Treeworks Environmental Practice Conferences and Seminars 2009-2010 – Your Say

Dates, details and venues to be confirmed.

Treework Environmental Practice is proud to be working with the Arboricultural Association and the Institute of Chartered Foresters, and with Barrell Tree Consultancy over the climate change series. We are also grateful to the Forestry Commission and Barcham Trees for their sponsorship. We are now seeking sponsors for the 2009-2010 programme.

Trees: the key to climate-proofing our cities (Part 2)Our proposed topics for 2009-10 are outlined below. Some of these build on themes we started to explore in 2007-08. Others are new, inspired by colleagues or innovative studies, and have been introduced because we believe they speak to the interests and concerns of the tree and conservation world.

This builds on the successful 2008 conference (Part 1), which established the scientific basis and importance of urban climate control and the role trees should play in this, bringing together the range of disciplines necessary to climate proof our cities. We learned we must not ignore our clear responsibilities to do this, as the risks from procrastinating will affect the current generation. The time has now come to bring together those who influence government and policy-makers to develop an effective framework, the National Canopy Initiative, that will urgently translate theory into practice.

Trees: survival and conflict resolution
July 2008’s Arboricultural Journal’s article describing how the control of trees that provide human livelihood has implications for survival and political participation.
In Israel and Palestine, the olive tree symbolises both the potential for reconciliation and the means to control livelihoods. In arid Africa, where trees mean life, experience is that engagement with communities and understanding native wisdom about trees, supports economic and social independence. This seminar will look at examples where trees mean more than just amenity and have come to influence the fundamentals of social processes.

Trees, ecofunction and wellbeing: planning for health through understanding the biochemistry of trees
Exploring the role of trees in bioplanning, and drawing on first nation peoples and lost knowledge, this event will look at the design of urban and rural landscapes according to medicinal, nutritional and herbicidal properties. If trees can help reduce the incidence of cancer and asthma, knowledge of species and their biochemistry will be important in deciding which trees to plant in locations where people are vulnerable. Speakers will explain the chemical effects of trees on the environment and how to understand their synergistic effects.

Calling the utility companies to account: making good damage done to trees, is there a case for a ‘tree wind fall’ tax?
Since the early 1990s, works done by utility companies have greatly affected tree roots and the health and condition of urban forests and highway trees. While the companies have made enormous profits from digging up roads and roots to provide their services, municipal arborists and tree managers have to manage the consequences. When trees fail, some causing physical harm, it is virtually impossible to pursue the causal link. The long-term effects from tree decline and loss are wide-ranging, affecting human health, wellbeing and climate. The damage is inexorable, hidden and persistent. This event intends to examine the real costs to society and how reparations might come about.

AN IMPORTANT INVITATION –

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