Veteran Tree Care for Cities with Guy Meilleur - SOLD OUT

Veteran trees can be transformed from perceived liabilities into cherished assets. By using International standards and practices, risk can be mitigated from high to acceptably low. Pruning is the most obvious and visible need; reducing the trees’ size can always reduce the likelihood of failure. But how much pruning is enough?  How much is too much?

We’ll look at research that provides reliable guidance toward answering these pruning questions. But let’s not forget the bottom half of the tree. Follow the ANSI A300 standard on the trunk, flare, and root inspection as we assess big old trees. Decay at the lower stem, flare and roots can be managed by inspection, treatment and monitoring. Document strength gain on monitoring visits. Give trees a chance to adapt to their environment and to our management.

Give our management a chance to adapt symbiotically to tree response.

Topics include:

• Ecological contributions of the tree and its associates;
• Cultural connections to regions, people, and history;
• Identification of strengths and weaknesses, assets and liabilities;
• Compartmentalization and response growth, making ‘defects’ stronger than ever;
• time-tested strategies for valuing and managing veteran trees.
• Potential treatments that are practised in other regions, and
• Mitigation Options that comply with international tree care standards.

OUTLINE

• Introduce the topic and the speaker and the participants.
• Review the state of the art and science of mature tree care.
• Review case studies of successes and failures.
• Outdoor activity: Small group inspections of specimens and groves.
• Lunch and discussions.
• Review tree and site conditions noted during morning inspections
• Advanced inspection and demonstration of treatments
• Develop, prioritise and write specifications.
• Wrap up: Questing for consistency.

OUTCOMES

Participants will take away positive experiences of successfully caring for veteran trees. Recent approaches to the management of trees. They will understand

• Basic systems and forensic methods to use for inspections,
• How to get more information directly from the tree ecosystem,
• What pitfalls and perils to look out for,
• How to develop and prioritise clear specifications,
• How to implement a defendable management plan that increases tree value.

By understanding and applying these specialised skills:

• Contractors will gain more valuable work from clients,
• Employees will be more valuable to managers,
• Arborists will get more respect, and
• More veteran trees will get better care.

INDUSTRY BENEFITS

People who attend this workshop and apply some of what they have seen will work all over the province of Queensland. They will see opportunities for their new skills to exert a positive outcome, wherever there are trees of high value. Objectives will be clarified and specifications clear and to the point — maximising tree health, safety, and longevity. People they interact with along the way will see big old trees not as liabilities but as the assets they are.

The purpose of the course is directly parallel with the interests of the industry. If the management of mature trees is simplified, their benefits and contributions will shine through. Public perception of trees and everyone in the tree care industry will improve. As the value of veteran trees is more widely appreciated, the value in veteran tree managers and arborists with those special skills goes up as well.