IUFRO Workshop on Open-grown and Urban Trees
A workshop to investigate wind risk to trees growing in open conditions or in the urban environment was held from 8 to 10 April 2019 in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany. The workshop was organised under the auspices of IUFRO 8.03.06 by Dr Dirk Schindler of the University of Freiburg, Andreas Detter of TreeConsult GmbH, and Barry Gardiner of EFIPLANT. It also represented part of the outreach of the SingleTree project in which Barry is involved and which is coordinated by Ebba Dellwik of the Danish Technical University.
The workshop consisted of talks, discussions, and demonstrations of tree pulling to test tree safety. Approximately 30 people attended and there were participants from many countries in Europe as well as from the USA and Singapore.
A primary goal of the meeting was to encourage closer engagement between arboriculturists and scientists working in the urban environment with forest scientists concerned with wind damage. Traditionally these communities have worked somewhat in isolation from each other and yet there is an enormous amount of common interest and knowledge that should be shared.
The meeting was a huge success due to the excellent organisation of Dirk and Andreas and the active engagement of all the participants. Finally, the interaction between the different disciplines was an extremely encouraging sign of the potentials for future cooperation and the exchange of ideas on understanding wind risk to trees.
For more information, please contact Barry Gardiner (EFIPLANT)
