Henry Bexley opened the course with a brief description of the site and its management by the National Trust and then introduced Vikki Bengtsson (nee Forbes), who had travelled from near Gothenburg in Sweden to deliver the main body of the course. Vikki is an ecological consultant living in Sweden and works at a company of ecologists working as a collective, called ProNatura. Vikki, originally from Scotland, has lived in Sweden for the last 8 years, but used to be the property manager at Hatfield Forest previous to Ade Clarke and now, Henry. She instigated the original veteran tree work management plan drawn up by Neville Fay of Treework Environmental Practice at Hatfield, and since then has been a leading light in developing the latest new thinkingand techniques currently associated with veteran tree work, whilst also acting as a director and trustee of the Ancient Tree Forum. I was lucky to bump into her on the biology of decay course in 2000, which the National Trust also ran at Hatfield, where she encouraged my company, Urban Forestry (Bury St. Edmunds) Ltd, and several others, to attend a training day on the very new concept of veteran tree work contracting.
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