Gary Prentice

Normally is...

I looked last week and did manage to land on the right page eventually, but only after resubmitting my log in details three time (ordinary member). Tried today and thought that they were no longer on. If you get the Help for arborists page with the three buttons towards the top of the page - Log in, View help for arborists and Join, hit the 'Help for arborists' button and it should take you to the templates (assuming that you're a member & signed in)

Really?

That's the one As I've read that some seeds may take up to a year to germinate, it would probably be a waste of time you bothering planting any

I can get some monday.

I’ve a few lengths of Chuan Palm, around 8 in,or a bit more, diameter. Has anyone tried turning palm ‘wood’? If anyone wants to give it a go, let me know. Also loads of seeds for propagation

They must have been real big trees!

I thought 4AM was the preferred time for visitors with the big red key?

Chucks probably now on some watch list.

Lots of ongoing issues with Massaria (Sp?) but Mr Humphries is the man with the info on that. Wasn't there something recently about felling a load of Planes to provide a temp. contractors yard in a London Square, to do with Transport for London? That came across as badly thought out.

Sorry if my reply came across as arsey The tree stock should have been effectively managed over the last two decades. All that is going on now is as a result of this along with a (poor) attempt to play catch up and do a load of tree replacements over a short period of time. I don't know how, within the confines of the PFI, the tree stock can be managed differently and imagine that Ameys targets are more about efficiency and profit than anything else. But, it's a business venture so is it realistic to expect anything less? There may be some good aspects of the farce that it's rapidly become, raising the importance of urban trees generally and encouraging other LAs to very carefully look at how they are and will manage their own stocks. Unfortunately on the health front, things have taken a worrying reversal this week. I'll post in that thread later..

Wimp! Where's your sense of adventure? The excitement of not knowing what's coming, brain freeze or scalded scalp...

And I’ve over thirty years in Arb, PTI and was halfway through the L6 before being diagnosed with cancer. So I’ve also been round the block a few times.

You know that there's no arboricultural reason from personal knowledge or from the hype? Just playing devil's advocate like. There was an article written by a fellow in Sheffield a couple of years back in one of the journals or magazines. I know statistics can be manipulated to illustrate any particular agenda, but he illustrated the position in Sheffield quite well. Because of cutbacks over the last twenty years Sheffield reacted to complaints and problems and in the absence of any management policy didn't keep up with renewal planting, turning over the street tree stock effectively. The PFI was probably seen as an opportunity to address this but is being carried out initially over a very short period. Bill Andersons figures demonstrated that over the total period of the preceding years and the PFI, the replacement planting percentage of the entire population was actually quite low - it's just being done over a short period. If you stand back and think that Sheffield are renewing 50% of the stock over twenty five years, it seems a lot. If you consider that they have neglected to renew their tree stock for the last ten years, or twenty, the percentages then start to seem more reasonable. I don't dispute that it's a massive PR failure and has been atrociously portrayed in the media, but for the purpose of managing the tree population, I don't think that it's anywhere near what is being portrayed.

Had an emergency stop button fail a couple of weeks back. Mechanic assumed it was functional as ‘they never fail’ and spent ages looking elsewhere.

If 17500 trees is half of all the street trees and the intention is to replace them over the term of the contact (25 yrs?) how does actually compare with other councils tree strategy? Bearing in mind the claims of a lack of any cohesive management strategy for Sheffield trees over the last twenty years.

I'm not sure, but my understanding is that that figure is no more than a guide for the tender process. So for the purpose of tendering it's a case for allowing for up to 17500 tree removals and associated costs to complete the works.

You can only do your bit Ben, and hope that the planning department review your report and take it into account in their decision. But I know how you feel. That cat. A1 tree that ends up smack bang in the proposed living room.

Anyone tried claymores?

Maybe a little too late, but we'll let you off

"But you only charged £x pounds last year!" You can't win sometimes Ben.

Happy birthday Silky!

So to prevent theft, you arm a bollard in front of the vehicle that explodes/ignites and damages/destroys the vehicle That would make an interesting insurance claim!

Isn’t the main difference that the carpet place is a business that has to be efficient and show a return to its owners/shareholders and the NHS isn’t? Maybe if NHS service efficiency was linked to pay rises and managers bonuses, things would improve.

A tenner is a tenner, and if you can stack the odds in your favour..... To demonstrate the use of the mill though, you really need a mechanism that will fill their boots, underwear and hair of the person who opens the box though!