Most of the garden under the trees was taken up by a large fish pond and extracting the waste up the steps and through the garage would have been hard slow work. Luckily to the right of the garden there was an industrial unit – Wolves Hire . They were happy for us to use the area in front of the unit as a drop zone for the branches we were removing.

All of the branches had to be passed over to the right

The ones on the left were easy to work on and one climber worked to make enough room to pass the ones further away through the gap made. When we were to far to pass the branches safely to the ground a second climber was used to pass the branches along the hedge  before passing them to the waiting ground staff.

We worked from right to left, passing the removed branches over to the right hand side of the picture

The job went smoothly and the customer was left with more light but without loosing any privacy and, despite the threatening skys, we did not get wet.

If you have a tree which needs attention please do get in touch

Below are a few pictures from one site in the West Midlands who decided to get a landscaper in to do some tree work. I am sure there are some good landscapers out there who are capable of tree surgery, but i would only recommend using a landscaping company with a dedicated arboriculture division

The first two pictures, of the same tree, look pretty bad. The most obvious problem is the large tears all over the tree. These look unsightly and will induce rot and decay into the tree as the would is much larger than it should be. Pruning cuts should be flat (i.e. 90 degrees to angle of the branch) to minimise the surface area of the wound and try to prevent decay, parasites etc getting into the wound. The tree is able to callus over a correctly finished cut but will never be able to recover from these wounds.

But the pegs (the bit of branch which has been left behind) are just as bad. When cut correctly the tree is able to seal the wound, limiting decay. When a peg is left the tree is unable to seal the wound.The peg remains and rots away bringing parasites, pests and disease to the wound. A flush cut (not shown here) is just as bad as it creates a large wound and severs the vascular tissue of the parent branch, again inducing decay and preventing the tree from forming a callus to seal the wound.

The second tree has the same bad cuts as the tree above but has been left in a dangerous state. Trees should balance, they can adapt over a long period of time to support a crown which is weighted heavily in one direction, but if part of a tree is removed the tree can be come unbalanced and unstable. The centre of this tree has been removed leaving it heavily weighted towards the fence and the neighbouring house. It is heavily unbalanced, the wounds will decay and if the tree fails it is only going one way. Also because the centre has been removed any future tree surgery is made more difficult as the natural anchor points, for a tree surgeons rope, have been removed.

This is why it is important to ask for proof of insurance. Sure the landscaper didn’t break any fence panels on the day but what happens if the tree fails, because of his bad work, and falls on a house after he has left?

Work like this is truly shocking and I have spoken to the owner of the property who is trying to get the work rectified.

A QR Code linking to our vCard contact details

It all started a month or so ago. I wanted to add a QR code (the square barcode type things you see every where now) to a flyer I was working on. The idea was the client could scan the code using google goggles (or similar app) and be taken to either my website or download a vCard file containing all the contact details for the company.

This is what I found out.

First of all you need a vCard file. These are easy to produce using any number of websites out there. If you have a smartphone you can create the contact on your phone and send the contact to yourself as an email attachment.

A vCard contains readable text so can be easily opened, copied and edited in a text editor. First I tried to get the contact details directly into a QR code. I copied the text contents of the vCard and used invx.com to encode the text into a QR code, which you can see here.

There are different versions of the vCard format. Mine is in version 2.1 which is supported by most phones and the later versions do have some compatibility issues.

It worked to some degree but google goggles was not playing ball. Goggles would automatically recognise the image but it would see it as text. If you could beat the automatic recognition it would been seen as a vCard file and worked quite nicely. I had no problems on my friend iPhone. I was not happy with this solution not working 100% of the time so I tried uploading the vCard directly to my website.

I created a folder on my website called vCard and placed the vCard.vcf file within. This means you can access the file by linking to http://www.rawtreecare.co.uk/vCard/vCard.vcf. The problem, as you will see by clicking the link, is most browsers would load the file within the browser. So I needed to find a way to to force the browser to download the file.

Php (a web language used to display dynamic web pages such as our site) can be used to force an internet browser to download a file. I found a great little tutorial on how this works at about.com.

So here is what i did.

