Sources and links mentioned in this webinar: https://www.trees.org.uk/Trees.org.uk/media/Trees-org.uk/Documents/Webinars%202024/List-of-links-for-AA-Data.pdf
I think is this all working it is all working good oky doie well good evening all hello and welcome to this our Bor Cultural Association Wednesday webinar sponsored by still my name’s John Parker CEO at the association and your host for today this evening Our Guest is Jeremy
Barl who’ll be giving us top tips to beat the scourge of greenwashing something that was apparently too political to be advertised on Facebook so uh there’s an interesting sort of ethical barometer going on over there before that though before we get on to Jeremy please do say hello in the chat
Let us know where you’re watching from make sure you select everyone when you send your message otherwise uh not everyone will be able to see it use the Q&A button for your questions keep it friendly and polite in the chat little bit of effing and jeffin last week a
Couple of people not very happy so just think let’s all be nice uh and no spamming of loads and loads of links please there’s a closed captioning facility should you wish to use it there’s nothing particular I don’t think for me to update you on today so I was
Just going to do a little plug for membership of the association and invite you all to join our tree community and support all of the work we do including of course things like this very webinar next week we’ll be joined by Christen molder and all lond to tray for roots
All about Roots yes and then the following week on February the 7th Russell Miller and Jim Chambers will be asking and maybe even answering the question why do we lose so many Street trees you can register free for those webinars right now and then there’s more
Webinars to come which I will tell you about as we go along through the season so without further Ado a man whose technology is definitely not going to let us down I am delighted to welcome our speaker for this evening Jeremy barl Jeremy over over to you hi John thanks
Very much that’s a that’s quite a I’ve got to get this sorted out first of all and uh uh it just takes a few seconds that’s for sure that’s it now I can see now I can see the Emojis coming up which is really good and I was saying to
John earlier on before we came on we need a few more Emoji emojis so that we can have some thund down and different uh different reactions so that might come in time but anyway it’s a good start I’ve got one heart there well done few Somebody’s Crying that’s a bit
Serious isn’t it already um so uh right uh let’s just get this going where are we right um so what’s really good I think in these uh talks is that there’s quite a few people from overseas so uh so that’s really great to see and uh we’ll be pleased to have those guests
There so actually for the content today I’ve tried to make sure that I’ve not focus too much on British only stuff and so there will be other things that are relevant to you um just to start for those of you who don’t know me just a
Bit of a posed history for a minute or so but I started working with trees uh for a tree surgeon uh who was felling uh Elm trees that died from Dutch elm disease in um when I when I was still at school so I was about 14 years old it was the early
1970s um and uh I I then uh got a degree in environmental Forestry at Banger University so I do have some credentials um and then in 1978 I started working from I started working for the forestry commission and my dad worked for the forestry commission as well so I grew up
And I Lov the forestry commission the reason I’m here is because of the forestry commission so that’s our forest service for people uh overseas and it’s a great organization with some great people especially people on the ground um and uh in 1980 uh I worked for them for two years
As a field surveyor in Wales and in 1980 I started my own business and uh I became uh an AA approved contractor so I was a climber uh in 1985 and continued doing that until uh 1995 when I became an AA registered consultant and I sold my
Business so I was too old to climb too worn out and I’m definitely knackered now so I can’t do too much but uh and then that was to the present day so I’ve been acting as a consultant uh for for 30 odd years now and when I first
Started I just thought I don’t really want to have anybody else working for me being a cont was really hard but that went out of the window and now there’s quite a few people work for for our company which is great but uh that’s the background to it anyway to show you um
The um the uh the the to show you the the type of background that I had this uh the screenshot that we’ve got there is Alex way um in Worthing it’s uh from 1985 one of the biggest jobs that we did at the time it was one of the first um
The biggest contracts that was ever given um at that time and you can see it’s an Avenue of Home Oaks uh and we did had to reduce them all reduce and shap them all and by some descriptions that would be topping and this is the point about
Showing this is that uh is that uh from in principle most of my exper or most of what I’m going to say to you today is based on experience rather than books that I’ve read and stuff like that um obviously that does influence me but the practicalities that’s what I’m
Interested in and I started off here and the interesting thing about this is that these trees were topped uh effectively you can see the ones on the right hand side haven’t got uh haven’t been done yet the ones on the left have and that was in 85 ‘ 87 we had the first
Hurricane uh and in 1990 we had another hurricane one every uh 200 year event in three years after that and very few none of the trees blew down a few branches blew off and that and and in principle um those trees are still there today and
We’ll see a shot of them today uh and just in passing CU we were um hang on let me just get to that but we were very proud of that is that actually Alex way was the um Avenue that led up to uh the Queen Mother where the queen mother used
To live and when she found out about the work that we’ done we got a letter saying she was very grateful for that so we’re very proud of that and that was quite good um and then we look at these trees today and um and and there they
Are and 40 odd years later or nearly 40 years later they’re still there they’ve been t you wouldn’t know it and they’re doing fine so it just goes to show that actually you know we need to be very careful about the way we interpret what’s written in the books and we need
To intelligently analyze the way that we look at things and the advice that we give and how we manage to treat trees because nothing’s set in stone trees have always got surprises and this Avenue really has got some brilliant surprises if you go and see it so uh it
Really is just to illustrate the practicalities of it um now in terms of uh when I was in those early days I had a thirst for knowledge I was really keen on um on learning as much as I could I went on loads of courses and
And really worked hard and then as you get older and you get more decrepit and you retirement sort of creeps up on you and you just think you might not be around much longer then what you really want to do or what I really want to do
Is to try and pass on that knowledge so people don’t have to make all the same mistakes that I made uh in those 30 or 40 years now or even longer 50 years that I’ve been working so um what I want to do now and for the next few years and
I’ll be doing some of this with the AA and and some of it abroad as well with other associations is to try and pass on as much as I can know we’re not charging for it you’ll get it as cheaply as you can uh but we just want to pass it on
Because it’ll be a real shame I’ll be so annoyed if I pop my clogs and and all that experience is wasted is not passed on to people that can use it to their advantage so what I’m going to do today is give you a very very quick run
Through of all the things that I think not all of them but many of the things that I think really matter and are going to make a difference and help us deal with this scourge of greenwashing which surrounds us um and so in order to do
That what I want to do is uh I’m going to put I’ve got lots of references and people will say oh well where’s the evidence we want to see the evidence well actually there’s quite a lot of evidence you can’t have evidence for everything because practical experience
Counts but actually there’s quite a bit of evidence and uh what I’m going to do is you’ll see in the bottom left hand corner um there’s a panel and that will have the links uh in it to the ele the evidence where it’s relevant on the right hand side it’s the location and
The date and uh and that’s how I’m going to at least try and uh make that evidence or that information available um if you want to know more you can go to our website and the uh addresses there I’m not really a great fan of
Social media I had a good go at it I didn’t really like Facebook much and what John said earlier on confirms that I think there’s a lot of people don’t like Twitter either but I find it’s very efficient if you use these things to your advantage then they can actually um
Work quite well and you can try and sort of filter out all the nastiness that sits there so if you want to find out more about some of the instances or examples I’m going to show then go and have a look on my Twitter feed which is
There and also on my LinkedIn feed and you’ll uh you’ll be able to see um more information there um and because this is a really bizarre thing about these webinars right so I’m talking I don’t know six or 700 people now but actually the last one I did um in May sorry it
Was December um 2020 has had two and a half thousand views in the archive so actually a lot of people will see this from an archive and they won’t have the benefit of chat uh and you could the links that go into the chat so basically what I’ve done is provided this um
Summary of all the links which uh Andrew is going to uh post into the chat for me because for me to do more than one thing at a time is going to be pretty challenging so uh so Andrew will pop that into chat and you can then have a
Look at that and actually as well so you’ll see it on chat but people in the future can read the links off of here but I’m also going to put it on our website as well in our um in our um useful information tab uh and uh it
Means that anybody looking at in the future and thank you for doing so if you do can uh can actually have access to those links and download that document just go straight to the links so we’re trying hard to be able to pass this on
Um and uh just sort of I Somerset house is interesting it’s in London they they they have a very they have a very strong environmental uh feel and thrust to what they do and they do uh they do these exhibitions and this was one that struck me uh as being really good and
Installation art for the 2019 Earth Day and there other installations as well but you know that’s really true isn’t it global warming at work that looks like a government office and that’s what’s going on is they are not working in our best interests as far as I can tell
They’re working in their own best interest in many instances of course that’s a generalization but this sums it up very nicely and I wanted to just put it up as a starter um and so what what how can we sort of green up the green washing that we’re bombarded with all
The time and that’s something that want to talk about uh to you today and I you know we’re talking about Urban Greening but actually it’s all connected trees wherever they are in the countryside or in urban areas still all matter it’s all connected up and so what I’ve got to say
Relates to managing trees in a broader context so the first um sort of section of what I’m going to do is to set the scene and it’s a pretty Grim Affair and I don’t want to spend too much time on it we all know about it but it needs to
