Well, another day and another opportunity – none have yet been converted into actual work though since we won the contract to survey the trees Oxford City Council’s parks, open spaces and housing areas. Henry is out there with his MobileMapper and DigiTerra software recording the various attributes and then uploading the information to the Council’s server.

To date this year I’ve expressed interest in 61 enquiries, some were “never wozzers” to quote John Le Carre, and some have been converted in to genuinely interesting projects where I have learned as I have advised my client.

The comparison with this time last year is interesting – seemingly I’d had 68 enquiries by then but one of those, a local PCT, generated a number of separate pieces of consultancy work – tree risk management plans as well as BS5837 surveys on development sites.

The enquiries this year, and particularly at the end of this year, have had more of a “research” flavour –
· CIRIA have published an opportunity to produce “A guide for long lived large trees and other green infrastructure in urban environments”
· The National Forest are seeking support to increase the demand for woodland products and services, and
· The Westonbirt Arboretum are looking for help to restore pleasure gardens, parkland, built landscape features and the collection if historic trees and shrubs within a Grade 1 listed landscape

I’m not saying that I personally can do all three but I know people who can, and they might need someone like Parkwood Consultancy Services to back them if they are to make an offer, so the role is sometimes akin to that of marriage broker.

I’m also trying to find the time to support the Arboricultural Association as they seek to provide good, practical guidance on how to plant a tree in time for the BBC’s Breathing Places Tree O’clock campaign – you may be surprised that something that would appear to be so simple, like planting a tree, can be got so badly wrong on TV! However, I may be spoilt because I was in great company a few weeks ago planting trees at Kew Gardens with their own Mr Tree, Tony Kirkham. The Association had been given three lovely trees by Henry Girling that were to be presented to Kew to mark their 250th anniversary, the story is on the PCS web site in full.

More soon, hopefully to tell you about a fantastic win!

Since my opening blog I’ve been working on a number of different business development opportunities, for example:

1. inventory surveys, with my colleague Freddy Brookes the Senior Ecologist, for a major Housing Association – some 4,000 communal trees to be located using a proprietary tree management database package. We’ll check for tree health and condition, and for protected species habitat (particularly bats) and try to provide our customer with an idea of what they need to do to discharge their duty of care and how much it will cost them over a five year period

2. an expression of interest for a research project that will consider how to retain long lived and large growing trees in urban environments, part of the developing interest in green infrastructure

3. an expression of interest in a project that will seek to bring together those with a need for a tree-related product or service and those who may be able to fill those needs

Jonathan