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Nomination for the Arboricultural Association Award 2011

DrMark Johnston has achieved much in his career and has worked selflessly for the benefit of the Arboriculture and Urban Forestry industry. Not only has the industry benefited from Mark’s work but, more importantly perhaps, the main beneficiaries are the people who live in our towns and cities enjoying the verdant tree cover and who are unaware of Mark’s efforts. Mark Johnston has truly covered the whole industry. He started in 1972 as a forestry worker and then felling contractor in West Wales before moving to arboriculture in 1975 and studying at Merrist Wood College. He has worked as a tree work contractor, a tree surgeon at Kew Gardens, a tree officer in various London boroughs, tree consultant, and as an educator and researcher. His abiding interest from the start of his career was that of trees, people and social issues which came together in the concept of urban forestry. Listing Mark’s achievements for this nomination is difficult because there have been so many. Firstly, as a teacher he has worked at various institutions, including Askham Bryan College, Writtle College and Merrist Wood College to his current position as Research Fellow at Myerscough College. Mark was the first person to try to develop higher education courses in Arboriculture, paving the way for others who finally achieved that goal. He is an inspiring teacher as all who have been in his classes will support. Secondly, Mark was the inspiration behind the development of urban forestry in Britain which, until Mark became active in the area, was thought to be an Americanism not worthy of being linked with Arboriculture. Mark dispelled that idea with the development of the Forest of London Project in 1987 and spin offs in Dublin, Cardiff and Glasgow, after which he became closely involved in the development of the “Community Forests” initiative. He wrote the first booklet that set out the “vision” for these major new forests in the urban fringe. The initiative took off and there are many examples of successful community forests in England whose plans carry statutory force as part of Unitary Development Plans (UDPs) and Local Development Frameworks (LDFs). The Mersey Forest and Red Rose Forest are two, of many, highly successful community forests. Thirdly, from the early 1990s Mark worked tirelessly to develop the Forest of Belfast Project through which he sought to not only promote urban greening in the city but also develop conflict resolution between divided communities using urban forestry as a uniting tool. The significance of this cannot be underestimated and this work contributed to his award of the MBE from Her Majesty The Queen in 2007 for services to trees and the urban environment in Britain and Northern Ireland. Fourthly, as an author Mark has contributed numerous significant and influential papers to peer-reviewed journals. He has published throughout his career and the common theme of his publications is that of trees, people, social issues and urban environmental responsibility. He has influenced many notable people who in turn saw to it that attitudes to and policies on trees and the built environment were changed and implemented. Without Mark Johnston this would not have happened.