland; all three confirmed UK swarming sites are within or close to protected woodland. After the announcement of this discovery earlier this year, bat workers handling bats were warned to be suspiciaous of any whiskered bat looking slightly different, and to be even more suspicious if the forearm measured less than 33mm. With local bat group surveys now looking out for this bat new records are now coming in from other counties across the UK. the most recent I am aware of was confirmed in Kent.

. Yes, I should have said observation about 'design rules in nature'. From an engineering point of view this rule applies to many things in nature as CM clearly indicates, but as has been pointed out earlier in this thread, I do not consider this to be a NEW idea or observation. I think it is a sad reflection of our separation from nature that it is something that has to be pointed out to us again and sold to us as something NEW. .

I do not think you should confuse the VTA method with CM's ideas about 'design rules in nature'. VTA applies some very useful engineering principles to how the bio-mechanic structure of trees reacts to structural loading (gravity and wind) within its growing environment. Yes, there is limited reference to biology and genetics, but then the method does not rely on these to be applied effectively. .

. A truly inspirational posting Tony, and I am sorry my desperate thoughts followed yours. You have such a way with words sometimes, it never ceases to amaze me. I agree that with Claus stepping back and looking at some well earned time out. It is truly down to us to pick up the flag and fly it high. .

Exactly..... To be quite frank I am lucky if I get even close to half... I am so close to selling everything, buying a smallholding and just living off the land. There is only so much 'banging my head against a brick wall' that I can do. And I still get hit by clients just not wanting to spend money on services that will actually benefit their trees and the environment around it. .

I do not think this is too far off topic, because as you say, part of the problem is who uses the system (VTA or other) and on what knowledge of the tree is it based. I think it is an interesting point that Tony raises about educating the general public in the use of VTA. How much knowledge of trees is required to us VTA effectively? Claus provides and intensive four day course for professional arborists, that allows them to become part of the VTA elite. However, the aim of his system is to make things simple to understand and allow almost anyone to visually assess a tree. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I think this is quite an important point in this discussion. What do you think?