Dear Station Members,
The challenge has finally come.
ISA Australian Chapter (ISAAC) has sent us an invitation to participate in the Australian Tree Climbing Championship (ATCC) next May in Brisbane. The details of the competition are attached. Are we ready for it?
It is likely that tree climbers from Japan, Australia, New Zealand & some other countries will participate in this regional tree climbing competition. We, ISA HK/China, represent a region comprising HK, Macau, Taiwan & Mainland China. We are perhaps the largest in term of territorial size & population among all ISA Chapters & Associated Organizations in the world. With all our wealth & population mass, yet can we organize & send out a tree climbing team to represent our region ??
To the knowledge of this Station, the HK tree climbers should be the best trained & most experienced within our territory, with Macau only just started, Taiwan unknown internationally & China not even begun. HK is the best bet we can have for this ATCC. We have the Fung Kai Climbers who are all below 20 years old & a few of them are now working as professional tree workers in HKGC. With some training & sponsorship, they may be our best hope.
On the other hand, we have other professional climbers from HKAS, CLP & KFBG. We also have AFCD & LCSD climbers of an average age of over 40. We do not know how interested they would be to take part in an event as such.
Nevertheless, any of us wishing to take part in the ATCC will represent ISA HK/China for the territory of HK, Macau, Taiwan & China. Winning anything back will be a lifetime honour & glory for our region. ATCC will be the first time that our territory will ever enter in an international scale to compete with the world. It will be an unforgettable occasion.
So, able young men & women, are you ready for the challenge? Are you ready to fly our flag & take up the heat to push up a tree like our regional partners? This Station is waiting for your call.
Who will write history for us in our region ?
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Sharp
To: richard.wanhill@horttraining.ac.nz ; egc@netvigator.com ; Ganesan_S_K@nparks.gov.sg ; john@treeclimbingjapan.org
Cc: Craig Hallam
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 12:10 PM
Subject: Invitation
Dear all,
Attached is an invitation from ISAAC for representatives from your region/chapter to compete in the Tree climbing events in Brisbane next May.Please don't hesitate to reply to me for more info if required.
Regards,
Doug Sharp
Business Activities
Earth Sciences
NMIT
p. 61 3 92698914f. 61 3 92698912m. 0417541157e. dougs-hrt@nmit.vic.edu.au
Dear International Guest,
Hopefully by this time you have received and read information regarding the Inaugural ISA Asia Pacific Conference, Tree Climbing Championship and Workshops to be held in Brisbane on 9 to 14th May 2008.
On behalf of ISAAC and the Australia Tree Climbing Committee we cordially invite the your Chapter/affliation/station to enter 2 male and 2 female contestants to compete in the competition to be held over the 9 & 10th May 2008. Please follow this link to the ISAAC website to download the entry forms . Entries will close unconditionally on 11th April 2008 and 8th May for the Head to Head Footlock.
*Please note that International competitors are eligible for the Masters Challenge, however they can not be named as Australain Champion, the highest placed Australian will take this honor.
Traditonally nominated climbers have been the highest ranked placings in your local event. Should you choose to enter persons through an alternate selection process, ISAAC stipulates that the person MUST have competed in a local, state or national event previuosly, all entrants MUST be financial ISAAC/ISA members.
As you are also aware without officials to run the events it does’nt happen, therefore we would greatly appreciate it you we able to provide 2 officials/judges to assist on Friday and Saturday.
The Australian Tree Climbing Championships are an integral part of this entire event, in 2008 we are anticipating an event of the proportion not seen in the southern hemisphere before, infact we believe it will be a world first.
Friday will commence with the competitiors and officals meeting at the Sthil breifing session at the Royal on the Park (conference hotel) on Friday 4.30-7.00pm. Once the meeting is complete all competetors will then relocate to the Footlock event which is being held underlights and commencing at 7.30pm. We will be using electronic timers with the view of a World record time being recorded.
At the conclusion of the competeion event, we will move directly to a open head to head footlock, eligible entrants must have a recorded time of 20 secs for men and 30 secs for women.
Prizes to value of $500 for men and women are on offer.
Times are also eligible for a World record. Please note the head to head event is open to anyone in the world that qualifies. Saturday’s remaining events will commence at 7.30am with the females masters starting at 2.00pm. At 6.00pm Staurday evening the Stihl Tree Climbing awards will be presented with some finger food sponsored by Stihl
Also a practical climbing and rigging workshop, along with several other workshops are running on the Sunday which may also be of interest to your climbers, the full conference is of course is open to them. Go to www.isaac.org.au for registration and information.
