On Friday 7th October Stewart Wardrop, the new Chief Executive of the Arboricultural Association, welcomed Neil Carmichael for an informative visit to learn more about the industry that services and maintains a valuable national asset, one which is a pivotal part of Stroud’s landscape, trees.
As the national representative body for Tree Surgeons (or ‘Arborists’) and the tree care industry, one of the Associations’ main goals is to ensure that the concern about the welfare of our nation's trees is converted into a passion to ensure that trees are always regarded as an essential part of our environment; particularly in urban areas where the presence of trees, and greenery in general, is so important to the health and wellbeing of the public. This is something which won’t be hard to achieve in Stroud given its environmentally mindful community.
One of the AA’s values is Influencing decision makers to value, secure, fund and promote amenity trees. During a tour of the Malthouse Neil learned about the many and varied positive impacts trees provide and was fully behind the body’s goal of educating and improving public knowledge on trees and their management.
Following the visit, Mr Carmichael outlined his ongoing commitment to support rural business activities especially through the provision of a modern high speed broadband network which will be fundamental in enabling rural businesses to compete, flourish and grow.
Neil Said: “I welcome the activity of the Arboricultural Association, based here at Standish, in promoting the positive benefits and impacts that trees provide to all aspects of our urban and rural society. The Associations continued expansion is a sign of the importance of promoting and managing our natural resources and environment. This growth can only be aided by the provision of a modern technological infrastructure, which I am committed to deliver.”
CEO Stewart Wardrop said “We welcome Neil’s visit to the Arboricultural Association today, especially his continued support for the provision of super-fast broadband into rural businesses; this vital infrastructure will ensure the Association continues its development and growth.”
An example of the impact of new technology can be demonstrated by new software like iTree which quantifies the positive impacts of trees. As part of a presentation of the software in June, Neil’s colleagues at Westminster learnt the value of trees to human health across the country; the 124 trees growing around parliament store 40 tonnes of carbon, remove 74kg of pollution and produce 1.4 tonnes of oxygen each year.
Visit the about us section to find out more about the Associations strategies and how you can get involved: http://www.trees.org.uk/About-Us