March is nearly over!

Practically speaking
The project for the Registered Social Landlord is nearing completion!

· I have recovered all of the OS MasterMap data that I can, but there are some addresses that we can not locate, and some we could not find on the ground
· I have had a lot of support from field assessors, for which I thank you all
· the plan of attack seems to have worked well in practice
· we have a huge library of annotated sketches and lists of the scheme attributes
· we now need to press on with the post-processing into ARBORtrack

http://www.arbortrack.com/main.asp

So far all the planning seems to have been worthwhile and we have been generating invoices for our client.

An on-going tree inventory survey has taken a back seat whilst we await the repair of our tablet pc. In the meantime we have carried out a walkover survey of the client estate and satisfied ourselves from that exercise that there is noting crashingly urgent to be done. When the tablet is returned we’ll do the survey proper.

I have undertaken five small instructions for BS5837 surveys so far this year, an increase of four on last year (or 400%, whichever sounds better!) – but what exactly is that an indication of? The much heralded (and oh so important) economic recovery, a concern about a likely increase in VAT, better visibility of the service that I can offer, an improved product from me as I gain more experience?

I’ve been working on a presentation to the RFS/RASE Tree Diseases Conference – nerve-wracking stuff talking to 250 people who know their subject. Thank goodness I only have 15 minutes to pontificate upon “Tree diseases and the arboriculture industry – an overview” – so I’ve got the opportunity to be the advocate for the arboricultural community and to share experiences of diagnosing tree diseases, and the consequences of those diagnoses. Sadly, the response from the community has been typically poor, but those who have helped have done so unreservedly and with great generosity.

http://www.rfs.org.uk/ and http://www.rase.org.uk/

A project that I need to work up is a management plan for the tree population in a private road near Solihull, a mix of limes and horse chestnut, some in good condition, some in terminal decline.
Operation Moshtarak has become less of an issue for our Oxford project recently – Prince Charles followed the Princess Royal’s trip to Afghanistan, but my surveyors’ ability to work was not that badly compromised during his 36-hour trip.

Expressly interesting
I was not successful at LB Waltham Forest, congratulations to Jon Mills, the Senior Arboriculturalist in Countryside & Heritage Management Services for Capita Symonds

www.capitasymonds.co.uk/arboriculture

I’ve expressed interest in a project advertised in Horticulture Week

http://www.hortweek.com/

for the Environment Agency - they require tree work throughout England, but predominantly in Yorkshire, Northumbria and North Derbyshire

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/