Back to index nursery_home.jpg

I-Trees seminar review

By Keith Sacre

2018-11-26

I-Tree, an Update.  A Seminar Hosted by Barcham Trees

 

Alan, the Super Volunteer.

Alan exists.  He is a real person.  He wasn’t present at the seminar held at Barcham Trees on 7th November, yet his name was highlighted and used several times during the course of the day. He was introduced to the delegates attending the day by Ian Roger, Arboricultural Manager at the Royal Parks when discussing how i-tree has been used by the organisation.  The Royal Parks covers eight separate estates

The purpose of the day was to gather a group of speakers who have or are in the process of using i-tree and allow them to tell their stories and explain how the tool has been of use to them and why they chose to invest the time, effort and money in the process. The day was organised by Treeconomics in conjunction with Barcham Trees.  Annabel Buckland of Treeconomics, fresh from an internship with Dave Nowak and the USDA Forest Service, chaired the proceedings.

Ian was the first speaker and Alan was introduced when the story of the i-tree survey carried out at Hyde Park was underway. With some 3700 trees at Hyde Park, volunteers gathered data on each tree. The data was gathered over a three year period with volunteers in the field. Ian explained that the enthusiasm and durability of the volunteers was tested to the full as the park contains many large significant trees and the project was gradually falling behind schedule until Alan emerged and with inexhaustible energy proceeded to survey and record information at an unbelievable rate. Alan eventually surveyed something like 60% of the total.

Ian explained that the Royal Parks has almost 37,000 trees mapped across the eight park estate with a further 120,000 trees unmapped, these being mainly at Richmond Park. He outlined the reasons for considering i-tree a necessity.  It provided him with an assessment of the structure, composition and distribution of the trees in Hyde Park. ‘It enabled me to quantify some of the benefits provided by trees in the park and raise the awareness of their ‘natural capital’ value and establish a baseline from which to monitor trends and plan out future progress.’ He went on to explain that the information obtained facilitated the preparation of informed tree strategy documents and has provided some of the stimulus for changing some of the management practices in the Royal Parks.

When asked whether the i-tree report has been useful to him in maintaining budgets Ian answered confidently, ‘ Yes, particularly with pest and disease management as the report was a bit of an ‘eye opener’ not only to the benefits provided but the cost and other implications of serious pest and disease outbreaks.’

With Ian finishing his talk it was not long before Alan made his appearance again. Rob Scholefield is Estate Services Manager with Live West, the largest Housing provider in the south west.  It manages more than 35000 properties in 21 local authority areas, stretching from the Isles of Scilly to Gloucester. Rob explained that, given the area, quantifying trees can be difficult. At this point a delegate chose to remind the audience of Alan suggesting that he might be a useful addition to Rob’s team.

Ron continued to explain why he and his organisation had decided that an i-tree study would be useful. ‘It can be difficult to get the green infrastructure voice heard’ and he introduced the concept of SLOAP which he translated as meaning the space left over after planning. He explained that the focus is on property fabric with massive investment programmes for ‘decent homes’, planned maintenance, repairs, servicing and teams of Property Services staff. He added that a huge new build programme is the driver of investment with over 1500 new homes planned each year.

In discussion with Kenton Rogers of Treeconomics, Rob decided to initiate an i-tree study using the i-tree inventory function. He reported that following the study asset managers immediately understood the concept of ‘depreciated replacement cost’ and stated, ‘we have a previously invisible asset with a significant monetary value.’ The depreciated replacement cost of Live West trees was calculated at £15 million.

He explained that, ‘the study allows trees to be ‘judged’ alongside other fixed assets rather than as a more ‘nebulous’ neighbourhood benefit and added that it has been very useful in making the case for sufficient resources, including people, to manage the tree stock and fund new planting.

As Rob finished Alan made another appearance. Dale Mortimer the Tree Services Manager at the London Borough of Ealing explained that his team at Ealing was reduced in size by two staff and that he was interviewing later in the week, Not allowing him to finish his sentence another voice from the audience contributed, ‘I hope Alan has applied.’ 

Dale explained that Ealing was a London Borough on the western side of outer London with 23 councillor wards and that he and his team managed some 26,000 street trees, some 60,000 park trees spread over 147 sites excluding woodland and some 6000 trees on housing land. The i-tree project in Ealing was led and managed by Ellen Osbourne, then of Trees for Cities, who were one of five organisations, the other four being the Mayor of London, the Forestry Commission, the London Borough of Ealing and Treeconomics, who formed the steering group charge with delivering the project. The project aim was to develop a strategic, evidence based approach to urban forest management for local authorities and community groups to adopt.

Five project objectives were set out.

Dale reported that of these the first three objectives had been achieved with work on the last two still on-going.

‘The separation of data into political wards has proved very useful in enabling targeted planting’ Dale commented offering the case of Southall Green as an example where canopy cover was low compared to the rest of the Borough. He also emphasised that the studies had provided the evidence base for achieving a more diverse tree population in Ealing and commented on the fact that planners were now more informed and that the data was proving useful in where development projects were being considered.

Richard Barnes from Newcastle City Council spoke next and Alan made his last appearance of the day. Richard outlined the historic position of tree management in Newcastle commenting on the fact that the city’s  existing tree strategy had been quoted in the 2008 Trees in Towns II report as an exemplar of best practice and that a new strategy had been drafted.

He then went on to outline why the City decided to undertake a full i-tree study replicating the same strands as Ealing. The canopy study is now complete with work on the other two strands extending into 2019.

Before explaining why, Richard drew attention to the fact that before doing anything he had engaged with all stakeholders within the authority. These stakeholders all attended a preparatory meeting hosted by Treeconomics. ‘This was essential’, commented Richard, ‘As I now know that there is full support and understanding across all service delivery departments within the authority.

He then went on to outline what he saw as the advantages of carrying out such a study. ‘As I see it the study will help with funds for tree management and assist planners, others managing trees and communities to consider trees as a distinct and essential part of the infrastructure of the built environment.’

‘The canopy study, carried out by Treeconomics, has enabled us to not only reference where we are in comparison to other authorities but to make comparison with other social indicators such life expectancy, the index of multiple deprivation and house prices drawn from the office of national statistics.’ He added ‘i-tree is an invaluable tool and we have only just started using it.’

Richard also commented on the study carried out so far and the studies to be carried out in 2019 as identifying areas of high and low tree cover, providing the basis for a long term plan for future planting and a tool to engage policy makers and politicians.

The last speaker of the day was Jan Wilhelm de Groot from Holland. He took a more practical approach to i-tree which is in its early development in the Netherlands. He spoke of the importance of basing tree planting programmes on detailed data and recorded information saying that, ‘ investing in tree management without a plan is ‘capital destruction.’

The day closed with lively discussion facilitated by Annabel Buckland of Treeconomics.