Andy Tipping
Trees & Woodlands Manager at London Borough of Barnet and Chair of the London Tree Officers Association
Dave Lofthouse was a true friend, a committed arboriculturist and someone who made huge contributions to our industry for over a quarter of a century. Those who were lucky enough to know Dave were taken by his intellectualism, his focus and his ready laugh. Time spent with him was never dull.
His dedication to the residents of Merton and his engagement with them was complete and sincere, this was evident at his funeral when one of them gave a warm, really funny account of their time together planting and maintaining trees, improving this part of south London.
Dave’s commitment to the poorer and exploited people of this world was evident in any discussion and he had travelled extensively seeing this first hand. His working holidays in Palestine trying to protect olive groves was just one example of this.
On a personal note, his support, humour, enthusiasm and camaraderie helped me on numerous occasions when it was all getting a bit too much. I met Dave at my first LTOA seminar back in 1998 and his patience with a new Tree Officer bending his ear off gave me two things: a realisation I had found a group of people I could rely on when I needed and to always be generous with time and knowledge – I think the support network the LTOA has turned into is a direct result of his influence.
I will miss Dave incredibly. I was privileged enough to visit him the week before he passed and able to say goodbye properly to a dear friend and someone, as I have acknowledged in the past, who I had deep affection and respect for. As we would always say when we parted or on the phone, ‘Ta-da, mate.’
Barbara Milne
Head of Arboricultural Services at Westminster City Council and member of the LTOA Executive Committee
Dave Lofthouse had been involved in arboriculture for over 40 years and was the arboricultural manager for the London Borough of Merton for over 30. He was responsible for planting and managing tens of thousands of trees in the course of his career. Dave had a genuine and passionate commitment to tree care in the capital. He was a member of the Executive Committee LTOA from 1990 and a past chair of the organisation. He was involved in numerous working parties, publications and initiatives for the organisation, such as creating good practice for the management of oak processionary moth and developing the CAVAT system of tree valuation. He drove forward changes in policy and practice, in particular with respect to biosecurity and tree planting. Dave was a strong supporter of community involvement in trees, and created and supported a tree warden scheme in Merton in 1992 in the early years of this programme; it continues to be successful today. Perhaps Dave’s most lasting achievement is in the encouragement, advice and mentoring he provided to the many aspiring arboriculturists who worked with him and came to know him through the LTOA. Dave’s enthusiasm for trees and willingness to share information and create and develop networks within the profession influenced many tree professionals throughout the UK and beyond. Without doubt, he inspired many of the current and new generations of arboriculturists who continue to follow his example in developing new initiatives in arboriculture and in maintaining his high standards of tree care.
Dave was a passionate man about many issues, and I loved and respected him for this. In particular, the passion he had for planting and managing trees and influencing tree policy has created an enormous legacy for the London Borough of Merton and more widely for tree management in London and the UK. Dave was generous in sharing his knowledge, and was always inquisitive, interested, and encouraging to all tree officers. I shall miss him hugely.
Jonathan Oakes
Arboricultural Consultant, Derbyshire
I first met Dave in the autumn of 1986 as we enrolled for our National Certificate in Arboriculture at Merrist Wood College. I was a callow youth of 23, and most of the cohort were between 18 and 25. Then there was Dave – a veritable veteran in his late 30s! He sported a beard, rode a Moto Guzzi Le Mans 850 and constantly smoked roll-ups (as did most of us then).
He had been working as a climbing arborist for the council in Bristol and obviously felt getting qualifications would further his career and allow him to retire his machete (I kid you not – he used it for pollarding street trees). Most weekends would see him heading down the M4 to Cardiff on his Guzzi to see his partner and baby daughter, Kate, whilst the rest of us got drunk and larked about in Guildford or at the White Lyon in Worplesdon.
It soon became clear he was more than just an arborist/aspiring tree officer: he had a very strong sense of equality, fairness, and social responsibility. He was politically correct before the phrase was even invented! He told me it was because he was a 1967 hippy and obviously living through the ‘Summer of Love’ had a massive impact on him. He believed in the Utopia of a socialist system and was uncompromising in that respect. This made him prickly at times. I remember driving between his flat in Merton and Bushy Park where we were surveying trees and him constantly shouting at the radio whenever a Conservative MP or spokesperson was being interviewed.
His beliefs were an integral part of his character – he went to Nicaragua and supported the Sandinista rebels, did his middle-year placement of the National Diploma in California (‘stabbing at the belly of the beast’, as he put it) and regularly spent hours on street corners selling the Socialist Worker. His political beliefs were inevitably integrated into his role as a tree officer at Merton Council by following the principles of fairness, equality, and the right for everyone to enjoy trees and green space.
Arboriculturally speaking he was a lover of large old plane trees, pollarding where necessary (even when it was out of fashion in the late 80s/early 90s), and bats (he had a detector). He hated Raywood’s ash, Turkish hazel and the pillar crab apple. He must have been responsible for planting thousands of trees in his long arboricultural career.
He was a good, principled and decent man, someone who I often think of, and his passing is very sad. My thoughts go out to his family, friends, and colleagues.