Be uh gone through and and explained um and then there are plenty of barriers to how we can make a difference what we can do to actually start making Urban Greening actually happen rather being told it’s happening and then wondering whether it really is because I think
There’s some questions about that so I’m going to look at what the barriers are what the solutions are I’ve got 12 or 13 different items that I’m going to try and talk through and I I I can’t give you all the explanations now the detail
I can only give you sort of ideas and that’s the point about the links and why I spent some time on it because if you want to find out more about what I’m saying then there are places that you can go and you can go and do that um and
Then I’m going to sort of close that down really towards the end so the bulk is going to be in the middle in this previous one but my top 10 tips for urban Greening and um and how to make it work and I’ve got a really the the the
One the the top one is one it’s original nobody’s ever seen it before I’ve only just got the information and I’ve just put it into a presentation so hang on to the end if you want uh because there’ll be something quite original that you haven’t seen before
And it is really interesting as well for people in the UK but this applies everywhere that you go um to try and make it a bit more interesting and a bit more engaging I emojis are better than when I did it last time but you know
It’s not too much um we’re going to have three polls and that’ll be asking you a question and you can answer them and then we can all Marvel at the answers and try and explain them so that’ll be very interesting um and then the uh
Tedium of of a routine I try and avoid those if we can but I’ve uh thought this um what’s your favorite book needs spicing up so I’ve got uh you know a few little Shockers I think at the end and uh so if you hang on right to the very
End then you might see it but you know brace yourself really you might not like it much so um so that’s the overview of what we’re gonna what we’re going to try and cover and um so this is the the queue for Andrew uh who’s the technician
There doing all the hard work behind gosh I’m really grateful he’s there um and this is the uh the poll and uh this is basically I think I always wonder how many people are on it who where you come from and what your jobs are because we
Really don’t know I mean the AA know but they don’t share it so you know there’s there’s um information controls which mean they can’t publish it I think they do Johnny will probably have a go at me now for saying that but uh but I think
Um you know where are you from are you an SE guest it’s great to see so many people from overseas um are you in the UK and what’s your profession and it’s like only a bit of fun really so you don’t have to worry too much but um but it’s
Uh yeah well we got some we’ve got some uh yeah we got yeah it’s quite it’s quite interesting isn’t it well while that just finishes and you you all have a go I think this these AA webinar series with the AA are just fantastic um
It was I did did the first one um with um with Tony Kirkham and um got the name now uh Spencer name was I gosh I’m so sorry Nicola Spence Nicola that was it yeah gosh it such a long time ago and I think we had like it was a first one
Wasn’t it John and we had 167 people or something and uh so it’s just fantastic that there’s been so many anyway I think we can we can probably call it a a a day on that Andrew but it looks to me like 75 % from the UK and 25% so that’s 100
OD people from abroad so well done that’s um that’s a good effort and uh and then really the top um what your occupations are tree enthusiasts uh tree Consultants uh 40% a tree Consultants tree contractors 8% well I used to be one of you so uh so I’m disappointed
With that and I can’t see the rest Andrew hang on can I can’t scroll down on that but it’s still on my screen so uh anyway there you go right well I’m going to stop there and just say I hope that was interesting for you it gives you
Something to think about it’s good for us that there’s quite a few people um uh from overseas as well anyway so um let me just get that going and just see if we can go um so really just to set the scene and um and uh just to sort of get
Into the the grit of it really in overview um green washing is the overstatement of green credentials to make a corporation a company and organization seem more environmentally friendly than they are and it’s happening everywhere uh and you know the difficulty for us as Ordinary People is
How do we sift through the fake news how do we identify who’s really pulling a fast one and there’s something that’s even more Sinister first of all they’re just telling lies so the lies the deceit and the the the manipulation is annoying but hidden behind that is the the subtler
And and more sinister problem of actually they’re hiding the harm that they’re doing to the environment and to the place that we live and the harm that they’re doing to us and that is not good news so that’s uh where we are in terms of uh just
Talking about greenwashing and I want to try and sort of uh look at trees in detail in a minute but look at it in overview um and um and this is great I was flying back from Europe uh a few months ago and and you look out the
Window and this is all that you see and this is just horrifying this is big agriculture it looks nice from a distance doesn’t it looks lovely but these are um sterile ecologically sterile uh not even ecosystems they monocultures uh full of chemicals poisoning us and killing the countryside
And nature with it and uh this is what we’re up against we’re up against this this farming policy that destroys the environment poisons us at the same time and and yet we’re being told how great it is and how necessary it is well it isn’t necessary is it to use every
Single bit of land to try and produce food of course it matters to a certain extent and we have to have food but you don’t cram every kill everything everywhere to get that so I don’t subscribe to what we’re being told there and you know here we have the closeup
The reality of what it is chemicals being sprayed everything is being killed except for the crop that we want and we’re being poisoned at the same time as well because those chemicals filter through into the environment into our food and into us and there’s the reason
Why we or one of the main reasons why we’re so fat why we’re so ill and why we die sooner than we should do and you know we shouldn’t pretend this isn’t happening but of course they’re telling us it’s not and then uh on a practical
Sense you know if you can’t kill it with chemicals then mow the hell out of it all our verges the Tidy Garden syndrome that we have to cope with and there’s nothing wrong with gardening but keep it in the garden and you know nature isn’t tidy uh it isn’t neat and we shouldn’t
Be trying to impose the rules that we have in our garden uh which are quite reasonable in a garden on The Wider environment and that’s the nonsense that we’re seeing promoted by councils by people who just don’t care they go home at 5:00 and have got no social or wider
Responsibilities and thinking and understanding about things so this nonsense is going on all the time and it’s not just on the land we’re not talking about this today but our seas are being absolutely destroyed uh all of the ecology is being devastated by super trollers and Mass fishing why the hell
Should we have to put up with it but we do we’re being told oh it’s essential we need to eat well do we really um need to eat that badly that’s something to think about but I can’t talk to you about this today because we need to move on and
Focus on trees but there are wider problems that all of us need to be thinking about and trying to do something about and I can’t help you with that um at this time so moving close to the trees where of the W wool being pulled over our eyes um uh well
It’s happening everywhere in 2013 Kingston Lacy is a National Trust property they’ve got uh you can see it there in the distance and um they had one of our top uh uh Heritage trees there um which was planted by the Duke of Wellington it’s about 170 was then
176 years old um but the uh gardeners uh the landscape advisers didn’t like it much because it didn’t fit in with the original design of the building so guess what they made up a whole load of nonsense about how poor that tree was and they failed it um and uh I know that
That tree didn’t need to be F because 30 years ago I climbed it and frown reduced it and pruned it and I was just horrified when that happened now the link at the bottom you can see is a video um and an information note and you
Can find out more about it there um but effectively what the um what the what the National Trust said was well it’s it’s really badly decayed we’ve got no choice it’s 90% decayed across its base and then they put up a pus tomogram that was from another tree so and not only
That they put up a video uh that basically explained all the nonsense I’ve just been through so I went down there and I filmed it and I did it as a 15 minute I did it in one go and if you look this is this is the link at the
Bottom if you look at that video you’ll see this wasn’t the Duke of Wellington C they fell three so this was another one this was one next to it um and at 520 I think on the video you can see it coming down so that’s interesting to go and
Have a look at um but that you know when we have the National Trust and organizations like that who we should be trusting and and I’m a member so I’m actually very supportive of these organizations then we need to be very very careful about this to what we’re
Being told and how carefully we scrutinize it and you know for for a tree that’s 95% that’s it that’s the tree that’s the Duke of Wellington Ceda that’s 95% decayed at the base that doesn’t look to me like a tree that’s going to fall over immediately um and uh
They had to back track instantly effectively and they took down the video they put up as soon as mine went up because it was pretty clear where we were um that was uh 12 uh 11 12 years ago now so it’s quite a while move moving uh closer we have Sheffield you
All know about Sheffield so I’m not going to spend too much time on it but every tree that’s got a yellow ribbon on it there you can see was due was to be fail we have to do it the trees are damaging the pavement there’s no other
Choice well there is a lot of other choice uh and it didn’t have to be that way and we had support from Chris packam and we’ve got Philip van vas here from Canada from uh from Toronto he came over and had a look at it as well and uh and
In the end um you know the residents and this is community efforts which really need to be um highlighted because they did a fantastic job of highlighting this as an elm tree in the background there was going to come down absolutely ridiculous um and yet we were being told
There was no other choice and uh there was uh the public inquiry uh the independent inquiry um which was held last year was absolutely condemning of the council and of Amy the contractors and all the people involved in that fast uh of saying that trees have to be fell
Because they’re causing minor disruption and damage to surface and that’s not the case and it doesn’t need to be done so that’s the nonsense that we’re having to put up with and then near another uh little bit after that wesworth again this wonderful horse Avenue of horse chestnuts here one tree blew over
Councelors went mad and said oh my God one trees blown over we got to fa a whole lot well if that’s not a nonsense I don’t know what is and what was interesting interesting about this I’ll just show you what it looks like after the event because they faed the lot um
What’s interesting about this is I went to one of the meetings I went there as a guest so I couldn’t say anything and what I heard was the biggest load of nonsense and misinformation and manipulation by a counselor that I ever heard in fact I went out I just didn’t
