Reginald Eddye from Fleming College and winner of the 2017 Prince of Wales Forest Leadership Award tells us about his work placement with 2017 Award Programme employer AT Coombes. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada (CIF/IFC).
I have completed my first month of my work placement at AT Coombes Associates in Norwich, UK, which was generously provided through the Prince of Wales Leadership Award. Even though there were many steps to get to this part of this exchange, the process went relatively smoothly. My application for a UK visa was a long process but with some clues left in past award winner’s blogs, and help from my dad (thanks Dad!), I managed to receive my youth mobility visa. Accommodation in Norwich was a must! Through my past experiences, short-term rental offers can be elusive. Luckily for me, my employer’s daughter had my back and found me a comfortable room to rent, within a house owned by from a very nice couple. I am staying with the couple (who are physiotherapists), their son and their awesome dog, Sol!
Despite being struck with a totally inspiring chest cold, the first week working for AT Coombes has been a complete pleasure. My new colleagues have been doing their best to provide me with the most authentic British experience, while showing me the ropes of the business. AT Coombes was founded in 1986; the founder, Andy Coombes FICFor, has grown his business by hiring four professional arborists who all operate from the main office in Barford, west of Norwich. Though AT Coombes does standard forestry consulting, most of the work they conduct is in an arboricultural or urban forestry capacity (exactly what my studies have focused on for the past two years). The services AT Coombes provide vary, but so far there has only been two common types of surveys carried out. One is a health and safety survey which provides customers with a tree failure risk assessment for all the trees on a site. The other is an arboricultural impact assessment (AIA). On a site that is to be developed, an AIA survey collects information about every tree within proximity of the development. The survey will describe how the trees will be negatively affected, and how those affects could be mitigated, in the wake of the development.
My first day at AT Coombes was a challenge. Learning new tree species and re-learning ones that are not common in Canada was daunting. Fortunately, I was paired up with a very talented arborist, Robert Green, who was eager to show me how it’s done. We set out to conduct a health and safety survey for The Diocese of Norwich. My first lesson was on how to handle the Trimble GPS unit. This device records the location of each tree and allows the user to input specific information about the qualities of each tree. By the end of the day we had collected nearly two hundred tree locations, which are now were ready to be presented in a report.
Though there is lots of work to do, Andy Coombes FICFor has made it his priority to show me the inner workings of both forestry and urban forestry in the UK. Andy insisted we go visit a friend of his, Keith Sacre MICFor, who is the Sales Director at Barcham Trees. I had never been to a tree nursery so I didn’t have many expectations but was surprised at how large the tree nursery was. The property was covered with a forest of potted trees that is 350 acres in size. After a tasty lunch, Keith invited Andy and me out for a tour of the establishment and introduced us to a large piece of equipment that looked like an assembly line. He explained that the equipment in front of us was unique to Barcham Trees and could be found nowhere else. It is capable of potting hundreds of trees a day! I received many good tips from Keith about selecting and checking nursery stock. Keith also generously gave me a handy specification manual that is a guide for purchasing quality nursey stock (crafted by Keith). I was introduced to many new technological and economic advancements in urban forestry and the one that caught my interest the most was called Arborcheck.
Arborcheck is a system that allows tree professionals to check the vitality of trees. It measures the chlorophyll fluorescence, chlorophyll content, and cell electrolyte leakage using a plant efficiency analyser which uses different types of light to detect certain characteristics of a leaf. My mind was blown! After an overwhelmingly educational afternoon, Andy and I picked up a couple of trees and made our way back to Barford.
As I mentioned earlier, Andy has been adamant about teaching me all about UK forestry. Andy is also a history enthusiast and has made his secondary priority to teach me all about British history. On trips to job sites, I regularly receive a detailed lesson on why the landscape and architecture is the way it is. During my second week, we were in the city of King’s Lynn when we decided to stop for tea. Andy was keen to show me a statue that was near the mouth of the river. When we arrived at the statue, to my surprise, it was of George Vancouver – the explorer who journeyed through the Pacific Northwest, and who The City of Vancouver is named after. I appreciated that experience, and as I am learning more, I am becoming dazzled from the magnitude and relevance of British history connected to my life.
Through my series of blog posts, I will explore the differences between the way Canadians and Brits handle arboriculture and urban forestry, while sharing my experience in the UK. I am new to twitter, but I am trying to keep up with the times, so follow me at @regspaghetti and my Canadain counterpart @therikaroli, where we will post about our internships as part of the Prince of Wales Leadership Award.
Thanks Reginald, hope you enjoy the rest of your work placement. Keep updated with all The Prince of Wales Forest Leadership Award winners journey by following #ForestLeaders on twitter.
