Expert Arboriculturists Join Our Team

AWA Tree Consultants recently welcomed two new team members, Joe Thomas and Jim Boyle.

Joe has a first-class degree in biology with an integrated Masters from the University of Sheffield. He then undertook a Level 4 Award in Arboriculture while working as an Urban Forester trainee with the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust and Sheffield City Council, where he gained a variety of experience in Urban Forestry and Arboriculture, including tree surveys and inspections, working with Sheffield tree officers on visual tree assessments (using QTRA) and assessing BS5837 tree surveys in relation to planning and development in the Sheffield region. He was also involved in community forestry, tree planting, and woodland creation projects. Outside of trees, Joe enjoys fell running and orienteering and is a member of the Welsh national team.

Jim joins us after having worked on the tools for several years, alongside studying at college and university. Jim has studied Arboriculture and Urban Forestry at Merrist Wood College in Surrey, Plumpton College in Sussex and University of Highlands and Islands in the Scottish Highlands, where he achieved a distinction in the Higher National Diploma Level 5.

Recruitment is increasingly a problem for our profession. Skills shortages in arboriculture and forestry are at critical levels, and a new generation is not being recruited to take over from an ageing workforce. A report from the Institute of Chartered Foresters says the industry needs to recruit 70% more people to meet planting targets set by government and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (IPCC)

John Parker, the chief executive of the Arboriculture Association, recently said: “The trouble is that people do not know what arboriculture is. Schoolchildren don’t say ‘when I grow up I want to be an arboriculturalist’. We need to change that.” He said the government needed to address the shortages in the workforce. “Trees are so high up the political agenda at the moment, but if we want to have all these wonderful trees doing all these wonderful things for us, we have to have tree professionals to work on them. There is no point planting millions and millions of trees if you are not going to look after them.”

As such, with the skills shortage across our industry, we are very grateful that James and Joe have joined our team at AWA. They have both quickly proved themselves to be extremely capable arboriculturists and fitted in seamlessly with the rest of the team.

The work of an expert arboriculturist has never been so important; it’s a challenging varied job that makes an important impact both an a local level, in terms of making our towns and cities better places to live, and on the global level, in terms of reducing biodiversity loss and mitigating climate change.