Know what to do um I couldn’t say anything uh but I was there so I heard it I heard the greenwashing and there was no need for these trees to be treated in this way and yet the local politicians did it and then we get you think these things you know they should
Have learned shouldn’t they they should have realized that actually they need to start listening to the people that they’re representing and so we have um Plymouth here and uh uh armad away and these are some of the trees that are recently felt they just don’t seem to
Learn the uh head of the council had to resign because of this and quite rightly so the whole lot should have gone but this is what we’re dealing with and you know oh the trees have got to come down there’s no way around it we can’t avoid
It oh it’s so so difficult we’re so upset but it’s got to be guess what we’re going to do I tell you what we plan will take down 100 trees and we’ll plant 200 new ones well that makes it all right doesn’t it I think you come to
Your own view on that but that’s the nonsense in the greenwashing that we’re being fed with the driil that comes out of these local politicians is staggering when you hear it and there’s another picture of it there so what we have is a thread here of what’s going on uh
Misleading public consultations local politic Ians cherry-picking expert reports for the wesworth one there was three reports from experts that were saying these trees don’t have to come down but guess what they didn’t bother to take any notice of it at all they just picked out the sentences that
Suited them and that’s really what greenwashing is all about it’s manipulation it’s deceit and it’s uh some individuals furthering their own best interest at the expense of the community that they’re meant to be supporting and uh it just goes to show that not all but but many local
Politicians just have got away with it in the past so they think they can keep doing it again and that’s where we are is politicians who are meant to be representing us representing communities out of touch with what the communities want and uh just to give you an idea um
Why councils and local politicians matter uh the link is below for the stat so you can go there and see it’s not my stats um but local planning authorities are important because they influence more than 30% of UK emissions so that’s why what councils do makes a difference and that’s why
It’s worth us putting some effort into it and uh of the um nearly 400 councils and is obviously open to um debate on exactly how many there are because it changes quite a lot but 82% of those councils have declar a climate emergency and many others or some others have
Declared a nature emergency as well and so on the face of you think wow that’s good yeah these people really do care about the environment but is the words or are the words being matched by the actions and that’s what we need to look at so that’s uh that’s uh that’s my take
On the the the background to it and just to try and see that’s just my take on it so it’s just what I think and uh and it would be very interesting to see and hear what you think so so have you know you know we’ve been told well we’re
Doing a good job of urban Greening gosh we’re planting this many trees have you as an individual in your neighborhood um seen uh a lot of difference a lot of change have you seen some uh or have you seen very little change no change at all or you think it’s actually getting worse
Um and um I’ve obviously you know it shouldn’t be necessarily my view that dominates although I’m presenting here so it will be interesting to see what uh what the poll says and we’re getting yeah near yeah well there’s a few more I think more people join as we
Go along so so the you know 450 at least and uh yeah so that’s pretty good so all right what we’ll do is Andrew will decide when that when that um is finished but I think quite clearly um very few people are satisfied with the progress some are and In fairness
There has to be you there are some places that are doing a great job and they are really working hard and making a big difference so this doesn’t apply to everyone but there are many places as um as this show and shows and you know very little change 25% some change but
Plenty of scope for more no change at all um 16% and 28% are saying it’s getting worse um you know those aren’t good figures that reflects pretty much what I’ve been saying I’ve probably had some influence on the result there but I think it means that you know I’m not
Beating a a hollow drum here I think what I’m saying is what we all know uh and uh just putting a spotlight on it really so um so that’s where we are in terms of um of that so that’s interesting thank you for that it’s just interesting to uh hear what uh what
People are saying and what people think so the next part of the talk and I’ve got half an hour left now to try and give you quite a lot of examples so I’m going to speed through them so you will if you want to find out more about
Individual things then please um use those links um and I want to try and finish on time I was just staggered I David lonel finished on the nail literally an hour and then sahar’s dudol last week he had to shorten his talk by half an hour and he still finished on
Time and you would never have thought that that he was stressed at all it was brilliant so he did a marvelous recovery from that and I’m not going to be able to um match that I don’t think but anyway let’s let’s have a go at it and
See um what are the barriers to uh and solutions to Urban Greening what are the things that are not working very well what can we do as individuals to try and um to try and uh improve things let’s just get on to that um but as a starter
Is what I’ve been saying true or is it just uh you know and I’m just hyping it and I’m just trying to Hype up the green wash well I’m not going to spend too much time on this but the state of nature um was published uh uh last year
The end of last year and it was 60 something organizations these are these are really respons responsible organizations that all came together and effectively identified and this uh covered the whole of the environment as well including uh the mar the marine environment and um and uh the um that
Identified that one in six species uh around all over is at risk of Extinction that is just a horrendous uh situation um and so we know that that there’s something bad wrong and all of the research or most of the research or certainly significant research is proving that that’s the case and then
Literally just a few days ago um the office for Environmental Protection which is a government agency uh published this document and it’s long uh it’s nice got a nice cover so it’s worth looking at it and you can download it from the link but progress in improving the natural environment in England so
They basically report on the progress of government and I don’t like putting text up much but I thought I just need to put this a couple up and I’ll read it as well is that this was one of the main parts of their conclusions but the report was damning it was absolutely
Condemning of the government and the failure to deliver on its promises and I’m just going to read you these few bits we concluded that that progress in improving the natural environment over the year under review had fallen far short of that required to realize the government’s Vision look the government
Have got they they understand what’s needed I think that everybody accepts that but actually the massive gap between the aspiration what they want to do and what they’re actually doing is just staggering um and it’s just they just not making any difference so or very little difference so that’s the
First thing that it comes and then just another part this is the last bit we urge government to change gear immediately to provide more bigger better and joined up habitats to protect and restore species and with an estimated 70% of land in agricultural use to incentivize Farmers to maintain
Good stewardship of the land they occupy look the farm aren’t to blame for this the the people to blame are governments that set the policy that say we want production at any cost and that cost is an absolute destruction of Nature and we are going to pay a heavy price if that
Is not reversed and immediately uh and and they work on it so that’s where we are this is the government’s own advisor and so please don’t tell me that this isn’t relevant or we shouldn’t be taking any notice of it and you know I want one
Of the things if somebody said to me barl what you know out of all your years everything you’ve done what’s going to be the the best clue or what’s the thing you’ve learned that’s been most useful to you and it’s a simple thing and what
I’ve seen is as many of you will have seen it is developers and counselors going oh it’s only a couple of trees it doesn’t matter and I was there so I was a contractor felling these trees and then oh we’ll plant some new ones well the new ones die or they don’t get
Planted because you know a whole range of reasons we’re not able to talk about that but what happens is you lose a tree here you lose a tree there and you lose one over there and do you know what that builds to a massive decline in urban
Canopy cover and that has an adverse impact on all the people that live in towns in many many ways and uh this is just a classic example and you can see that had 117,000 sorry 137,000 views on Twitter uh so people really felt that that was something that was quite
Important so you can have a look at that on Twitter and see what you think yourself trees gone now there’s three other trees uh been planted there of course great guess what we felt that big tree and we’ll put three little ones in and they won’t make it they’re cherries
Or whatever um so uh this is this is what I’ve seen and you know the good news is that it works in Reverse is that although you lose a tree here you lose a tree there but if you gain a tree here and one there and one there and one
There do you know what all those little things build to a big result and that’s really good because on the face of it from the devastation and the things that I’ve shown you that you’d think oh my you know goodness we can’t make a difference here well we can make a
Difference we can bypass these people that are not representing us properly and we can start doing our own things and that’s what I’m going to talk about in a minute about what we can do so what I’ve noticed is that one small gain here one small gain there and one small gain
Over there can actually build to a really big result so it means that it’s not hopeless we’re not useless we’re just little people but if we all do little things together then actually that builds and builds and builds and that is really positive because it means that we’re not wasting our time because
You could be absolutely driven to give up and some people do give up so I’d urge you not to um uh There’s Hope yet we’re not past the point of no return way getting close to it um so uh a few strategic things first of all on what we
Can do document ation is critically important I’m a trustee of the trees and design Action Group we don’t make any money I don’t get paid for it we just a charity we just basically uh we don’t have paid membership uh we basically get together as a group of us me Keith Seas
Sue James um uh Anthony hsaw and um and Sue ilman and um and we uh talk about how can we make a difference what can we do that will help people do their jobs better help them argue the case for better environmental stewardship and we come up with plans and we’ve come up
With a whole range of different things over the last 10 years and and I wasn’t involved in all of them um and then basically we get the idea we work it through we get the finance and support from from supporting colleagues and uh and then we get the thing done and we