ISAAC and the ISA look forward to seeing you in Brisbane. Please email or call me if you require further details at your earliest conveinence.
Regards
Doug Sharp
ATCC Director
03 92698914
0417541157
dougs-hrt@nmit.vic.edu.au
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
ISA HK/China --- Our Station went on 'Arborist News'
*** Our weekly Station Mail is for the information of Station Members only, but Station Mail has given up copyright & can be freely circulated. For administrative reasons, comments from outsiders are usually not entertained & may be circulated within our system locally & overseas. Please note Station Mail is sometimes given in Blog at http://isahkchina.blogspot.com/ , although images are usually not attached due to size. ***
Dear Station Members,
It is an honour & pride for ISA HK/China Station to appear on the international magazine 'Arborist News' in the October 2007 edition, as shown in the attachment. Once on this magazine, readers from 50 countries around the world will see our image as edited by this influential publication.
The interview of the Station Manager to Arborist News took place actually several months before the printing in order to catch up with the editing. Within these few months, positive development has occurred in our territory for arboriculture. Therefore, some of the information so mentioned in the interview may already be outdated by today's standard. In a nutshell, ISA Arboriculture is seen to be receiving attention from our Govt by sending in Civil Servants to sit for the Certified Arborist exam & by arranging seminars for our Station to participate. New positions such as the Independent Tree Specialist (ITS) & Competent Person (CP) were created to allow Arborist to practise in Govt Contracts. Trees of international quality were begun to be required by Govt Depts. We feel our Govt are lending gradual support to recognize the values of the Arborist Profession in available manner in order to protect & preserve the trees in our territory.
On the other hand, the public sector did not seem to advance much in the recognition of proper arboriculture as compared to the Govt. There were numerous complaints for tree malpractice in the media but hardly any organization would invite us to give them a talk on proper tree care or ISA. Action appears to be far lacking behind from that of the Govt. Many reasons may account for this phenomenon, with perhaps the existing interest of certain groups or commercial interest remaining the major concern possibly. After all, the employment of Arborist would involve additional cost & new learning. No employer would prefer to pay extra if it can be ever avoided, & would try to fend off Arborist unless absolutely required by Govt administration. This appears to be a fact of life.
It can be seen that in Singapore with the massive number of Arborists working in their Govt Depts has produced some of the finest trees, & thus quality living environment, in Asia. Singapore does not seem to stop there & would demand the best all the time. The National Parks Board of the Singapore Govt (Nparks) recently paid extra to buy two container load of quality trees from ETF to serve as comparison to their local stocks. They have emphasized by action that quality stocks is the first key to success.
HK would obviously like to do the same, although resistance in HK is likely to be heavier especially in the private sector. HK tends most of the time to place price over quality & HK is influenced heavily by China in nursery stocks supply. Some buyers would even regard having topped trees for landscape would enhance survival & reduce water stress. The long term vision of having cheaper maintenance with quality trees would not bother a lot of the contractors because they would only last to until the end of DLP. Then it becomes the liability of the maintenance party. HK speaks a different story indeed.
On the other hand, HK people are known to be adaptive & innovative. Once the knowledge is exploited by them, things may begin to change. It would be hard to be self-complacent in your landscape when your trees would fail like dead flies after every storm. Complaints & law suits may follow. Facts speak stronger than words.
This Station will remain dogged in the development for modern arboriculture in our territory as we should do, despite resistance & obstacles. After all, we are not the first of our kind in the world. We are simply followers of many others. ISA was started in 1924, long before many horticultural groups or landscape groups have even been born. May those who believe in our course lend support to proper design, installation & maintenance of quality trees in our territory, so that our trees can truly become our asset in place rather than on paper.
May we all persist.
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
The ISA Mission - Through research, technology, and education, promote the professional practice of arboriculture and foster a greater public awareness of the benefits of trees. (http://www.isa-arbor.com/)
Dear Station Members,
It is an honour & pride for ISA HK/China Station to appear on the international magazine 'Arborist News' in the October 2007 edition, as shown in the attachment. Once on this magazine, readers from 50 countries around the world will see our image as edited by this influential publication.
The interview of the Station Manager to Arborist News took place actually several months before the printing in order to catch up with the editing. Within these few months, positive development has occurred in our territory for arboriculture. Therefore, some of the information so mentioned in the interview may already be outdated by today's standard. In a nutshell, ISA Arboriculture is seen to be receiving attention from our Govt by sending in Civil Servants to sit for the Certified Arborist exam & by arranging seminars for our Station to participate. New positions such as the Independent Tree Specialist (ITS) & Competent Person (CP) were created to allow Arborist to practise in Govt Contracts. Trees of international quality were begun to be required by Govt Depts. We feel our Govt are lending gradual support to recognize the values of the Arborist Profession in available manner in order to protect & preserve the trees in our territory.
