Conservation Foundation
Ulmus Maritime Seminar
Preston Park Brighton
June 2015
A Preston Twin 400 Year Old English Elm, Preston Park, Brighton
June 12th 2015 saw delegates visit Preston Park
in Brighton to attend the Conservation Foundations ‘Ulmus Maritime’ seminar
highlighting the Elms of Sussex.
Some eleven papers by both home grown and International speakers were presented, many of a highly technical nature, yet also provided plenty of interest for the layperson and those with less pure technical connections.
Perhaps surprisingly as we sat amongst the plethora of mature Elms in Preston Park was that the paper ‘The Elms of Brighton and Hove’ was not presented by the city Arboricultural staff but the unattached Peter Bourne who gave a photographic record of some of the cities rarer Elms and much to consider with the details of a new survey to establish just how many Elms might be present in the city.
Of note was the apparent misconception of some delegates that plotting Elms equated to the continuing success of the city's Elm disease control programme. In reality this will be a vastly useful tool for costing future maintenance, but the success of the control programme which culminated with the National collection of Ulmus status is down to many tree officers, local councillors, arborist, local contractors and members of the public who have been involved in this work since the early 1970s. Perhaps any further seminars would include speakers from this genre who have first-hand experience of the continuing fight.
During our lunch we took the opportunity to look at the Keith Pettit’s sculpture erected adjacent to the Preston Twins to highlight to the public the plight of our Elm trees.
Thank you Conservation Foundation for a very interesting day and a great opportunity to catch up and share experiences with old friends and acquaintances. Good luck with your future work.
Some eleven papers by both home grown and International speakers were presented, many of a highly technical nature, yet also provided plenty of interest for the layperson and those with less pure technical connections.
Perhaps surprisingly as we sat amongst the plethora of mature Elms in Preston Park was that the paper ‘The Elms of Brighton and Hove’ was not presented by the city Arboricultural staff but the unattached Peter Bourne who gave a photographic record of some of the cities rarer Elms and much to consider with the details of a new survey to establish just how many Elms might be present in the city.
Of note was the apparent misconception of some delegates that plotting Elms equated to the continuing success of the city's Elm disease control programme. In reality this will be a vastly useful tool for costing future maintenance, but the success of the control programme which culminated with the National collection of Ulmus status is down to many tree officers, local councillors, arborist, local contractors and members of the public who have been involved in this work since the early 1970s. Perhaps any further seminars would include speakers from this genre who have first-hand experience of the continuing fight.
During our lunch we took the opportunity to look at the Keith Pettit’s sculpture erected adjacent to the Preston Twins to highlight to the public the plight of our Elm trees.
Thank you Conservation Foundation for a very interesting day and a great opportunity to catch up and share experiences with old friends and acquaintances. Good luck with your future work.
