Women in Trees

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I met a few people with entrenched ideas and closed minds but these were mostly from outside of the industry; those within the arboricultural world were almost always kind, encouraging and supportive of my aspirations. I think my own naivety in the early days actually helped me. Bo: Being self-employed, my work is very shifting and goes from doing NPTC assessments solid for a few weeks to full-on climbing the next, or a mix between the two. It also involves doing surveys, working at trade shows, running workshops or training courses and setting up and judging the 3ATC competitions.

Contemporary performance artist Joan Jonas recently interpreted the Grimm fairy tale The Juniper Tree using red and white images of contorted faces to represent the story’s central character’s wish for a child as white as snow and as red as blood. A kimono hung from a wooden frame depicts the stepmother and tree. In the story the woman gorges on junipers and has a baby before dying. She is buried under the juniper tree and witnesses the violent murder of her child by his stepmother. The juniper tree is the embodiment of the dead mother and represents righteous redemption. In Merce Rodoreda’s Death in Spring dying citizens are buried alive in trees, their throats filled with cement. These disturbing connections between trees and people reflect what Sara Maitland describes as a ‘profound sense that violence, beauty, risk and joy are inextricably tangled together; and the roots lie in the forests.’ Trees contain a deep magic. Perhaps our women in trees knew this, felt it on an ancestral level, as they perched amongst the branches.Do we need our own groups? Are we causing more problems than we are solving by segregating genders? There are issues specific to female arborists, e.g. wearing men’s PPE and dealing with gender-related discrimination and harassment. Many do not feel comfortable talking about this in front of male colleagues, so it is reassuring to have somewhere to go for constructive advice. Newcomers need support and inspiration. If women require this from female peers, then these wider support networks provide a valuable service and increase professionalism by instilling confidence, motivation and diversity. How do we attract more females into arboriculture? Do we need to? Sharon: In the late 1980s I had a poor perception of what arboriculture was and focused on landscape design in my local authority role. Without the guidance and support of tree officers at Essex County Council, I would have been directionless. As my career progressed, I am indebted to prominent individuals in the industry for believing in me. I had low self-esteem due to being a full-time mum for so long and due to my slight dyslexia. I had poverty of expectation of what I could achieve which was blown away when I went into private practice in 2005. Why even question it? Some female arborists have reported discrimination and harassment whilst others feel supported and enjoy their roles. Personally, I have experienced both significantly - but in many areas of life and around the world, not exclusively in UK arboriculture. I think it’s quite important to keep up with the theoretical side of things because, although I like it, I don’t want to be climbing intensely like this forever. I’d like to think that I could progress and get a better position with time. Arboricultural Association (2014). 48th Annual Conference. The ARB Magazine. Winter, Issue 167: 16.

Sharon: I run my own consultancy practice - Sharon Hosegood Associates Ltd, based in Chelmsford. We provide services to the construction industry, large landowners, pressure groups and I practise as an expert witness. I am also involved with a community tree project for Epping Forest District Council. I work with Lloyd Bore with the new TreeRadar. Having my own practice has given me more freedom to try new things. When the meal ended and I drifted off into the yard and climbed into a lemon tree, it was not because of any particular comment. It was more the accumulating pressure of my own sense of inadequacy and unease. I knew that wedging my middle-aged behind into the forked branches of a lemon tree would resolve nothing. But the fragrance of the lemons, the sensation of perching like some primal animal in a tree, felt restorative, even after my left leg went numb, even after my descent devolved into a protracted, painful, fumbling disaster. Idra Novey is an award-winning poet and translator and the author of the novels Ways to Disappear and Those Who Knew , which is forthcoming in November. Mary Vidya Porselvi writes that, ‘When women are in trouble they find refuge in trees. When trees are in trouble, women form a group and protect them.’ I think this might be at the heart of the photos of these women: both women and trees have at times been exploited and objectified; both offer mutual solace and protection. With the recent UN warning that we have less than 12 years to prevent a climate catastrophe, spending time with trees – time in Nature – is increasingly important. To want to save it we need to experience it. Our own knotty roots are tangled with those of the trees. Perhaps there will come a time when humankind has long disappeared and the planet has rewilded. The trees will hold our stories. In the second of a series of articles to celebrate successful women in trees, I pose some questions to Lesley Adams, one of the highly respected principal consultants of Symbiosis Consulting Ltd in Leicestershire. Lesley is a Fellow member and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, amongst other things.This announcement follows a new commitment announced as part of the Government’s Environment Improvement Plan, to boost green growth and create new jobs – from foresters to roles in research and development. As I flipped through ninety photographs of well-dressed German women posing in trees for men, the subtle differences in their gestures and expressions became increasingly potent and compelling. What did they shrug off and accept, and what did they question? Did the two women in floral dresses posing in a fallen tree’s large and twisted roots come into adulthood while Hitler was in power? One of them is smiling winsomely for whoever is behind the camera. But the other has turned her face away. Her gaze is solemn and fixed on something in the distance that remains beyond the frame. I would like to continue to work as I do now, providing advice to a small number of clients who I have come to know well over the years. I would also like to learn more about landscape history and incorporate this into my work if possible. Favourite tree? So, sexism is experienced by female arborists, but it is not exclusive to arboriculture and nor, in my experience, is it widespread or always necessarily coming from other arborists. The Forestry Commission has a number of routes into exciting, innovative and important forestry roles for women to help support its plans to expand, protect and improve our forests, woods and trees. Applications are open to join the forestry Degree-level Apprenticeship Programme in 2023 – a first-of-its-kind initiative to foster a growing, highly skilled and diverse workforce within the forestry sector. We have also launched the Forestry Training Fund, making free government-funded short courses available for people considering a change of career or those who are seeking to build and diversify their skills in forestry, teaching skills like chainsaw maintenance, coppicing, woodland management, and marketing and selling timber.

Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the zoo. Is the poet suggesting that plants and trees, used for ‘interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down, are ’imprisoned’ and need to ‘break out’?Along the way, I came to cherish trees not only as aerial playgrounds, but as wonders of immense poetic, philosophical, and ecological import. The purpose of the new Women's working group will be to promote and engage women in Arboriculture at all levels, from contractors to consultants, academics, suppliers, Tree Officers and support staff alike.