Rob McBride: After a career problem solving in IT, Rob McBride began to discover the natural world on his doorstep and especially the special ancient trees. He found that many were undiscovered, and lacking any legal protection, were vulnerable to loss from developments including road building. He spent his days exploring, finding many of these treasures and recording them and campaigning for their protection. One of the first to appreciate the tree loss in Sheffield and campaign for the urban forest there, he was also a pioneer of the annual Tree of the Year campaign. Known as the Tree Hunter, his book 'Trees of the Offa's Dyke', sharing his adventures exploring that area and the people there, will be published in 2026. Rob has appeared on The One Show, BBC Countryfile and local news programmes and is a committed campaigner for trees.

Mark Chester: Mark Chester has spent more than 30 years working with trees and advising on their management as a professional consulting arborist. He is the Principal Consultant at Cedarwood Tree Consultants, which he founded in 2005. Founder of the education social enterprise Oscar's Tree Academy, which provides forest school resources for primary school aged children and their teachers, he is also the editor of The World of Woodlands, a magazine about trees. Known as The Tree Detective, he has a passion to share about trees in an accessible way. He especially campaigns to promote good practice in establishing young trees and protecting ancient trees and woodlands.

Paul Naylor: Media & You is a design and marketing agency founded and owned by Paul Naylor.
Based in Meir Park, Stoke-on-Trent, the agency specialises in design, PR, and marketing services, particularly for books, magazines, and other printed media.
Major clients include Oscar's Tree Academy; Shropshire Business Magazine – for which he has won design awards; The Alliance of British Drivers; Happy Smiles; Fiveways Insurance and, more local to his home, Noreus – a company dealing in renewable energy.
Paul is also a trustee for the charity Telford After Care Team (TACT). A role he has held since late 2019.

www.theworldoftrees.org.uk
www.treeconsultants.org.uk
www.thetreeacademy.org.uk

Email: mark.chester@treeconsultants.org.uk
Landline: 01981 570426
Mobile: 07888 838360

We catch up once again with Kevin Martin, Keeper of the Tree Collection at Royal Botanic Gardens. Kevin is responsible for the management of Kew's world-renowned collection of trees, some dating from the founding of the Gardens in the 1760s. In conversation with Mark Chester, Kevin discusses his latest work and projects at Kew and in the wider world.

The youngest manager at Kew as well as the youngest Keeper of the Collection, Kevin has a unique role at Kew, where he manages the trees as 'custodian' and 'advisor'. He also teaches about trees on the Kew Diploma, and is part of the team contributing to a new Channel 5 documentary series. He is presently working on research into compaction damage, how trees cope with drought, trees and motion and Eco Habitat Matching.

Mark Chester is editor of e-magazine The World of Trees, and is also the Principal Consultant at Cedarwood Tree Consultants and part of the team at The Tree Academy, which provides an education resource at early years and primary school ( Key Stage 1 and 2).

www.theworldoftrees.org.uk
www.treeconsultants.org.uk
www.thetreeacademy.org.uk

Email: mark.chester@treeconsultants.org.uk
Landline: 01981 570426
Mobile: 07888 838360

On this episode of A View From The Treehouse we sit down with Russell Ball. Russell's keen interest in nature stated young and led to him holding a number of key industry positions: Executive Officer for both the London Tree Officers Association and International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) – European office. He also worked as a Tree Protection Officer for Harrow Council and two years tree consulting in Madrid. He was on the technical editing committee for the Spanish national standard for protecting trees on development sites: "NTJ 03E" and in 1996 was voted Environmental Londoner of the Year, as well as jointly winning a Royal Horticultural Society (Chelsea Flower Show) silver-gilt medal for Rainforest Belize. As a Chartered Biologist his qualifications include an honours degree in botany and a post graduate diploma in landscape management.

Mark Chester is editor of e-magazine The World of Trees, and is also the Principal Consultant at Cedarwood Tree Consultants and part of the team at The Tree Academy, which provides an education resource at early years and primary school ( Key Stage 1 and 2).

www.theworldoftrees.org.uk
www.treeconsultants.org.uk
www.thetreeacademy.org.uk

Email: mark.chester@treeconsultants.org.uk
Landline: 01981 570426
Mobile: 07888 838360