Publish it guess what we publish it it doesn’t cost anything so people who really need this information first of all it’s current so we have um our researchers go out and look at it they get paid to do it find out what’s going on speak to the people on the ground put
It into a document we publish it and you get it for free that’s the way to get information out there because that’s what we need because none of this is secret none of this is hard to do we’ve got the technology we know how to make a
Difference it’s just that you can’t get hold of it you can’t find out where it is and uh and that’s the problem that we’ve got so the trees and design Action Group have a whole range of Publications and I’m not going to go through them but you can download them from the website
They’re all free some of them are translated into other languages and we these are the ones which we’ve done so far the latest ones trees Planning and Development um First Steps in urban water and we’re looking at a canopy cover um one at the moment as well all
Of these things are designed to help you put pressure on the people that say oh no it can’t be done can it no this is too difficult and because actually it’s not that difficult because what you find is if you go into trees um and hard landscapes there’s 20 or 30 case studies
In there where people have done it so if you can stick that in front of someone that says no no you can’t do that and you can say well hang on we can’t do it but they’ve did it over there so why can’t we do that then that puts them
Under a lot of pressure and that is a very important um way to make a difference um and then you compare that to the British standard this archaic uh approach of disseminating information and um just to take an example trees from nurs to uh to Independence in the
Landscape um I worked on it with Keith Seer and a whole range of other people as well and we produced a great document um and that’s that document guess what if you want to use it you’ve got to pay 314 quid that’s pounds to people not in
That’s slang for pounds it’s quite a lot like it’s a lot for a book that everybody contributed all the experts contributed without fees they wrote it without being paid to do it and they put that information critical information and we’ll look at some of that later
That people need and yet you have to pay for it you cannot put that into it’s copyrighted so you can’t put all of it all the relevant bits in not some of them some of it’s exempt but you can’t put that into a specification and start making a difference on the ground
Different isn’t it it’s quite interesting yeah so anyway there you go something to think about um design failures I mean it’s just staggering when you see the rubbish that’s produced by so-called professionals um this is one I mean I just was driving past and I
Saw it and I was think I can’t believe that I mean you just have to look a little bit closer um and uh that is like amazing isn’t it it’s mindboggling first of all somebody got paid for it secondly someone thinks that’s being professional because that’s part of their job they
Delivered it and thirdly there’s a council that said yeah that’s okay that’s good if you think those people are working in our best interest that design is you could say it’s Innovative and it’s creative and it’s lateral thinking I just think it’s idiotic I think it’s just you know it just isn’t
Impressive is it I mean you can form your own view 137,000 views on Twitter as well actually came to the same conclusion so that’s interesting isn’t it um and then we have this uh we have Landscape Architects there not all of them but some of them are fantastic but
You know a lot of them they seem to live 30 or 40 years ago where they put a tree in because it looks nice that’s fine that’s a good start but you know we’re in a canopy and nature crisis we need to be planting trees that are going to
Produce big canopy to B buffer the heat to collect the pollution to buffer the rain fall and you know we have we see this stuff time and time again that’s a Rowan so a Rowan is a sous area um for those are overseas guest it goes to
About five or six meters tall they can grow bigger and you know but you could have an oak you could have a large canopy tree then yet that’s what we get so again you know and then we have this issue of well you know canop uh Avenues of single species trees they’re
Fantastic aren’t they they’re great landscape features well they are and sometimes it’s absolutely Justified to to have them but you know what we should be doing is C we are in a climate crisis we’re in a we need to make sure our planting is as resilient as it can be
And the way to do that is to get lots of different species in this is a great example so this is a positive example um that I saw up in Grandam in 2019 where there’s three different species in this in this Avenue I think it’s Cherry I
Think I can’t remember now Sycamore and it I can’t remember what the other one is anyway and they just planted them all three and then repeat them and repeat them so if one of those trees gets a disease or you know like um like ash dback or something like that uh that
Kills all of the ash or all of the one species well if it’s a single species Avenue or feature you’ve had it in this one you’ve got a chance to recover it so excellent work there um up in Grandam uh and uh really good to see but then um
You know tree planting failures I want to talk about that if I can because I see this everywhere I mean do you can you see that little tree there I mean does that really need a steak that’s like strong enough for well I wouldn’t
Be able to break it would I I I mean it’s huge and when you see these Falls that are in doing that and delivering that you just have to think really I mean this is this is National highways I don’t know if they actually did it but
This is a national highways project it’s a Lewis um cycle uh path it’s a great great thing but the Landscaping is appalling just go on to my website sorry not onto my website go on to my Twitter and uh and my um LinkedIn feeds and you’ll just see the nonsense that’s
Going on here and uh it’s just unbelievable that people are being paid to deliver this sort of second rate poor quality uh work and this is so this is it this is another one right so I’ve got some great videos of this so video is good but I wouldn’t it would never
Stream on here first of all look are trees meant to curve like that I mean are they really is that a joke or what and then you get I’m going to get AIT closer guess what those those ties all you need is a little pin a little nail
That that or even a stapler and you just tap it on there and stop that that Stak moving up and down the post and if you don’t do it what happens is the Wind Blows the tree rubs against the top of the steak and the tree is finished I
Don’t need to say much more do I but these Jokers are being paid to do it and we’ve got National highways overseeing it and and you know well they should be ashamed of themselves and that’s not fair in in a broader sense because actually National highways do a
Fantastic job on our chunk roads but they lost their way on this one and somebody needs to look at that because it’s appalling um and then we see um you know developments uh all over the place but this is in the summer so you can see
Dead trees we see them all the time a whole load of reasons but you know if you got a tree and you it’s not staked properly then that’s quite you know that’s quite Innovative isn’t it but it’s not very good for the tree which is
A bit of a shame um but you know this is the type of nonsense that we’re seeing and people are being paid to do it and then this is another one I was up in Grandam so I went to see the Woodland trust I like the Woodland trust and um
And I popped into this this estate just down the road and blow me down look what I found on the face it looked quite nice except it’s summer and uh and then you get a bit closer I couldn’t believe it I was thinking well what’s that Park
Falling off for and I thought it a steak first of all but no it wasn’t uh all the trees were dead laughable isn’t it and people being paid to do this um so how do we deal with that well you know going back to the BS as well trees from
Nursery to Independence in the landscape is a great great document it’s got a a lot of good content from the best people around at the time um and it’s it’s presented in a creative way you just have to pay to get it it’s got a table
One in there and you can look at that uh uh don’t read it of course no but um but it’s because it’s copyrighted I couldn’t put a copy of it up so what I did was summarized it so uh so just so I don’t break the law and I’m not doing anything
Illegal It’s s it’s a summary all right uh we wrote it they copyright it they get paid to produce it and guess what nobody buys it it’s never used and this is one of the most powerful documents that you could use to make sure that the people that deliver the the rubbish
Trees that are being grown by many many nurseries and I see them every day to send them back so you specify this table should be observed and if they don’t comply you send it back that’s the way to make nurseries start to make a difference so you know these are simple
Things but just try it and see and then another thing which I’ve noticed and well in fact it wasn’t me that noticed it it was um angel o when she wrote trees in hard Landscapes and Sue James as well um for tag and uh is that you
Know a lot of these initiatives that happen are by local Champions so they’re local people that are enthusiasts they’re they’re they’re just ordinary people but they do extraordinary things and this is in Hackney so I went up to Hackney me and Keith siker went up there
And had a look and this is Rupert Bentley walls he’s the tree officer he was he’s not anymore and um I don’t think he is and um he he might be on um and uh but rer had this really worked hard to try and get these uh streets pedestrianized and then fruit trees
Planted along them to try and give something back to the community make them proud of the environment that they were living in so this idea of Champions uh to to to move things forward is really really important and and you see them all over the place and uh here
We’ve got Rob McBride uh this is the bran Oak um in New Town in mid Wales and they bent a road uh they were going to cut it down and his campaigning and this is mvin the farmer I think that’s mvin the farmer who was there uh but he um he
Uh he he managed to get enough support to try and keep that tree so an excellent effort and um and you know Rob is just a store he’s just an ordinary guy like me and everybody else watching this but he’s just made a huge difference and he actually so I was
Really envious when I saw this cuz I have one from from clarence’s house I think and from the Queen Mother and he had one from the queen so good on him that’s an excellent effort and that’s great recognition for a great job and his current um uh uh hobby horse that
He’s on is trying to protect this must be 500 years old this is a big Oak it’s called the Darwin Oak it’s up near Shrewsbury and uh it’s a huge huge tree I haven’t seen it but I’d be Lov to get out there and do it and there’s a
Petition at the moment which you can uh which you can look at at the bottom and and um hopefully uh you know help support him try and make sure that that tree is retained it should be retained for as long as it can be uh and it’s got
The potential it’s 500 now it’s got the potential to be able to go another 500 years easy you just have to keep prun ill let it fall apart but don’t put houses near it and don’t put a Road near it um and then this is just from the um
From Allison white who’s just an ordinary person again I haven’t met her but I’ve seen her um on the T TV uh doing things and she’s just done a fantastic job of exposing the incompetence uh that sits within uh councils and local politicians that think they can get away with hoodwinking
