Barcham Trees, Europe’s largest container tree nursery, is hosting its Big Barn Conference entitled ‘A Day in the Urban Forest’ at its Ely, Cambridgeshire, headquarters on Wednesday, 17 June 2015. The event’s organiser, Barcham’s sales director Keith Sacre, has secured a group of world-class arboricultural experts as speakers to the expected 550 delegates for whom attendance, plus breakfast and lunch, is completely free of charge. “We believe our 2015 Big Barn Conference will be the biggest arboricultural gathering of its kind ever held in the UK, and I am delighted we have nine speakers from three continents to make the day a truly international event, and one we know tree care professionals will not want to miss”, says Keith.
The peer who earlier this year called for stricter bio-security measures relating to tree imports is set to make the opening address. Speaking in the House of Lords in a debate on the natural environment on 15 January 2015, Lord Framlingham expressed his concern at the number of trees imported into the UK and the risk posed by attendant diseases such as ash dieback. He also praised the voluntary code of practice devised, introduced and implemented by Barcham Trees regarding the bio-security of its tree stock.
Compère for the conference will be Dr Mark Johnston, himself a speaker on the history of urban forestry, who will introduce:
Jim Smith Trees and Woodlands Officer London on the London i-Tree project
Frederic Segur on urban forest management in Lyon France.
Mike Raupp: University of Maryland USA on pests and diseases: threats to the urban forest
Henrik Sjoman University of Alnarp. Sweden on tree species selection
Nina Bassuk. Cornell University USA on tree species selection for the urban environment
Dave Nowak USDA USA on urban forest management, and the use of i-Tree
Cecil Konijndijk van den Bosch. University of Alnarp. Sweden on urban forest governance.
A few places are still available from Barcham Trees. Please e-mail Natasha Hutchison Natasha@barchamtrees.co.uk
