Today is April Fool’s Day. Perhaps the most famous April Fool’s Day hoax of all time involved trees.  Viewers of a BBC Panorama programme in 1957 were told that due to a combination of favourable growing conditions and a fall in the population of the spaghetti weevil, there was aContinue Reading

Trees provide us with many miracle cures, most famously aspirin from the willow and the cancer-busting drug taxol from the yew. However, they can also affect human health negatively. Pollen from the silver birch, Betula pendula, is the second most severe allergen for people in the UK. Late March isContinue Reading

There are now 18 million blogs hosted like mine by WordPress.com.  Globally about  750,000 page views a day are now made by iPad visitors.  I’ve made the most of some great new features provided by WordPress that exploit the functionality of the iPad.  Let me know if you have viewedContinue Reading

I took part in the inaugural Ride for Research today; cycling 25 miles around London’s streets, visiting three schools along the way to plant trees with children and to raise money for tree research. We visited three London schools en route: two primary schools at Harrow and Islington, and aContinue Reading

The ability of a tree to heal itself quickly following pruning is important as it reduces the risk of infection, reduces the impact on tree growth, and improves the quality of its timber. I’ve written previously about how to prune a tree and if you follow these guidelines correctly, theContinue Reading

The Ride for Research sponsored cycle ride, in aid of research into oak disease, is one week away today. I’m looking forward to tackling 15 miles of London’s streets with 29 other riders on 23rd March, visiting three schools along the way to plant trees with children.  I will beContinue Reading

In the Netherlands forestry is undetaken by the Forestry and Wildlife Service Staatsbosbeheer: managing 250,000 hectares of land for sixteen million Dutch people. It provides some interesting comparisons to the UK where forestry governance is in the spotlight.Continue Reading