Pulling uh filling you know just pulling the the uh blinds over um over the public and just not listening to what they’re saying but saying they are so good honor she’s it’s worth looking at that uh website and to look at some of her interviews there one of the things
That’s um that’s really uh um that’s really I suppose been missed in the past is not anymore because the BS bs5837 is been updated and hopefully there’ll be a bit more Hedges is Hedges how important they are and I used to think well that’s just a hedge you know but actually some
Of them are hundred well many of them are hundreds and hundreds of years old and they are ecologically so rich but until you start you know I just to see birds and I start to like birds now and I’m not like a bir but I I it’s
Wonderful and you see them they a good indicator of the quality um of the environment and they live in Hedges they love it and then you you realize then how much ecological value there is and this is still going on this was last year so this was a photograph sent uh
It’s in Wales unfortunately because I’m from Wales so um that’s a bit disappointing isn’t it really um and um and you know this is what farmers are getting away with not all of them but some of them are and this is just this is wrong this this this is something
That we should be trying to address because Hedges are critically important and this is uh Twitter uh a photograph I put what a video I put on Twitter and that had over 400,000 views so that’s not insubstantial and the reason why is because in the spring these Hawthorns so
If you look at it on the right hand side we’ve got this Bank of flowers and nectar on these trees that on this hedge row trees that have been flailed or cut for three or four years on the other side we’ve got a hedge that’s been regularly cut and you can see the
Difference can’t you when you look and that’s what why hedge management needs to be looked at of course you can’t do it everywhere but some places where there’s a Verge like this you could leave your hedges for say three years and do a third every year and then over
Three years you have a rotation and then what you get then is when you look at it you see you’ve got nothing over there virtually nothing and look at the berries that I mean it’s a good year for orthorn but look at the fruit on there the food for birds and small mammals
It’s just staggering and uh that’s just about management understanding the importance of them and they’ve also got other important elements as well which we can talk about um so this is in Singapore so that’s what it doesn’t matter where you are the same thing happens Singapore were Visionary in
Their understanding of the need for green infrastructure and to make their places green so they’re nice for their residents and they do they have one of the highest densities of uh buildings and people in the world and yet they have some of the best green infrast
Structure that you could ever go and see so if you get a chance go and see it and here’s just one simple example the roads have got Hedges between them and next to them and do you know what that does because most of the pollution or a lot
Of the pollution from roads is in that top one to two meters it collects and buffers a pollution and stops IT growing and blow sorry blowing over onto where children at one meter breathing air at 1 meter 1 and a half meters in height are walking and people are walking easy
Things um to do and really quite easy to maintain as as well and yet the all the way you hear oh no we can’t do that over here no the costs are be too great oh no you can’t do that well you can you just
Need to do it and um anyway I’ve got a few more um things to go through I really want to show you if I can this is an example great example of a community initiative that make a difference about Hedges and I can’t spend too long on it
But if you just go to that video you can watch it it’s um it’s a um uh CPR Council for the protection of rural England award for this hedge R scheme um which had a number of elements that we’ll just look at and if you go on
To the tree Council website because they oversaw it you’ll have this you’ll see this excellent um flyover and the the the uh the aspiration to be able to show new hedges in red uh whether was no hedge a reinstated hedge where there was in yellow and you can fly around I can’t
Show you here but you can fly around the whole valley um and you can look at what it was like in the past you can look at the new Hedges that are being planted and they’re going to do it and they’re going to have flyovers over the next uh
Two or three or four years so you can see in real in real time you can see what the differences are at all the locations and they’re actually having a biological um uh Baseline data collected so they’re trying to identify what species are present in a whole range of
Different ways and then they’ll compare that to the Future so some fantastic initiatives going on here and it’s just about reinforcing and um improving existing Hedges where they’ve started to fail and this is what it looks like so it’s just people you know Ordinary People nice people neighbors that sort
Of thing that that are retired and you know or don’t have anything to do and feel they want to get out into the air and do it and that’s was what it was like before and that’s what it looks like afterwards so they have people shown them how to do it great great
Initiative and here’s all the volunteers as well everybody in the community or you know they don’t get paid to do it they just come and do it and they do a fantastic job and uh what’s interesting is that is that on the right hand side we’ve got all the supporting Partners so
The Lo tree Council we’ve got Network rail have financed a lot wild New Forest and The New Forest National Park but the local community because they’re the ones that drove it and guess what they had a champion in here he is Colin Andrews um he’s in New Zealand at the moment so uh
I hope he can see this at some stage but you know I’ve noticed in my life that you you know people that like chickens um quite special and you need to be very careful with them so I was always really pleased that that I was um very polite
When I when I spoke to him and I saw this Photograph recently and realized that he was a chicken lover and uh I I’m not into chickens that much but but I am into Ducks I’ve got pond at the end of my garden I dug it myself it’s huge and
Um we’ve our ducks are on it and I like ducks a lot I can’t talk to you about ducks now I I’ll get I’ll get lost and I’ll get into trouble um so so that’s about Hedges right so this is planting of open spaces so I want to do something
I’m fed up the council are doing nothing well what you do is you go out and have a walk around and see where you might be able to get get some trees in so you can’t put them where there’s services that easily but do you think that bit of
Grass area is full up with services I don’t think it is I don’t think the council are bothered do you know I mean I don’t think the council are bothered I don’t think the highway Authority have bothered I don’t think anyone bothered when they should be bothering so why
Don’t you go and identify those and then start talking to people and try and get things done and here’s an example from the back hill Environmental Group so it’s a small village in um Old Town in um in East Sussex and this was just an open piece of ground in front of those
Bungalows there and uh they uh spoke to all the stakeholders uh which included East Sussex highways and the local uh people that live there and they all agreed yes we’d like that to be planted up with trees this is what it was um 2 years ago and this is the same view just
A little bit closer and that’s what it looked like um uh at the end of last year when I went down there to look at it so fantastic job and this is another view so you can see the houses in the background there give you a reference
Point and um and that’s what it looks like now so this can be done anyway I’ve got a speed on now I’m going to be probably um a few minutes over time but I did ask John to start with If he if he’d forgive me if I was so I hope you
Can all bear with me me anyway um uh how do you PL into hostile difficult locations soil cells this is uh Green Tech now called the tree Parker but it was um when it was reim were’re promoting it as uh as um tree bunker and
This is the uh the the view of the installation of the video that did the promotional video that I did and that’s what it looks like now with those tulip trees in there great great effort and uh it really works well um 2007 I was over
In Redwood City uh and I met Julian Ray he is the owner or was the owner of deep brew and he his A daughter’s house he was putting in one of the first silver cell installations and and here it is I saw it and uh this is it now and uh the
Tree on the right um has uh has is in the silver cells the tree on the left is not and you can see there’s a significant difference between how much they’ve grown um and uh and then just uh to try and be fair to all of the providers deep root also provide
Products their silver cells and we had some trees uh at the bom command Memorial which we oversaw in 20112 there’s the cells in the ground you can see the services running between them and there’s the tree that we craned in and put in there and this is all um
Supported cells which those trees uh there’s two in the front that’s what it was like just after it was planted when the queen opened it and uh that’s what it’s like um uh last year and it’s a case study in uh trees andard Landscapes
As well so uh we can get them into tough places um Howard Gray from green blue Urban told me one of their oldest plantings is in St Paul’s Cathedral 2006 so uh so that’s um nearly 20 years old now and those trees are looking pretty good so GBU have got some great products
Um but also uh the Stockholm uh tree pit so you go to Stockholm I’ve been there three or four times now and I’ve seen this stuff firsthand so I’m not talking to you uh in an uninformed way and uh basically the trees are planted in stone uh which is then backfilled with soil
And biochar and and other things and uh and this is what it looks like here’s um what the installation looks like here’s uh some trees in 2008 that were planted in 2004 so they just getting going you can see um that they’re quite substantial and here they are now uh uh
20 odd years later so so the Stockholm soil mix works as well in fact some of the best tree growth I’ve ever seen on new trees has been over in Stockholm so if you get a chance go and see it and again that’s a case study not this
Street but uh there’s case studies on that in trees and hard Landscapes and then um just to get to the Practical things and I just I am going to go over um five or 10 minutes and because I just think these are really important things
To say um it’s just easy in it you know I mean I used to do this stuff so I know what it’s like it’s dead easy in it just a fell a trunk like that and get rid of it and uh you know what you’re doing is you’re just ruining standing habitat
Deadwood ecological habitat which is some of the most scarce and valuable um habitat resources that we can have uh and it’s just lazy it’s uninformed and it’s not necessary uh and in fact felling should be the last resort and I did a little video here which you can
Look at it um about tree pruning and you can see really what we should be trying to do with these old trees is just keep them alive for as long as possible to have a slow lingering death so we just want them to just have a few little live
Branches on to keep them going not everywhere but you know where you can and you then get this abundance of Life on them so have a look at that video if um if you want to find out a bit more about that and then I was in um Winds of
Great Park that’s Alex satel from uh from Philip man V’s company he was over visiting in 2018 with Keith there you know leaving trees like that in the past I it makes me feel bad now sometimes I think about the things I felt uh but we didn’t know much better now but people