1. I copied the code from the about.com tutorial into a text editor. I changed the file names on lines 2 and 4 to ‘vCard.vcf’
2. After a few tries i got the correct MIME type ‘text/x-vcard’ so the whole php file reads

<?php
header(‘Content-disposition: attachment; filename=vCard.vcf’);
header(‘Content-type: text/x-vcard’);
readfile(‘vCard.vcf’);
?>

Its important that you do not add any blank lines as this will cause problems

3. Save the  file as index.php (make sure there is not a .txt extension) and upload it, along with the vCard.vcf file to  the vCard folder on my web server
4. Use invx.com to generate a QR code using the url http://www.rawtreecare.co.uk/vCard/

So by going to http://www.rawtreecare.co.uk/vCard/ or scanning the QR code, index.php is automatically opened by the browser which then starts the download of the vCard.

There are easier ways to do this without using php. For example you could upload you vCard to a file sharing website such as www.dropbox.com (using the public folder) and create a QR code using the public url to the file. This is an easy way to share your vCard but I wanted to have my vCard on website. This also means you can update the vCard file when your details change without changing the QR code.

Hope this helps anyone in a similar situation. Any comments or suggestions are welcome below

Further ideas

• How to customise your QR codes
• 2d-code.co.uk – List of QR code and barcode generators

Pollarding is not recommended for all trees and the tree should be re-pollarded in 2-5 years time. This is because the regrowth is not as strongly attached to the tree as natural extension growth (growth from a bud). It also makes the tree look ‘post apocalyptic’ for a short while. Willow, because of it vigorous nature, makes a good tree to pollard and healthy willow will always regenerate regardless of how much you take off.

This willow involved quite a lot of work. It was going to be a low pollard with only the lowest branches being retained to give it some shape. As you can see from the pictures there are 4 sheds under the tree. Thats shed-loads of sheds! so most of the tree was cut small and lowered to the ground using lowering equipment. The trickiest part was the limb on the back of the tree. The diameter was the size of a large dinner plate and all the branches had to be tied to the rope one at a time and swung in a controlled manner before being lowered to the ground.

The last picture shows the finished product. It looks bare but it will only be a few weeks before it starts to regenerate and by summer it will be covered on leaves again. The customer was very happy with the job and now has some happy neighbours.

The horse chestnut, or conker tree, located in Codsall still had some life in it and was safe to climb, otherwise a MEWP (cherry picker) would have been required to remove the branches which grew between several telephone lines.

The branch fell across the neighbours drive

Tree showing signs of dieback at the tips. The fallen branch occupied the large open space

The trunk showed signs of honey fungus and had missing bark

The tree being dismantled

The tree being dismantled

The artificial leaf is the size of a playing card and when placed in water it uses sunlight the produce hydrogen and oxygen which can be stored in a fuel cell to produce electricity.

More importantly in the fact the artificial leaf can be produced cheaply and easily from readily avalible materials and the artificial leaf is 10 more effective than nature’s leaf.

You may be thinking “Hang on a minute, i have PV solar panels which do the same job, why is this so revolutionary?” Well, PV solar panels have a few problems such as cost, the efficiency isn’t great and they don’t work at night. The technology behind the artificial leaf can use the extra energy produced by solar panels during the day to drive artificial photosynthesis. The hydrogen and oxygen can then be stored and used during the night. In essence each house would become its own power plant.

This would be particularly beneficial in the developing world where a house can provide enough power for itself for a day given an artificial leaf and a gallon of water.

YouTube Video: Daniel Nocera describes new process for storing solar energy

You may think this is all a bit of wishful thinking but Sun Catalytix, the company founded by Nocera to develop the artificial leaf, has already signed a deal with the international giant Tata Group to drive the technology forward.

Further reading

• ACS Press release
• http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/28/artificial-leaf
• http://www.freeenergytimes.com/2011/03/28/mit-chemist-daniel-nocera-announces-artificial-leaf-goal-to-make-every-home-a-power-station/

For more than 80 years, the giant elm stood its ground, weathering blizzards, winds, countless dogs, Dutch elm disease and perhaps that most menacing element of New York life – a residential building’s co-op board, which had threatened to have it cut down amid claims its roots were causing plumbing problems. But the much-loved and hotly debated tree couldn’t stand up to Tropical Storm Irene, whose winds tore it out of the ground and sent it crashing across a quiet street in Brooklyn Heights at about 4 a.m. Sunday.

Read more here: Irene downs beloved 80-year-old tree in Brooklyn – latimes.com

People tend to think that all that is required for tree trimming is a hand saw and some clippers, and sometimes even a chainsaw. People quickly realise that tree surgery is not as easy as it first seems. Not only that, it can be downright dangerous, if you are not adept at it.

