APC

Ouch.

Send her my details. I have some lime and poplar that I think will be right up her street.

Is this the worst environmental crime Poole has seen? (From Bournemouth Echo) Anyone heard of anyone ever being caught for this type of thing? In this situation, even if they do get caught, the view they have opened up increases value of properties loads more than the fine.

From Monsanto's website: Monsanto - Rhododendron Foliar Sprays An overall spray applied to the foliage will provide effective control of young bushes up to 1.3m high or as re-growth 2-3 years after cutting back. The best time for application is from early May to late September but in milder areas applications earlier and later than this have in the past proved successful. A high dose of Roundup Pro Biactive is required for this species. Addition of Mixture B NF, a non-ionic surfactant/spreader, at 2% of the spray volume can improve control and allows the recommended dose rate to be reduced All parts of the foliage should be sprayed since the plant exhibits transcendental translocation, which means spray droplets falling on one side of a bush will be translocated down to roots on the same side but will not be distributed across to the opposite side. A small missed area can result in re-growth and rapid re-colonisiation I'm sure that I have seen somewhere that you can go upto 4% mix but I wouldn't go ahead with this unless you can find something to back it up. Also,, possibly off here, I saw that best to apply treat rhodie in November. Again, best to check first.

Righto, Just called HCC and ABC. Think I understand what's going on now. This course, as it is right now, can be enrolled on up until end of December this year. The candidate must be registered at an ABC approved centre, before end of December, so that they can take the exams within 2 years of starting the course. After this date, the course will cease to exist in it's present form. It will change to test students face to face, and so you will need to enroll at a college and turn up for lessons and stuff. This will cost far more than the HCC distance learning method. HCC are NOT approved by ABC to test candidates, merely send out the course materials. Waiting to do the course at a college is not an option for me. Part of the appeal of the original course was that I could do it via distance learning. My days at work are all over the place. I could be doing 7 days a week through much of the summer, so can't commit to set days. Also, the wife wants me to impregnate her somehow, within the near future. That would throw a baby-shaped spanner in the works. So yeah. Best enrol now innit.

Hello, whereabouts are you from/looking to work?

Bugger. There's not a hope in hell of me being able to get the time to go back to college. Poo.

Think I'm gonna bite the bullet and get stuck in before the wife starts dropping out babies left right and centre. I'm a countryside ranger and am looking to specialise in trees and woodland management. You guys seem to rate the course. Hopefully it won't be too financially crippling as I have a lot of the practical units covered already (CS30,31, chippers, tractors/loaders, knapsacks) It doesn't appear that CS32 is in there though (which I don't have yet), so I'm assuming that I have to take that prior to doing windblown, with no credit for CS32 on this course. Does this online course through hccollege.co.uk start whenever you want it to or do you have to start at a set time, like September or somat? I can't see details of this on their website. Also, the tree planting one, AO1, what sort of costs are involved in this? I can barely find anywhere that offers it, let alone shows the price for it. I would like to do more of the optionals but costs will definitely prevent this unless my employer, a LA, can conjure up some gold tokens from the magic beans that they seem to have invested in. I might get one or two of the practicals covered by work but not really certain on that.... ...which brings me onto my last question, I reckons that I can get the theory all covered in the 18month time limit, but I'm worried in case I'm lacking one practical unit. Does that mean I have to start again from scratch? Can they hold back the qualification until I've sorted it? Thanks! Adam

Quality!

Friday. Well Proper.

Can bleeding canker be transmitted through unprotected games of conkers?

Just to clear things up Matt, are you only felling trees far away from access routes?

Nope. We had Nigel Fagg do our one. To be honest, the course left me more confused than before. I can find defects in most of the trees at my site. It's actually knowing what to do about them, apart from knocking out deadwood over tracks. For example, I'm 99% sure that one of our horse chestnuts has bleeding canker. What to do in that situation? So many different answers, everywhere. Some say condemn it, some say not to worry straight away and just keep an eye on it. If something was to go wrong though, and it was to fail, on someones head, then questions will be asked of our training. The basic tree survey course seems to be there to make you ask questions. Thinking I'm gonna have to do the online Arb course so I can try and untangle my brain a bit on the subject. You'll have to come over to my place at some point.

I done got a pair of Explorers. They are proper comfey. Nice and snug but sturdy as hell. Walking a bit like a robot at the moment. I seem to trip over in them though, as they are so firm that I can't feel the ground and get tangled. I tend to have good balance, so it's either the boots or I have scorpions living in my inner ear.

I have no idea about anything now. This thread has made my already mangled mind much more mashed.

Protect the new saplings once transplanted by dumping holly over them. We have proved this to work at my country park.

Slap first, prove later.

A former colleage of mine climbed a massive redwood at the country park I work at. It took him half an hour or so to reach the top, to remove some deadwood. He had his topper sent up to him and was positioning himself to make a cut and inexplicable unclipped the topper and let go. It went hurtling down bar first, with another guy seeing it coming and getting himself ready to catch it, before he realised what was about to happen. The saw landed on the ground and aside from a knackered bar and cracked casing it worked fine.

How is your saw levitating sideways?

From a conservation/woodland management point of view, I always explain to anyone what we are doing, in as much detail as it takes to make them go away. Once I start on the butterflies, they soon see what I'm getting at and they don't bother me again.

So far, the list of stuff to get new'uns to fetch includes: tartan paint spirit level bubbles tub of steam leg of mince sky hook hard slap long stand left handed screwdriver chainsaw antifreeze sparks for the grinder rubber nails glass hammer long weight long hard screw fallopian tube I have been casually throwing them around for the last few days amongst my volunteers and they have seen through almost all of them (surprisingly). Upon asking for a tub of steam this morning, one volunteer did actually ask "what for?", before the look on another guys face gave it away. Asking for 20 Regal though, and getting an orange, is the best thing ever.

We have signs. They make good sledges. Other than that, they don't really serve any purpose.

haha I didn't even bat an eyelid at "leg of mince" until I got to the end and suspected something fishy agwarn.

This has got me thinking. Could have a genuine extendable guide bar, if errr... done in the right place. Extending pruning saw with yer hips as the engine. Etc.

Sew beer towels to the arse.