Do know better now and there’s no excuse to f a tree like that without thinking carefully and then you go to uh around the world so I was in Pune and in India in 2019 um speaking at a conference there and I just walked down the road into a
Local college and saw this stump that was left there so fantastic you know there are people out there that are doing great great things and it would be just dead easy would it to take that down um and when you have this is rhs wisley one of our showcase uh in uh
Places um you know world famous and when you see places like wisley leaving dead stumps and using them as um interpretational material and RG the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and Q do the same as well when you see these stumps being left then you know um that
There’s something in it uh in these sorts of places so this is not this is not Fringe stuff anymore this is mainstream uh and we should all be thinking about it so tree Equity uh I want it with the Woodland trust I’m not going to spend too much about this
Talking about this I’m going to give you a couple of quick slides this is a fantastic resource I just was staggered when I saw it um uh Katherine nutkins um was from The National Trust was um was explaining it in a seminar a few weeks ago and basically you can zoom in to
Your own uh you can zoom right in this is zooming into Westminster and the color uh gives you a score of how many trees there are and where you need more trees so the greener it is the fewer trees you probably need and if you want
To make a difference socially uh and uh and uh from A diversity point of view then go to those orange colors and see if you can uh get the trees in get trees in there and then you’ll start to make a real difference to people on the ground
So this is just something that you ought to know about go and have a look yourself and see whether you think you can use it and then you know this is what we should be doing this is what the aerial shots should be looking like water uh Open Fields agriculture you can
Have agriculture this is not against agriculture small Woodlands individual trees ponds Wetlands uh all the stuff that we’ve done our best to drain to use to bring sheep in that live in very marginal environments to try and get a small uh income from the land leave even
Leaving heaps of of debris there as Eco heaps fantastic this is exactly what we should be doing this Mosaic is what makes the difference and it’s time to start thinking about it so what can we do well you know what we’ve got is we’ve got a devastated natural environment FL
Farming policy not Farmers farming policy this is government policy they killed the land and they’re killing us and uh and we will recover it it will come back and what we’ve got is we’ve got pockets of seed areas where pockets of Woodland pockets of habitat that all need to be
Joined up by Hedges and then the bits that aren’t productive you allow them to Rew and how you you know what we’ve got is all of these organizations that you can see on the screen rspb National Trust Woodland trust um Wildlife trusts of all all got bits of land all over the
Place and what they’re doing is managing them responsibly and ecologically soundly and what will happen when we get the hedges and we get enough people supporting this is those sort of little seed areas will start to filter out and recolonize the the land that we really shouldn’t have used in the first place
So there’s a lot going on if you can support these organizations that’s fantastic so think about that as well and then that’s that’s the essence of what I’m saying I’m just going to go through them my top 10 tips down from or up from from 10 all the way up um or
Down actually but um case we we’ve been through most of case studies great way of uh exposing the people who say no you can’t do that well yes you can and here’s the proof proactively challenge highways we haven’t spoken about highways or planning but they are doing
A pretty bad job on the whole and they need to be challenged they need to be uh made to be accountable and they’re going to have to change their ways if we stand any chance of managing to proactively and substantially improve Urban Greening these people need to be challenged
Identify planting uh sites and support collaborative Community initiatives you have to get highways in you have to get councils in you have to get environmental groups the local people get them involved but that matters you know there’s a massive resource out there that Sitting Waiting um to do
Something wanting to do something they just need to be shown how to do it so that’s important factor tree Equity into planting design I can’t spend too much felling should be the L all don’t get rid of these trees wow you know they’ve taken years to get to a point where
They’re starting deliver the benefits and then they’re being cut down unbelievable is Landscape Architects if you don’t take anything else away from here now just take these two points away species diversification and large canopy trees you know that’s what we should that should be your priority not every
Single time but that should be your first Port of Call not the not the lollipop trees planted in the most ridiculous ways inappropriate species you know these people shouldn’t be being paid for what they’re doing insist on 8545 table one use that to make sure tree quality is good enough
When it arrives on site and if it’s not good enough send it back it’s there you just have to use it and then support the organizations that we just saw this is so important they are critical um to providing the way that we can rewi in a
Quick and efficient way and put right the damage that the last 40 or 50 years of policy has done edges really matter they I I feel so bad that I didn’t appreciate it early on and they join up all the fragmented habitat and they provide such a habitat themselves as
Well that we should be just making sure that we look after after them um and um and then this is the one that you won’t well you might know about if you’re pretty well informed but you know not that many people know about it um but they you certainly won’t have the that
I’m going to show you in a minute so climate change scorecards and we’re going to look at that so there’s an organization called climate emergency UK and you can read a bit more about it there and they have this initiative which is let’s assess all the councils
In Britain and see how well they’re performing on a sustainability um on sustainability criteria so that’s what they’ve been doing they’ve been doing it for quite a few years and this year guess what not this year last year they published the 2023 results and that’s
What I’m going to show you some of the results from that which is quite interesting so there’s nothing quite like it is it you can have you know I think is quite exciting sort of um um name and shaming councils or people you know is sort of quite good really in
Anyways but it’s a bit negative and I don’t like it that much I you know I’ve done some things wrong and I’d rather I was given a chance to it right I could um but you know I think these give an opportunity to name and a claim and what
Name and a claim means is that you basically say well look these people are just right at the top look they’ve been recognize that doing a great job surely we could uh we could match that couldn’t we all get closer to it and that is a
Very positive way to try and go to people that are decision makers and that can make a difference so have a look at this stuff uh what you get and it’s a massive uh Enterprise but what you get is a score the councils are assessed on a range of different things so that
Sustainability governance mitigation and adaptation commitment operation Community engagement Communications measuring setting emissions targets co- benefits diverse and social inclusion diversity and social inclusion and there’s a load of others as well and this is just an example so I just happened to speak to Bournemouth and CHR
BCP Bournemouth CHR PA a few few weeks ago and it turns out that in single tier local authorities out of 186 that were measured they’re 75th so not sort of like a disaster but there’s a lot of scope to do better than that isn’t there
Um so that’s that sort of element to it now what if we go and start looking at the tree parts of that because lots of it was other stuff but they they look at the biodiversity side of things so this is the all the things they look at pee whether they peep free
Light pollution green Awards green flag Awards planning ecologist should be planning albar culturist there should be a whole range of other things in there that that are being asked but they need some help on this um and if we look a little bit more closely we can see that
Question five is about tree cover and I’m just going to um uh read it quickly does the council have a Target to infantry tree cover and is a tree management plan agreed as they grow and then the criteria will be met if the council is a target to increase tree
Cover which is included in the biodiversity action plan or tree staty provided the council has agreed Tree Management plan that details how new trees will be irrigated and cared for now that brings us to the critical thing is you can plant the politicians are keen on planting you know millions of
Trees but it doesn’t matter what happens to them afterwards a critical part of it so they’re getting there but they’re not quite there yet anyway this is the bit of information that’s really good so on that um question uh five does the council have a Target to increase uh
Tree cover and is it Tree Management plan agreed as they grow well guess what uh 86% of the council’s poll don’t didn’t comply they didn’t pass it only 14% passed it and what you can see here is the green one so these are the leaders so there Belfast and there and there’s
That must be North this Glasgow there and up there as well and a few in uh the Midlands there but you know the bulk of people the bulk of councils are just not delivering so what they’re doing is they’re talking about it and In fairness some of them are probably working on it
But they’re not delivering so there’s all that greenwashing so it’s the talk and the failure to deliver and this shows exactly where uh where they stand and then when you look at this in that was just one question so you look at the biodiversity section um I’m sorry
Biodiversity is spelled wrongly um but you look at that and if you start to put the councils uh in there less than uh the councilors have scored less than 10% well there’s not too many of them thankfully 42 most of them scored sort
Of 10 to 20% in in in of a full score but you know once you get to 40% hardly any um scored more than 40% on that on those criteria and those criteria need to be looked at and I’ll talk about that in a second as well um
And this is just the last slide um to um just as interest to not our overseas guests of course but to those in Britain so over all um New Forest District Council was the top scorer on the biodiversity section and that’s wonderful for me because I’m in New
Forest so well done good effort Beijing State Dean’s just out the road and Devon’s down the road as well Council by types um and you can see there I’ll let you read that and uh council’s by country new forest district council at the top Northern Ireland um uh will have
Uh do pretty well Scotland um and uh and um Wales and uh and Scotland as of sorry Scotland as well so um so that is the that is what you get from that and I don’t have time to go into it in any more detail but what we are going to do
Now is um have another poll so what I’m going to do while that poll and you I’m going to talk to you about the poll in a second and you can be it um but what the um this is something that the AA could be doing is certainly um collaborating
With um the climate action scorecard cards people and start to develop a more comprehensive set of questions about biodiversity in trees so we should be looking at that and I hope they can move forward on that and then in terms of me trying to give something back for the
