Through my work with DeepRoot, I’ve come to love and appreciate trees – especially urban trees – in a way that I never anticipated, so much so that I recently became a certified arborist. But my greatest love, since I was very little, was for animals. There is an intersection between these two interests, of course: wildlife.

While I spend most of my days at a desk, arborists who work out in the field have a big impact on wildlife, whether they’re aware of it or not. I like to think that people who care about trees probably care about other living things too, yet many arborists may not be aware of some of the basic steps they can take to avoid harming wild animals as they work. Continue reading →

Finding influential tree people in any one industry or organisation can be difficult. Finding influential tree people in various disciplines to get around a table at the same time can be like trying to find the Loch Ness Monster or a Sasquatch: we hear about these rare things, but finding them is elusive.

Since its first publication in 2008, however, Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG) has indeed achieved the seemingly impossible. In their “No Trees, No Future” report, TDAG has representation from central and local governments, landscape architects, arboriculturalists, water companies, insurance companies, developers, universities and NGO lobbyists. In 2011, they followed up with another report, “The Canopy,” which is a compendium of solutions to issues that affect tree establishment in the urban realm. Continue reading →