HCR

Thanks for that info, that's interesting and good to hear - straight from the horse's mouth as it were.

This is the relevant legislation: Regulation 4(2) of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 states: "Every self-employed person shall ensure that he is provided with suitable personal protective equipment where he may be exposed to a risk to his health or safety while at work except where and to the extent that such risk has been adequately controlled by other means which are equally or more effective." and Regulation 9(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for purposes of health and safety, including training in the methods which may be adopted when using the work equipment, any risks which such use may entail and precautions to be taken." There is more, obviously, but that's probably the most relevant. Also, do a check with your council's tree officer to ensure that the tree has no protection.

Not for you there isn't sunshine.

Fair point, and my choice of words wasn't ideal. It wasn't the pathogen itself that was different, but the scale and nature of its impact. Wych elm is indeed susceptible (indeed in one way more so than Ulmus procera) but the reason that pretty much every U procera succumbed (and yes, I know there is the intact population in Brighton) is that they were all genetically identical, all clones of a single original tree. U procera can never develop resistance to Ophiostoma novo-ulmi because it cannot evolve. It can only reproduce clonally so any offspring will have all the same susceptibilities as the parent.

A species is deemed to be naturalised if it occurs as a self-sustaining population, persisting for more than four years, not dependent on repeated reintroduction. A naturalised species is still an exotic one.

I've never used one, but when I was setting up a short rotation willow coppice once there was talk of modifying cabbage planters for the job. Ok, that was for unrooted cuttings as opposed to whips but I'm sure the idea would still work.

It's not me numbering them! I think it is pretty widely accepted that native trees offer more in terms of biodiversity than exotics. Not every species in every situation, but generally, which is the word I used for exactly that reason. A tree will never be naturalised - the term is used for a species based on the the way it behaves. An exotic will always be an exotic, even when naturalised.

I genuinely have no idea what you are on about. My comment about reading things properly related to this comment of yours: which was in response to this comment of mine: Where in what I said did I suggest that DED was spread by a 'continual chain of cloning'? And as for 'vast extremes of temperature'...not quite what I said, is it? Yet again you've failed to read posts properly: my comment in post 5 was in response to post 4: My mention of climatic variation was in response to species that can deal with environmental changes.

Merry Christmas to you too! Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against non natives; indeed they have a lot to offer in terms of amenity, commerce and biodiversity. It's just that they can only generally play second fiddle to natives (commercial plantings excepted). As you say, interesting discussion and I enjoy them too.

Just to clarify, when I said 'get an EPS licence' I didn't mean for you to go to the Post Office and just buy one... As Doug Blease says it's not essential to have one, and I've employed lots of ecologists over the years who didn't have them, but it's a very useful way to become a potential asset to an employer, and it can demonstrate a certain level of commitment.

No country has lost 80-90% of its ash trees from Chalara. That percentage may have been infected, but mature trees don't die - certainly not quickly - from this pathogen. I don't know if there is any specific intent to import Danish trees, but there has certainly been talk of using the progeny of their resistant stock. The overwhelming majority of ash trees in mature woodlands are British autochthonous stock. Yes, of course trees in nurseries are of dubious origin. I've been arguing against the potential issues this raises for nearly 20 years. The fact that British and Danish trees are from evolutionary distinct populations is sufficient cause for a red flag and further investigation before mass imports occur (if this does end up being proposed). I still say that Chalara will be a setback. It may take 50 years, or 1-200 years for a recovery, but it will happen. I couldn't agree more about the value of veteran trees, and you are of course totally right about a higher number of younger trees not being an equivalent in ecological terms. But planting exotic trees is no better - in fact it is worse as unlike the young native trees, they will never become veteran native trees. It should be fairly clear why the rate of new pathogen arrival has accelerated. I won't insult anyone's intelligence by suggesting an answer.

Maybe start by learning how to read things properly.

^^ I think something's gone a little awry with the quoted text - it looks like I made a post that was in fact made by Jonny. There is nothing stopping us from having greater control over what enters the country other than the government's inertia. EU law is a hurdle but the mechanisms for overcoming those restrictions exist. DED is quite different to most new pathogens, in that the elms that succumbed were clonal - one susceptible = all susceptible. Last week Queen Mary Univeristy received confirmation of funding for the sequencing of the Ash genome. If this work can identify the markers that are associated with resistance to Chalara, then identifying resistant trees in the wider countryside could be greatly speeded up and a crisis could even be averted entirely. Even left to natural selection, I don't see the evidence for a catastrophic wipeout of the ash tree. A major setback, yes, but one it can recover from. A knee-jerk reaction to import Danish resistant trees is both unecessary and potentially hazardous. The two populations have been isolated from each other since the last ice age (our trees came from south west Europe, Denmark's from the south east) and no research has been done to investigate the closeness of the association between British ash monophages and British ash tree.

Interesting comments about the IEEM. I joined coming up for 10 years ago and in some ways you do get more - I think the journal is excellent for example. However, the training days are quite expensive (a Habitat Regs assessment day that I wouldn't mind going to next month is £225) whereas an AA training day pitched at roughly the same level (Risk Assessment for Commercial Arboriculture) is only £100.

My text in bold.

Interesting article, but I would be very wary of associating it in any way with biodiversity planting, which is what the original post referred to. Planting new native woodland would obviously contradict Santamour's ideas; W17 is planted with about 50-55% Quercus petraea for example. But yes, for amenity planting it makes sense.

Happy christmas indeed!

Just don't forget your Weetabix!

If it's all done by hand I think 8 per person per day is achievable, but without much margin for error.

I'd contact the planning case officer rather than the TO. This is a planning matter.

I think they've updated it since yesterday

Did they say what time? I wouldn't want to be, well, in the middle of anything at the time

^ Wot he said basically. Any constraints on felling are borne of the planning status, not of the tree itself. When does a potential development site become a development site? Once it's the latter, work has to be in accordance with the submitted plans.

That tractor is a work of art. You know what you must do