Living that I’ve got out of our Bor culture um there’s a whole range of things I could do and in the future I’m going to be delivering over the next three or four years workshops and more webinars probably um and there’s a range of different things that I could cover
So bs5 I like to be talking about that is being reviewed I’ve got plenty of thoughts on that we’ve done 7 and a half thousand development sites over the last 20 years so we know what we’re talking about um legal cases I do more legal
Cases uh on um in terms of harm that arises from tree failures and any other consultant in Britain um and I’m quite happy to talk to people about that uh that would be quite interesting development site management is a critical area um it’s an area where the
Trees already there if we get it right we can keep trees and I’m doing a a there’s a conference in two or three weeks time in chelsford which um Sharon H good old Sharon D holl now is uh is producing I’m speaking there but we’ll be talking about development site um
Management there uh canopy cover assessment we that we’ve been working hard on that so nobody really knows about it much yet but we’re happy to talk about that at some point in the future and Heritage tree assessment that’s one of the other things I do I’m
Speaking in uh India in uh six weeks time and I’ll be talking about heritage Tree Management there um and then also I haven’t really spoken about Tree Management at all but there’s lots of practical Tree Management um uh stuff that I’ve picked up from legal cases and
From the practicalities of it so I can talk about that and if you don’t like the way that I present then you can go don’t bother um and uh I that’s a risky old business isn’t it I don’t even know if I can see the outcome oh well that’s
Good oh one oh one out of one out of 389 didn’t didn’t want me to bother so you just can’t keep everyone happy can you um so that’s it John I’m uh I’m grateful for the time I’m really grateful so many people attended and uh I’m sorry that
I’ve gone over and I I know we’ve gone over quite a bit so far away if you got any questions thank you Jeremy well worth it I’m sorry I put don’t bother on the survey I it’s so harsh because there was only one person but it’s the one person who
Can who can make the difference so I’m sorry uh some good ideas for future presentations there as well brilliant thank you Jeremy now I just put something in the chat just to let you know we have got loads of questions and we definitely don’t have time to work
Through them all I know I’m sorry it’s quite all right don’t you worry at all but we’re definitely gonna send them more to Jeremy afterwards as we always do and then he great yeah that catches his eye um okay there’s a few people uh Jeremy and I’m looking for who has asked
It mave has asked it and Richard has asked it um what about biodiversity Net game do we think that’s going to improve the situation and then I’ll just throw another one in there this is three questions in one someone said is biodiversity net gain itself greenwashing uh well first of all I’m
Not an ecologist and I have an oversight of it um one of the problems that that planners have to deal with is um how do you or how do we rationalize um the tree elements that we look at as tree Specialists AR bar culturists in um in
Um uh in planning terms uh with the Ecology of it and B&G and I think trees you know the ecologist have done a great job what they’ve done is they’ve got the attention of government and uh they have quite rightly because the environmental matters uh over the whole country are
Really important these are just um you know trees are just one small part of uh biod net gain and these produce are much more valuable in terms of the benefits that they provide than than you know they’re so important they can’t be treated um as part of a BNG
Consideration in in any depth so what should happen or what I think is the best way to deal with this is to have um is to have BNG Cal so planners are looking at planning submissions what’s the impact on the environment biodiversity net gain calculations and
Assessments is one way of doing it but that’s about ecology trees provide benefits Way Beyond ecology and we don’t even know what the values are so about uh you know impact on people’s Health um and all of those elements and they should be treated uh in parallel with biodiversity net gain and planners
Shouldn’t have a problem doing that and I don’t think they will have because what planners do they’re the overseers they have the feedback from all the different types of um uh Specialists that that feed into the built environment manager agement and they then balance those and then take a
Decision and come up with what best suits the the um adopted policy so I think I I don’t I I think b& is is good because it’s raises the profile of um of ecology and that can only be good but it can’t supersede or be instead of uh a
Proper and full assessment of trees and actually um canopy cover uh is is the way to get a better or a more fine-tuned analysis or assessment of what the impacts on a site from development are going to be so that maybe a bit waffle as an answer and I’m
Sorry I can’t answer it specifically no that’s great thank you and you know biodiversity again is something that’s going to affect abor culturalist all over the country I think in some ways we don’t necessarily quite understand yet just how much it’s going to affect us and the association is doing some work
On that now as well so uh yeah it’s G to it’s going to be a change um question question from Martin um asking in your opinion would additional funds to tree owners help improve the situation and I suppose I’m not sure if Martin means private tree owners or public tree
Owners but I kind of expand that we’ve talked a bit about tree offices and everything and you know I’m a big advocate of tree officers but it’s that lack of funding a lot of the time that creates so many problems so in the public and private realm is funding the
Solution uh well I well it’s a difficult question I mean the first thing is that people you know is is knowledge and understanding and trying to educate people so getting people that getting information to people so they can make an informed decision is really important
So uh and that’s part of the problem is that the information you either have to buy or it’s costly or you can’t get it so that’s quite quite important I think it’s easy to say yeah just throw more money at it um but Tree Management doesn’t have to be expensive you just
Need to do the right stuff do the right thing um and I think I mean sometimes it is but I don’t think throwing money at it is the problem is the solution and also when people haven’t got much money it can’t be but what we should be able
To do is to identify so you know you have a whole range of trees in the population and most of them so you lose some you put some in that’s not such a big deal but really what we do have and this is the Heritage tree stuff is that
Some trees are special and they’re very special so there’s a real need important need to identify those and then start to fund that because quite rightly someone there’s lots of tree owners that we see that have some of these Heritage trees on their land and they genuinely can’t
Afford to do the management so they get support from enthusiasm from organizations um like the tree Council and other places and government to some extent as well but I think identifying the special trees we should certainly be looking to fund and to look after special trees properly and then part of
That is how to treat them because we’ve got lots of well not lots because of some great contract s out there but there’s contractors that just fell in things when it doesn’t have to be that way and uh we need to be having the veter program is a great one so the AA
Is supporting that it’s a European initiative as well and the more people that can go on to that as contractors to do the Practical work and as consultants to do the advisory work the better we will get at identifying these special trees and those special trees are the
Ones that we should be looking after absolutely thank you and you mentioned about the the importance of making available uh the information available free or as cheaply as possible and you said t quite rightly do some great stuff London tree Officers Association I would also recommend their
Website got loads of great stuff and of course things like this webinar we try I I apologize for smiling during your answer that I was just seeing that someone’s uh mentioned my new facial hair and uh uh where are we uh uh Ian’s asked where I buried them which I think
Is quite quite yeah I if I just glanced across I could think that ly was reincarnated from um cuz he’s you know he was just fantastic so it’s a good effort anyone that tries to impersonate lemy is on my you know top 10 favorite books so well done good effort I was
Told earlier on I looked like I was either going to join a biker gang or go and solve a mystery in Victorian England so I tell you what that’s a good but I tell you what there’s a new Vikings series coming up soon and and you want
To go and see them if you you just might need a few more tattoos we probably can’t go there but I could no oh no anyway we’re not here to talk about my Exquisite facial hair we’re here to talk about other things um and uh yes Jeremy so a couple of people have
Also asked about root cells you mentioned and Naomi’s made the point that uh burying plastic underground may not be necessarily sustainable or can release microplastics out there as well and a couple of people have talked about structural soils being preferable to Silver cells have you got any or root
Cells generally sorry other brands are available well I I think first of all using recycled plastic in terms of say you shouldn’t use it is is a bit of a start I think the um the Dutch I’ve seen some great um uh well they’re not plastic they’re concrete and they seem
To work as well Apple dwn the outside Apple dwn station in Holland has got um has got some really big cells created from concrete um uh uh sort of um yeah cages um I think you know I mean there’s never there’s always you know there’s never there’s never an easy answer is
There but what I think we need to not lose sight of is that in some places uh you know this the the penalty it’s a case of weighing up the the the benefits against the disbenefits and in some places the disbenefits of having plastic and with the potential for that to
Pollute and I accept that completely against the benefits that come from having trees in um in in the Urban envir environment uh and the benefits that they impart on human health on pollution buffering on rainwater buffering on temperature buffering you have to do you have to weigh things up and it’s it’s
Like it’s like do you buy a Japanese car or you know they they still hunt whales uh they they commercially hunt whales and so I really abhor that along with Norway and Iceland and yet uh you know how far do you go you you have to you
Have to uh balance things up and there’s never an easy decision so so I think um stock the Stockholm mix is great because um you can well I mean it really works um uh but you can use local materials there so you cut down on all the
Material that you have to import um and certainly in Sweden there’s lots of rock so that works quite well um but uh but I think you know there’s there’s um there’s pros and cons to all of these things so I don’t think there’s a simple
Answer I think all that we can do is set out what options sit there and that’s what I tried to do and the different things that you can do and then you then as assessors as consultants as pratic practitioners uh do intelligent analysis of what’s best to use in that particular