On the other hand, the public sector did not seem to advance much in the recognition of proper arboriculture as compared to the Govt. There were numerous complaints for tree malpractice in the media but hardly any organization would invite us to give them a talk on proper tree care or ISA. Action appears to be far lacking behind from that of the Govt. Many reasons may account for this phenomenon, with perhaps the existing interest of certain groups or commercial interest remaining the major concern possibly. After all, the employment of Arborist would involve additional cost & new learning. No employer would prefer to pay extra if it can be ever avoided, & would try to fend off Arborist unless absolutely required by Govt administration. This appears to be a fact of life.
It can be seen that in Singapore with the massive number of Arborists working in their Govt Depts has produced some of the finest trees, & thus quality living environment, in Asia. Singapore does not seem to stop there & would demand the best all the time. The National Parks Board of the Singapore Govt (Nparks) recently paid extra to buy two container load of quality trees from ETF to serve as comparison to their local stocks. They have emphasized by action that quality stocks is the first key to success.
HK would obviously like to do the same, although resistance in HK is likely to be heavier especially in the private sector. HK tends most of the time to place price over quality & HK is influenced heavily by China in nursery stocks supply. Some buyers would even regard having topped trees for landscape would enhance survival & reduce water stress. The long term vision of having cheaper maintenance with quality trees would not bother a lot of the contractors because they would only last to until the end of DLP. Then it becomes the liability of the maintenance party. HK speaks a different story indeed.
On the other hand, HK people are known to be adaptive & innovative. Once the knowledge is exploited by them, things may begin to change. It would be hard to be self-complacent in your landscape when your trees would fail like dead flies after every storm. Complaints & law suits may follow. Facts speak stronger than words.
This Station will remain dogged in the development for modern arboriculture in our territory as we should do, despite resistance & obstacles. After all, we are not the first of our kind in the world. We are simply followers of many others. ISA was started in 1924, long before many horticultural groups or landscape groups have even been born. May those who believe in our course lend support to proper design, installation & maintenance of quality trees in our territory, so that our trees can truly become our asset in place rather than on paper.
May we all persist.
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
The ISA Mission - Through research, technology, and education, promote the professional practice of arboriculture and foster a greater public awareness of the benefits of trees. (http://www.isa-arbor.com/)
Monday, November 26, 2007
ISA HK/China --- Summary of Reviews up to Nov 2007
*** Our weekly Station Mail is for the information of Station Members only, but Station Mail has given up copyright & can be freely circulated. For administrative reasons, comments from outsiders are usually not entertained & may be circulated within our system locally & overseas. Please note Station Mail is sometimes given in Blog at http://isahkchina.blogspot.com/ , although images are usually not attached due to size. ***
Dear Station Members,
A Station Member has called in to request for a list of reviews carried out by this Station from 2006 to 2007. The list is now produced below for the interest of our Station Members to comprehend the research that this Station has carried out so far:
Title Date
1. Review of ' Glossary of Arboricultural Terms 2005 ' by ISA 31.7.06
2. Review of ANSI z133.1 Safety Standard 2006 (Part 2) on Crane Safety 28.8.06
3. Review of ANSI z133.1 Safety Standard 2006 (Part 3) on Chainsaw, Climbing & Pruning 4.12.06
4. Review of ANSI z133.1(2006) Pt. 1 (QA, PPE & Electrical) 14.7.07
5. Review of Basic Tree Biomechanics 25.1.07
6. Review of Cornell University website on tree
management
7.9.06
7. Review of Dr. Alex Shigo's website address on Tree Biology 24.8.06
8. Review of Dr. Shigo's Tree Biology series 18.10.07
9. Review of ETWB Technical Circular (Works) No. 3/2006 on Tree Preservation 28.6.06
10. Review of LAO's PN no. 7/2007 on Tree Preservation in Private Projects 12.10.07
11. Review of Latest Aerial Rescue Protocol collected from the 2007 ISA International Conference 28.8.07
12. Review of Latest development in Tree Stability Assessment for trees with internal decay 19.2.07
13. Review of New Criteria in Tree Hazard Assessment by USDA Forest Service (USFS) 18.6.07
14. Review of Principles of ISA Tree Selection Method 21.3.07
15. Review of Prof Ed Gilman's website on trees in landscape 10.8.06
16. Review of research on Tree Stability Assessment (TSA) 5.3.07
17. Review of selected literature published by AA 17.5.07
18. Review of the book 'Urban Soils - Applications & Practices' 25.6.07
19. Review of the BS 3936-1 of 1992 ' Nursery Stock --- Part 1 Specification for trees & shrubs ' 18.8.06
20. Review of the BS 4043 of 1989 ' Recommendations for Transplanting Root-balled Trees' 24.7.06
21. Review of the BS 5837 of 2005 'Trees in relation to construction --- Recommendations ' 28.4.06
22. Review of ETWB 2007 Pruning Guidelines 27.9.07
23. Review of Prof Mattheck's ' Tree Bio-mechanics' 15.11.07
Most of the above mentioned reviews are stored in the Station Library as well in Station Blog of http://isahkchina.blogspot.com/ for our Station Member to retrieve. Please kindly note the Arboricultural education is an advancing profession. Knowledge of the past may be superseded by updated research accordingly. What was said in former review may be outdated by current research sometimes. It is therefore advisable to stay close to our Station Mail for continuous progress.
