After ten years as a Technical Officer at the Arboricultural Association, Guy Watson has decided to move on at the end of January.
Guy started working as a full-time employee in 2003 and dropped down to two days per week when Paul Smith joined the Association in 2005. Since then he has been developing his own arboricultural consultancy business, which has now reached a point where it requires his full-time attention.
In recent years Guy has been responsible, amongst other things, for the management of the AA’s Registered Consultant scheme, including the recent revision of the assessment process, now headed up by Peter Annett as Lead Assessor.
Over the years he has edited the AA Newsletter, delivered countless AA training events, supported our major events and provided technical advice and support to members and the general public. He was the key author and co-ordinator of our well-respected Fungi on trees field guide and has been working on a new field guide on pests and diseases, to be published this spring. His background in local authority tree-related planning and legislation plus his ‘hands-on’ arborist experience have made him an invaluable member of the Technical team.
He will be sorely missed!!
To soften the blow, he has agreed to continue working with us as an external trainer and will still be one of the main trainers for the Professional and Basic Tree Inspection courses, Risk Assessment, etc.
We will be compiling a more comprehensive article about Guy and his contribution to the AA for publication in the spring ARB Magazine. If anyone would like to contribute to this (with accolades or dirt!) we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please send to newsletter.editor@trees.org.uk by Friday 18 January.