Circumstance and and that’s tricky because everybody likes to have recipes you should do this here and that there and then they don’t have to think about it but you know the reality is you do have to think hard about a lot of these things and none of it it’s easy so it’s
Not not a very robust answer to your question but that’s it it’s good thank you very much um we probably got time for one more question for out so I’m very sorry but there’s one that has caught my eye from Emma and maybe it kind of ties in slightly with
Biodiversity Net game but about offsite remediation and is that ever appropriate we hear a lot about well we’re cutting down these trees here but we’re going to plant more trees but we’re going to do it miles away or something that feels to me a very traditional why I think of
When I hear greenwashing that’s the kind of thing here absolutely that’s that’s greenwashing heaven isn’t it that is um the fact of the matter is in some again it needs each situation should be assessed on its own merits um but the fact of the matter is that the main
Benefits that come from trees um are realized when they’re I mean not all of them but most of them are realized when they’re very close to people and that’s why roads are one of the biggest sources of harm they provide good as well but they provide an awful lot of harm and to
Get trees in next to roads is really really important and to get trees in streets is really important so the government policy to try and make sure that all new streets are treelined is is exactly what’s needed and this idea that you can squeeze with this this is what
They do in America and we see trees being lost hand over fist in private properties over there because they have very little control over it over that what happens there because the property rights in in the US are different from over here but what we’re what we should
Be doing is getting Trees close to people and it can be done that’s what soil cells do you can and we can get trees in we know how to do it uh green Walls green roofs trees uh in these tight Urban spaces so you can have both
So there is no excuse to say oh no we can’t get any trees in here there’s not enough space well I tell you I’ve seen quite a lot of places where you could get trees in and if you don’t want big spreading trees then you have FAS digia
Trees and you can get Oaks tulip trees Birch you can uh Phi Maple English trees of course but you know they can all um they can all uh you know be we we can get trees into these environments it’s just it’s just greenwash to say no we’ll replace them somewhere else yeah
Absolutely thank you and just one more question I would like to ask because it’s a interesting thing that we’re going to be doing more about um Coming uh soon hopefully but Mark’s asked about section 115 of the environment act which is the to consult of course and that’s where local authorities are now
Compelled to consult with local residents about removing trees unless there’s particular exemptions around it quite a bit of sort of controversy in its development uh partly in response to uh Sheffield as well we’ve got an article from Jim Smith at the forestry commission coming up in the next edition
Of our magazine I think we’re going to be doing a bit more about it in the future but I remember Jeremy you and I sat on the same table at one of the meetings about the duty to consult we were both involved in it in giving information what do you think about it
How do you think it’s going to change things well what happened in Sheffield was absolutely wrong and what happened in Plymouth is absolutely wrong and what happened in wesworth is absolutely wrong so uh you know there’s examples of local politicians just going way past uh the ideal of representing the community and
So there has to be I mean that change in the law and you’ve got to give it to the government is that they identified the seriousness of what happened in Sheffield and they reacted to it and you know we can’t complain about that I don’t think now how it’s
Implemented will be very much you know we don’t want to give TR offices and people more work than they really need but we really don’t want what happened in Sheffield happening anywhere else in Britain or in the world in fairness that was terrible uh you know out of 36,000
Street trees 5,000 were lost um and most of those it was unnecessary to lose them uh so that was just vested interest incompetence ignorance a personal agenda’s driving tree loss and that has to be stopped one way or another and I I really you know you have to hand it to
The government they that they did make an attempt to do that and of course with any type of new legislation it will take a while to bet it but I think we need to have the capacity to adjust based on how it works after a year or two and then I
Think um review it and just take it Forward um and uh so I think it it it is it’s a very it’s a good response I think to what was a terrible terrible situation and I was there I saw those trees and some of the ones that were
Taken down was just it was just criminal really yeah so duty to consult certainly make a difference as well yeah however it goes of course we do need to make sure that the tree officers aren’t just overloaded and overloaded with more stuff they need to do and you know we we
Need to be making sure we’re properly them and uh someone mentioned I think it might have been Craig in the chat there about guidance of implementation I think that’s going to be included in Jim’s article in the next AR magazine but I believe there is a guidance coming
Out from the forest commission from defra to uh sort of help local authorities to implement this this change so I think that is coming but uh uh we will hopefully get something about that in the next art magazine brilliant it’s like it’s a it’s it’s a situation
Of interpretation we have the same rules across the country um for planning and you know some places do wonderful and other places are awful and it’s about local interpretation and how those rules are put into practice so guidance from you know a competent body like the forestry commission and from defra and
From other people would be really welcome and I think there needs to be the capacity to assess it after a few years and see whether it’s done any good or not brilliant thank you Jeremy well I apologize to everybody out there who whose questions we didn’t ask I do
Sometimes have people emailing me saying I didn’t you didn’t ask my question well I’m sorry I’m sure it was a great question we have just had so many I couldn’t ask them all uh but I do have time for one more question and it is of course the big one we’ve been promised
Some form of controversy I don’t know what it is but Jeremy barl what is your favorite tree related book right I just I ought to I ought to well right first of all this right I look at that isn’t that brilliant the OD magazine I tell
You I’ve seen them all over the world Isa New Zealand Australia they all have magazines but ours is brilliant because you open a page up and look there’s no adverts in it so you know yeah look every single page not every page but you know it’s not full of adverts and I
Don’t like it when I open a book and I mean it’s not a book but you know it’s a magazine but I don’t like it when you just get bombarded with adverts so that’s um so that’s that’s really right at the top of my list I think you do a
Great job um and uh Simon Richmond um and um gosh you know do a I was about to say that’s brilliant it’s the best answer we’ve ever had obviously and Simon Richmond and Sarah Bryce to say I haven’t finished yet right you have finished that’s it you’re not getting any better than that
Everybody have a nice time this is the best bit this is the best bit to come right is the document that’s done the most harm to our Bor culture in the whole of UK history sits here it’s the BS and I’ve been through it and that’s
It’s so expensive and uh and it just is a document that we should be ashamed of that we’re actually paying to do it there’s two at the top document though we’re not saying it’s not a good document it’s a good document but it’s bad that we can’t get hold of it is that
It’s a principle right it’s a principle and then at the top of the list equal top right now I’ve got a green screen behind me and the cover of this is green so the the camera thinks it’s I did I have to go back but anyway it’s David’s
Book yeah David lale’s book good on him and this is you can see look mine’s falling apart the pages are nearly out of it and I I use it so much so David is great and then my top book or along with David equal with it is this steel manual
For how for an electric brush cutter right and I have grown up using battery and engines that are killing like I’m choking to death my hands are aching I go to bed and I wake up with pins and needles in my arms and these battery this battery equipment provided by Steel
Is fantastic look at it look diagrams anything you want it’s just the best book you could ever have no if that’s not a good a for steel what is I I am well done I’m Blown Away by that I think that’s but still look you got that we
Didn’t even we didn’t even plan that uh amazing and of course Jeremy managed to pick three books well two books a manual and a magazine I know so so of course only Jeremy could get away with that thank brilliant thank you so much Jeremy for that it was really really wonderful
We had more about 650 probably up to 700 people watching so it’s absolutely wonderful we still got 500 now thank you thank you so much I you know to have people attend is really good and um I just hope that they found it useful and
And I you know I sorry I ran over time and I’m sorry that I had to go quite quickly but there such a lot of information to try and get across so thank you it was great and we we are always happy to have you back doing a
Webinar you know that and you did our first ever one and you will do more for us again in theut and now we’ve got a list of stuff that people want to hear about which is even better so thank you very much Jeremy thank you to all of you
For watching thank you steel of course you get an extra bonus bit of sponsorship today so well done thank you for Andrew for helping and everybody else have a wonderful evening look forward to seeing you next week uh and uh yes you’ll get to see the facial hair
Again unless I do something different all right thank you everybody good night thank you all right bye bye thanks
4 Comments
John – I feel like we need to officially congratulate you on your fabulous facial hair!! The best in the Chartered Environmentalist community? Who knows. All the best, Phil.
The tree planting by the highways agency is awful. So many dead trees.
You see that after uploading every video of your channel still not enough views because the channel is not fully completed. If you want I can help you.
'Greenwashing' from unreliable tax-payer subsidised windmills and solar panels that in time are supposed to supply our energy needs, but don't, can't and won't, to a mad scramble to plant thousands upon thousands of trees hither and thither, whilst well-meaning, is in my opinion akin to stone age religion devoid of fact, logic and reason. Many people freely pick up and run with the 'climate crisis' mantra, but in point of fact this is based only on theory and opinion in the form of dubious and largely discredited computer models. After having looked high and low, it seems to me that there absolutely NO, I repeat NO, empirical scientific evidence whatsoever to support the theory of man-made global warming/heating/boiling/ climate change – none, nada, nought, zero, zilch. As far as I can tell precisely the opposite is true. Principally due to the replenishment of CO2 lost to the oceans over millennia, plant life is thriving, and this increase should be celebrated and not feared as some deadly toxin. But please don't take my word for it folks, look for yourself. If anyone thinks otherwise and can reference empirical scientific evidence to back up their position, I say come on show us the magic. I would really love to see it.