Trees, People and Art
4th October 2024
At AWA Tree Consultants, we’ve always believed that company culture isn’t just something you can frame and put on a wall. It’s the energy, attitudes, and sense of purpose that our team brings to work every day. There’s a saying that resonates with us: “Your company culture is not words on your website or a poster on your wall. It’s how your team feel on a Sunday night.” We’ve always been more focused on the lived experience of our team […]
2nd September 2022
What is a tree? Such a seemingly simple question. But when examined closely, even the best minds struggle to find an to find a satisfactory answer. When forced to provide an answer, experts ranging from Phylogenetic biologists, the High Court of Justice in England, and even Mahayana Buddhist masters, ultimately all come to the same conclusion: there is, in fact, no such thing as a tree. Do trees exist, scientifically? All life on Earth is part of a single phylogenetic […]
6th December 2019
Many great artists have drawn or painted trees, yet increasingly artists have used trees not a subject but as the substance of the art itself. Some of the best art using trees includes chainsaw sculptors carving into dead or fallen trees, or tree-shaping – making living trees grow into artworks – or artists harnessing the natural colour and beauty of trees to sculpt amazing geometric shapes. Here AWA Tree Consultant Dr Felicity Stout details what is possibly the best example […]
25th July 2018
The mission of Communist China’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ was to ‘conquer nature’. This mission was carried out with devastating efficiency in the name of a stronger China. Famously this foolhardy war against nature led to Mao instructing farmers to kill wild sparrows, as they were apparently eating too much grain and reducing productivity. This mass cull of the harmless birds had numerous associated negative environmental impacts. The Great Leap Forward also led to a massive loss of China’s forests, largely […]
24th May 2018
It is commonly believed that street trees originated in the capital cities of Europe in the 1500s. First in France, then Holland and then to London and the rest of the continent. This European history of street trees is rightly uncontested. However, there is compelling evidence of a vast network of managed street trees, from over 2000 years ago. A massive programme of tree planting and arboricultural management along routes over many thousands of miles across India and South Asia. […]
2nd March 2018
The U.K government recently unveiled plans for ‘The Northern Forest’ – a 25-year tree planting scheme to create a ‘vast ribbon of woodland’ along the M62 corridor from Liverpool and Chester to Hull. The Northern Forest will link up fragmented woodland along the M62 belt and will deliver flood mitigation for up to 190,000 new homes, lock up over 7 million tonnes of carbon, boost wildlife habitat and contribute to northern England’s natural capital and ecosystem services. It is an […]
10th October 2017
Sheffield is home to the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC, which was formed in 1857. Today the main teams are Sheffield United ‘The Blades’ and Sheffield Wednesday ‘The Owls’. While ‘The Blades’ name is easily attributed to Sheffield’s main historic industry, most people don’t know why Sheffield Wednesday are known as ‘The Owls’. People would be forgiven in thinking the team once had a pet owl as the mascot, or some other strigine link. In fact, the reason Sheffield […]
12th July 2016
HENRY DAVID THOREAU was born 199 years ago, on 12th July 1817. An extraordinary person and writer, he is often credited with anticipating modern ecology and environmentalism. His particular fascination with trees should also justifiably label him as one of the forefathers of modern arboriculture. The definition of arboriculture is the science and art of tree care, and few individuals embodied these qualities more than Thoreau. Trees were crucial to his writing, poetry, philosophy and spirituality; however, he also […]
17th April 2016
George Orwell is one of England’s greatest writers. He is not famous for nature writing, yet Orwell’s 1946 essay about the arrival of Spring, is a masterpiece. It’s a clearly written easy-read, avoiding any of the flowery language often used in nature writing, and it highlights Orwell’s brilliant insight, humanity and common sense truths that are still helpful today. He begins his essay by referring to the toad – largely because he sees it as the underdog of […]
19th March 2016
Marilyn Monroe defines the 1950s. Even today, as an icon of American popular culture, she has few rivals. She epitomised the modern liberated woman – an endorsement of consumer culture and glamour – available to anyone using the right make-up, clothes and peroxide. The public perception of Marilyn Monroe seems about as far as one can get from the realm of trees. However, she displayed an ongoing and genuine affection for trees and woods, as evidenced from interviews with her […]