Besides the above Reviews, this Station has a collection of hundreds of Station Mail on other topics including HK Tree News & China Tree News in Station Blog. Please check them up at your convenience.
Please kindly contact this Station if any Station Member has any further question in this matter.
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
The ISA Mission - Through research, technology, and education, promote the professional practice of arboriculture and foster a greater public awareness of the benefits of trees. (http://www.isa-arbor.com/)
Dear Station Members,
A Station Member has called in to request for a list of reviews carried out by this Station from 2006 to 2007. The list is now produced below for the interest of our Station Members to comprehend the research that this Station has carried out so far:
Title Date
1. Review of ' Glossary of Arboricultural Terms 2005 ' by ISA 31.7.06
2. Review of ANSI z133.1 Safety Standard 2006 (Part 2) on Crane Safety 28.8.06
3. Review of ANSI z133.1 Safety Standard 2006 (Part 3) on Chainsaw, Climbing & Pruning 4.12.06
4. Review of ANSI z133.1(2006) Pt. 1 (QA, PPE & Electrical) 14.7.07
5. Review of Basic Tree Biomechanics 25.1.07
6. Review of Cornell University website on tree
management
7.9.06
7. Review of Dr. Alex Shigo's website address on Tree Biology 24.8.06
8. Review of Dr. Shigo's Tree Biology series 18.10.07
9. Review of ETWB Technical Circular (Works) No. 3/2006 on Tree Preservation 28.6.06
10. Review of LAO's PN no. 7/2007 on Tree Preservation in Private Projects 12.10.07
11. Review of Latest Aerial Rescue Protocol collected from the 2007 ISA International Conference 28.8.07
12. Review of Latest development in Tree Stability Assessment for trees with internal decay 19.2.07
13. Review of New Criteria in Tree Hazard Assessment by USDA Forest Service (USFS) 18.6.07
14. Review of Principles of ISA Tree Selection Method 21.3.07
15. Review of Prof Ed Gilman's website on trees in landscape 10.8.06
16. Review of research on Tree Stability Assessment (TSA) 5.3.07
17. Review of selected literature published by AA 17.5.07
18. Review of the book 'Urban Soils - Applications & Practices' 25.6.07
19. Review of the BS 3936-1 of 1992 ' Nursery Stock --- Part 1 Specification for trees & shrubs ' 18.8.06
20. Review of the BS 4043 of 1989 ' Recommendations for Transplanting Root-balled Trees' 24.7.06
21. Review of the BS 5837 of 2005 'Trees in relation to construction --- Recommendations ' 28.4.06
22. Review of ETWB 2007 Pruning Guidelines 27.9.07
23. Review of Prof Mattheck's ' Tree Bio-mechanics' 15.11.07
Most of the above mentioned reviews are stored in the Station Library as well in Station Blog of http://isahkchina.blogspot.com/ for our Station Member to retrieve. Please kindly note the Arboricultural education is an advancing profession. Knowledge of the past may be superseded by updated research accordingly. What was said in former review may be outdated by current research sometimes. It is therefore advisable to stay close to our Station Mail for continuous progress.
Besides the above Reviews, this Station has a collection of hundreds of Station Mail on other topics including HK Tree News & China Tree News in Station Blog. Please check them up at your convenience.
Please kindly contact this Station if any Station Member has any further question in this matter.
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
The ISA Mission - Through research, technology, and education, promote the professional practice of arboriculture and foster a greater public awareness of the benefits of trees. (http://www.isa-arbor.com/)
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