Tree surgery is a lot more dangerous than say, trimming a small plant or bush. Large branches start to fall and people may even get injured, there certainly enough videos on Youtube to prove testament. Looking after trees is not just a one off occasion. Trees require regular maintenance, which is why hiring a tree surgeon is even more important. Caring for a tree or trees for that matter, is not just about hacking off a branch or two every few years. A skilled tree surgeon is similar to a skilled hairdresser. He will be able to make the tree look cared for, make recommendations or prune it in a certain way to help it yield more fruit.

So why is maintenance  important? To start, it will make the garden look a lot more attractive. Nobody wants to have garden over shadowed by a huge conifer or one that looks like an overgrown jungle. Not only that, the trees also like to be taken care of. A well maintained tree will be healthier compared to one that is neglected. Trees have many benefits including environmental and social benefits, they make people feel good and means higher property values. When hiring a tree surgeon, make sure they are insured and have the proper certification (NPTC or LANTRA qualifications in the UK as a minimum) and equipment (Chainsaw boots & trousers are a must so if they start work in jeans I would send them away). You should check their insurance and qualifications before you agree any work with them.

For further information please contact us or drop us a comment below

The BMC reports that the Group is calling on the Independent Panel to ensure that ‘access is at the heart’ of its discussions concerning the future of our forests, an assurance made by the Secretary of State Caroline Spelman in response to a question posed by David Rutley MP (Conservative, Macclesfield) in the House of Commons on 17 February 2011. After presenting the statement to the Chair the Group expects to meet all members of the Panel to express firsthand the value of our woods and forests for public enjoyment.

The organisations which make up the Forest Access User Group represent over 8 million people who use woodlands regularly and have a broad recreational, conservation and management interest in our forests and woodlands. The Group includes:

• The British Horse Society
• Open Spaces Society
• The Ramblers
• Sport and Recreation Alliance
• CTC
• IMBA-UK
• British Orienteering
• The Kennel Club
• and the BMC

Justin Cooke, Ramblers Senior Policy Officer, said: “We call on the Panel to find ways to protect, maintain and increase access to all our nation’s woodlands and ensure that access is at the heart of its work. We look forward to engaging with them to ensure that public access to our forests is protected now and always.”

You can read the full article on the BMC website

Forest Access User Group’s joint statement to the Bishop of Liverpool James Jones:

The Forest Access User Group believes that protecting and enhancing public access to our woodland and forests must be at the heart of the Panel’s work. Following the huge public outcry which resulted in the consultation on the future management of the Public Forest Estate being “put on hold”, and the temporary suspension of Forestry Commission land-sales, we believe that the Panel now has the opportunity fully to realise the multi-purpose function of our woodland and forest estates.

As the Secretary of State made clear to the House of Commons when announcing the establishment of the Independent Panel in the House of Commons on 17 February 2011,

“It is important that the panel looks at all forms of access, including access for walkers, riders and cyclists,” and “We want to expand access to our forests and woodlands because it is in everyone’s interests that we do so.”

The Public Forest Estate makes up only 18% of England’s woodland and forests but accounts for 44% of our accessible woodlands. With the public making over 40 million visits a year to the Forestry Commission Estate, the Commission is the single, largest provider of countryside recreation opportunities and provides some of the best examples of welcoming, well-managed public access in England, which any private landowner would be hard pressed to match.

This cherished national asset therefore needs to be protected for public access in all forms, be it on foot, bike, horseback, horse-drawn carriage or with a dog, helping to strengthen the public’s understanding of the natural environment. Woods and forests must also continue to bring clear physical and mental benefits to the public by remaining fully accessible.

The Forest Access User Group looks forward to giving further evidence to the Independent Panel on the value of our woodland and forests for public access and urges the Panel to take the opportunity fully to develop appropriate forestry and woodland policy in England which delivers benefits to both public access and wildlife.

Sign up to support the Forest Access User Group’s statement that:

This cherished national asset needs to be protected for public access in all forms, be it on foot, bike, horseback, horse-drawn carriage or with a dog, helping to strengthen the public’s understanding of the natural environment. Woods and forests must also continue to bring clear physical and mental benefits to the public by remaining fully accessible.

To support the above statement visit the Ramblers website