A flurry!
As the weather outside turns wintry, with eddies and flurries of sleet, I’ve had a busy morning with a couple of very promising enquiries – one for planning permission for a residential property, via an urgent BS5837:2005 tree survey, and the second for a larger scale social development where both a tree survey and a phase I habitat survey are required in order to satisfy the local planning authority.

The first I can complete before Christmas, the second will require the architect’s and developer’s plans to crystallise and firm up a little more before I go into the field.

I’ve also renewed contact with an old friend, and it looks as though a very interesting scheme, to design a target-lead survey and tree risk management plan, will see the light of day in the first quarter of 2010.

Research projects
An opportunity to further the development of a local authority’s tree strategy has been put back, but only for a couple of weeks. I’m confident that we’re on the right path and that the work we’re doing together will help all the authority’s officers to demonstrate consistent and robust tree management to both the public and to members.

I have been invited to contribute to a learned conference in the spring, with a host of other “end users” to discuss the commercial impact of tree diseases upon the arboricultural industry, from nurseryman to woodchip dealer. I must start asking searching questions!