Dendro Day, always the first Sunday in March, is the start of the year for all tree enthusiasts to take care of their trees, and if the weather is suitable, finishing off any planting. As a phenology record, Bucks Tree Club members noted that few trees or shrubs bore blossom on St Georges Day, 23^rd April, and March was the driest for 50 years, whilst April was the hottest month on record. The collection at Little Friars in a valley of the Buckinghamshire’s Chilterns, had experienced a record low in the winter temperature of down to -19.6ºC and this had consequences for many other trees too.  For Dendro Day 2012, Sunday 4^th March, the club will run an    introductory conifer recognition course here for beginners. For more details contact mandad@hotmail.co.uk. 

       The spring visit of the Bucks Tree Club members this year was the Beale Arboretum in Hertfordshire. This arboretum, is very impressive and was  begun in 1963, now has  over 800 fine trees in the beautiful  manicured grounds of West Park Lodge Hotel, Enfield, Hertfordshire and deservedly will be a repeat destination for the club in future years.

       Members made their own representations to the “Independent Panel on Forestry” with a reminder that, as Simon Bowes wrote in the Forestry Journal, once the  Forestry Commission paid money into the Treasury, they were urged to question why the nation’s forests should not do so again with surpluses which could be used to subsidise the non profitable amenity activities.

       In our summer visits we hoped to include either Holloway College or Eastnor Castle but neither proved possible, although a few members met up at the Open Day of Great Sarrat Hall, near Rickmansworth.  Our autumn visit programme included a return visit to the National Trusts' famous landscape gardens of Stowe. This was an opportunity to try out the Dendrologist Plotting Map which used a transparent acetate sheet to photocopy an A4 size map to give a grid plan so that notable trees could be easily located.  The trial proved the practicality of the system and it will be a used in projects to do this for other specimen tree rich sites in the county and maybe the Club’s   ‘Best in Bucks’ list of the best of each tree species to be found in the county, too. 

      Attending the inaugural meeting of the National Tree Forum in Coventry on 12^th November the Bucks Tree Club acting secretary drew attention the long term problems of management of urban trees, as well as in woodlands from threats like the advance of the Oak Processionary Moth, Thaumetopoea processionea from London towards Buckinghamshire, The Caterpillars of the Oak Processionary Moth will have severe effects on both human and animal health with economic consequences in plague years.  Another topic of concern is that, under government pressure, the transfer of property out of the public ownership of local authorities mean that reports have been heard of important local woodlands and open spaces being given to charities where there is no local accountability, especially when these charities are regional or bigger. Locally important assets need full endowment so that they can be properly maintained for the future.

     During the winter months, members have email contact with each other in case any of us hear of  interesting topics or tree related lectures.