by Brianna Crandall — May 2, 2014—Facilities managers who have faced the challenge of keeping newly planted trees alive on their facility’s campus will appreciate a new publication from BSI, the U.K.-based business standards company, that provides comprehensive guidance on the subject. BS 8545 Trees: From Nursery to Independence in the Landscape—Recommendations was developed to help safeguard infant trees and to increase their longevity.
According to BSI, a large number of trees in the urban environment are dying too soon after planting; according to the U.K. Department of Communities and Local Government’s Trees in Towns II Report, the U.K. loss rate stands at 25%. BSI developed the standard to combat this problem and to address what the organization perceived as the lack of cohesive standards covering tree specification and transplanting to date.
BS 8545 offers a sound understanding of good practice, and is a comprehensive and up-to-date information resource, says BSI. It is designed to enable the user to carry out quality decision-making in a range of different situations, and offers guidance on:
- Design and strategic intentions
- Individual site constraints and requirements
- Nursery availability and quality of tree stock
- Budget size and maintenance schedules
Anthony Burd, head of market development for construction at BSI, said, “BS 8545 is a welcome tool for people involved in the processes of resourcing, producing, planting and managing young trees. This not only impacts on private spaces but our open spaces and highways too—as it can help shape landscape architecture and infrastructure development in general.”
BS 8545 was developed using a collaborative, consensus-based approach with experts from the public and private sector who have extensive experience in managing tree populations. According to BSI, the standard is a clear, three-part sequential document. The first part (Recommendations Only) comprises seven sections outlined in order of use:
- Policy and strategy
- Site evaluation and constraints
- Species selection
- Nursery production
- Despatch, transportation and storage
- Planting
- Post-planting and maintenance
Informative or explanatory information is found in the second part of the standard, which consists of a series of annexes arranged under the same section headings as in the first part. The third part of the standard contains a comprehensive reading list of books and research papers that “inform the standard.”
