As part of Operation Wallacea, a series of biological and social science expedition projects, I am spending a month high in the trees of the Cusuco National Park in Honduras.

Working alongside gap year, degree and PhD level science students, my job is to use rope access and climbing techniques to aid researchers with access into the tree canopy, so they can take cuttings and record findings. The results will help inform many areas of research, such as assessing the suitability of different tree species for sustainable timber production.

Rain, thunder and lightning, followed by intense humidity are some of the difficult working in conditions here, and are unlike any I have seen before. In these conditions, we have been carrying out night time surveys and have seen a selection of really cool insects, snakes, lizards and transparent frogs! I have also seen some incredible plants, Pinus oocarpa, Carpinus tropicalanis, Drimys granadenisis, Liquidambar sp, Ilex sp, Quercus sp, and a vast amount of plants that could be absolutely anything!

The climbing is relatively straightforward, but occasionally we have to climb at altitudes in excess of 2000m, which is hard work. The food is also an experience out here – mostly rice and beans but unfortunately there is a distinct lack of meat. Today is day eight for me here and it was the first day we have been lucky enough to have some.

We have seen some beautiful places on the trip. We’ve visited and stayed in the local village. Here we are able to order food and ‘essentials’, so on Tuesday I am returning to pick up my order of coffee, roasted with cinnamon and chilli; which they said I could help pick, roast and then grind – about as fair trade as you can get.

The generator at the internet post will shortly run out of fuel, so I’d best be off. I look forward to updating you all with more when I get back!

As members of the tree team here at Westonbirt, we are always looking to find ways to improve the management of plant collections. The experience of seeing other international collections and trees growing in their native habitat is the perfect way to find new ideas.
We put together a two-week trip to the East Coast of the U.S.A gratefully funded by The Friends of Westonbirt Travel Bursary. The tour began in Portland Maine, and ended in Atlanta Georgia. We stopped at Arnold Arboretum, New York Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Morris Arboretum, US National Arboretum, Atlanta Botanic Garden and drove through national forests of Shenandoah, Nanthala, Pisgah. Viewing trees from Skyline Drive, Blueridge Parkway, and making a special effort to visit one of the last sites of old growth hardwood forest on the East Coast. The Joyce Kilmer Memorial forest where Lirodendron tulipifera get to 9/10ft in diameter and in excess of 100ft tall.

The people that we met along the way were so enthusiastic about tree cultivation, they went to great lengths to ensure we saw everything and had all our questions answered, this meant long days, but every minute was spent learning. This trip has been an inspiring experience and has expanded our knowledge of trees and their cultivation. It has also allowed us to show some of the best American Horticulture/Arboriculture institutes what Westonbirt Arboretum is about and will allow us to collaborate on an international level with future projects. What a great trip.

Coming from Westonbirt’s marketing office, I anticipated the Woody Women course to be something of a challenge.
Led by professional coppice-workers, Ruth Goodfellow and Jenna Higgins, the Woody Women course aims to give an all round woodland experience: from learning about woodland management, using tools such as axes and drawknives to thinking about how women can approach physically demanding tasks in woodlands using lifting and moving techniques.
For me making a spatula was really enjoyable, and the result now takes pride of place in my kitchen at home. A spatula may not sound like the most exciting thing to make, but believe me when you have carefully cleaved a thin wedge of wood for yourself, used an axe under such close control, and gone onto lovingly shape and carve it you will know better. I believe a wooden spoon is by comparison an altogether tougher challenge!
The fire-lighting task heralded much pondering of whether Ray Mears’ preferred brand of fire steel was in fact the best. I used small dry sticks collected in the hazel coppice as a base, a layer of Old Man’s Beard as tinder on top of this with a scattering of birch bark and last but not least a chunk of King Alfred’s Cakes (dry fungi) in the centre of it all. It was hardly surprising that it took only a few strikes of the fire steel to get this lot going with such a catch all approach, even after a downpour!
I now have a better sense of the woodland, gained by participating in this weekend. Camping in the woods and being awoken by the dawn chorus was a joy but I am not sure this feeling was shared by all in our party! In any case the Woody Women course is highly recommended as a way to get to know Westonbirt better.

Of all the possible reasons for Westonbirt’s new spring photography shoot to be hampered, an extremely rare – erupt once every 200 years – Icelandic volcano was not one of our considerations.
As I, our photographer for the day and a Forestry Commission designer turned up at 6am to catch the sunrise, we wondered what effect the news that a huge volcanic ash cloud was covering the UK would have on our photography. Would the cloud hinder the streaming sunlight we had wished for when we’d planned our early morning spring colour shoot?
Our aim was to get striking shots of the pink, red and cream colours of the magnolias, camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons which cover the Old Arboretum in spring.
Luckily, the natural phenomenon seemed to just be ruining the plans of holiday makers and travel companies. After a slightly murky start (much down to the weather rather than the ash we guessed), the sun shone and we were able to capture the famous colours which draw people to the National Arboretum at this time of year.
We found brilliant examples of magnolias and camellias on Main Drive and Loop Walk, which resulted in some beautiful close up shots for the media, future leaflets and guides for our visitors. The cherry blossom collection in Silk Wood also provided us with some subtle creams and pinks.
As many people will tell you, flowering has been late across the country due to the harsh winter, but it is great to see our national collection now awakening. Capturing the colours and sense of excitement that spring is finally here is important to us, as photography a great way to show visitors what a wonderful place Westonbirt is to visit.
Over the next few months we’ll use this photography on the websites, on marketing material and will send the pictures out to journalists across the country writing about the arboretum. After a cold and slightly uncertain start, the spring shoot was indeed a day well spent.

As well as propagating trees and shrubs for the Westonbirt collection, I am also working with two other organisations on conservation projects, namely Natural England and Plantlife.
The Plantlife project is locally based and its aim is to replant the limestone hills that form part of the beautiful Stroud valleys with our native juniper, Juniperus communis such places like Juniper Hill at Edgeworth where the existing plants are in decline and in some cases collapsed. There is little or no natural regeneration due to overgrazing and competition from other more vigorous species.

Over the last week I have received several batches of juniper trimmings to prepare for propagation, so far we have completed 250 cuttings and 12 seed batches. The cuttings should root within 8-12 weeks but the seed will take a little longer as natural germination will need a period of two winters. Junipers are slow-growing so it will take two to three years before the plants are ready to be replanted on the Stroud valley hillsides.

In addition to physically preparing the cuttings and seed we have to record the field data and provenance of the parent plants e.g. Country of Origin, Geographical Area, Location, Longitude, Latitude, Altitude,, Sex, Age Structure, Condition , Habitat description and method of propagation and any treatments given. Plenty to do !