Booking Opens for National Tree Officers Conference 2016
Booking has opened for the 2016 National Tree Officers Conference, which takes place on 9 November in Telford. This is the first event organised by the London Tree Officers Association (LTOA), the Municipal Tree Officers Association (MTOA), and facilitated by the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF). The conference offers a unique knowledge-sharing forum on all areas of local authority arboricultural work.
A top-class programme of arboricultural and urban forestry speakers will cover topics including:
- Canopy cover targets in planning policy
- Council tree contract models
- Tree health threats, including Acute Oak Decline
- Community engagement and volunteer management
- The future of local authority tree services
This event is an invaluable occasion for tree officers to learn from their colleagues on the latest research, best practice and innovation in this sector. John Parker, Chair of the LTOA, commented:
“Tree officers all over the UK are doing similar jobs and facing similar challenges, whether working in the north or the south of the country or in urban or rural environments. The first National Tree Officers Conference will provide a fantastic platform for tree officers everywhere to get together to discuss best practice and share experience and ideas whilst enjoying a great programme of talks relating to arboriculture and the urban forest. In the current political climate I believe it is more important than ever for us as an industry to communicate and collaborate, to support each other and work more closely, and to build stronger connections across the UK and internationally. This conference will give us the perfect opportunity to do so, and the LTOA is delighted to be working on the event with our colleagues in the MTOA and ICF.”
Russell Horsey MICFor, Development Director at the Institute of Chartered Foresters said:
“ICF is excited to be working in partnership with the MTOA and LTOA on what we hope will be the first of many conferences aimed at helping local authority officers. The Institute recognises the continued downward push on budgets and staffing within local authorities and the strain this is putting on teams working with trees and within the natural environment sector. This first conference has been designed to look at practical examples of how some local authorities are addressing these challenges, and we hope that attendees will be able to take ideas presented for use in their day to day work. We also hope that the day will act as a focal point for officers to network and problem-share with colleagues and hopefully find easy answers to help.”
Matthew Seabrook, MTOA Chairman, further discussed the significance of the event, in light of current issues facing tree officers:
“The MTOA are proud to support and jointly represent this inaugural conference which is predominantly aimed towards tree officers and urban foresters. In times of austerity and budget cuts we look to share ideas and explore opportunities to deliver a service that is within our respective budgets and retains our legally defensible positions.
“We hope to raise awareness, provoke thought and discussion to highlight the problems we all currently face – where do we go from here and how do we get there? It is hoped that this will be the first of many conferences of its kind and we look forward to support and attendance at what will be an eye opening and encouraging day.”
This event is kindly sponsored by Barcham Trees, Buxtons Ltd, Ezytreev, GreenBlue Urban and KBI UK. Booking information is available at charteredforesters.org/tree-officers-conference.
