Tree Statics Workshops – Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology, Singapore

Paul Muir – Principal Consultant

The Treework Environmental Practice team is preparing for yet another exciting opportunity to engage with the international community of arboricultural professionals – this time in Singapore.

Claire Harbinson and I have been invited to run two workshops by the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE) in Singapore to promote the principles behind tree statics and introduce the tools available to support decisions about how likely it is that a tree will fail. The main message, as ever, will be that tree statics fundamentally challenges conventional tree failure criteria and the management recommendations appropriate for ‘problem’ trees.

The workshops will involve a morning of presentations followed by a demonstration of the static load test (the pulling test or statics integrated method (SIM)), and a tutorial on the use of TreeCalc, an online resource designed by Andreas Detter at TreeConsult that calculates a tree’s safety factor based on statics integrated assessment (SIA). Participants are expected to be arboricultural professionals working throughout South East Asia.

https://www.nparks.gov.sg/cuge/programmes-and-schemes/upcoming-programmes/workshops/cuge-arb-033-tree-statics,-reconsidering-the-likelihood-of-failure

As well as running the workshops, we will be presenting at the 8^th Regional Arboricultural Seminar “Tree Feet Under”. I’ll be sticking to the familiar subject matter of root stability assessment with the static load test. Claire will be presenting on the importance of considering the biological component in managing and specifying soils for urban trees, continuing Treework Environmental Practice’s Tree Planting Services and commitment to all matters soil, and the work of the Sustainable Soils Alliance that our director Neville Fay co-founded.

https://www.nparks.gov.sg/cuge/programmes-and-schemes/upcoming-programmes/seminars/8th-regional-arboriculture-seminar

At Treework Environmental Practice our routine, commercial projects are frequently interesting. engaging and challenging. But presenting in an international learning environment really tests our understanding of the concepts that we apply in our arboricultural practice. These opportunities have the potential to produce those inspiring moments of understanding or clarity about complex ideas, experience and knowledge that ultimately improve the service that we offer our clients.