Women in Trees

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You know, I don’t know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it?” writes Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Idiot. Perhaps this sentence might explain the subject of women in trees that was so popular between the 1920s and ‘50s and has until now never before been assembled in a book. The enthusiastic collector Jochen Raiss discovered this motif during his flea market excursions. These photographs feature young women at dizzying heights who, at times, smile into the camera as if they were in love. The publication assembles the finds from this charming genre that Raiss compiled over a period of 25 years. Whether the women are cheerfully dangling their legs, casually nestling in the branch forks or athletically climbing to the treetop, each picture has its own story to tell. I would like to continue to work as I do now, providing advice to a small number of clients who I have come to know well over the years. I would also like to learn more about landscape history and incorporate this into my work if possible. Favourite tree? To be fair, we need to be putting a positive spin on arboriculture for both young men and young women. Dedicated professionals internationally offer talks and displays in schools to encourage the next generation into arboriculture. It is about recruiting the right people into the right environments and not about the right gender. More recently, tree conservation is justified through ecosystem services. These services, however, are translated into a universal language through their monetisation; the maintenance and protection of the tree are justified only to the extent that they allow a direct or indirect "gain" for the human community. In an industry in which the technical knowledge necessary for the good management of trees is now available, it is now necessary to take an ethical step: to give dignity to the trees and to ensure compliance with and respect for them, regardless of their relationship with humans.

I think it’s quite important to keep up with the theoretical side of things because, although I like it, I don’t want to be climbing intensely like this forever. I’d like to think that I could progress and get a better position with time. They point to guidance such as the Education and Employers Taskforce (EET), the 'Inspiring Women' campaign and the Women’s Business Council. Well, things are improving, but does more need to be done? Even still, all these women, nearly a century ago, sitting in trees like the boys they never were are riveting. Hanging upside down or sitting on a branch extending over a river, many look euphoric, including one in the first volume perched alarmingly in a cactus. In the second volume, two women sipping beers together in a small tree appear as relaxed in their bower as if they were lounging in the living room of the house behind them. Other women in the photographs look uneasy about straddling a branch in a hitched-up skirt, annoyed at having to endure the rough bark against their bare legs. In one image, the male photographer is standing close enough for his long shadow to fall eerily over the trunk of the tree, a shadow as large as the woman herself. What’s fascinating about viewing so many amateur images of the same curious phenomenon is the chance to guess from the women’s expressions and gestures what this fleeting moment of mischievousness a few feet off the ground meant to them, if it meant anything at all. From the Development Woodland Officer Programme to the Forestry Training Fund, the Forestry Commission hosts accessible and valuable resources to help people build and diversify their skills in forestry, offering training in essential skills”.

As I flipped through ninety photographs of well-dressed German women posing in trees for men, the subtle differences in their gestures and expressions became increasingly potent and compelling. What did they shrug off and accept, and what did they question? Did the two women in floral dresses posing in a fallen tree’s large and twisted roots come into adulthood while Hitler was in power? One of them is smiling winsomely for whoever is behind the camera. But the other has turned her face away. Her gaze is solemn and fixed on something in the distance that remains beyond the frame. I found my middle-year college placement quite tough; I had been accepted on the BTEC diploma course at Merrist Wood with previous experience in the nursery industry, combined with a short course in climbing, so my first year at college was a bit of a challenge. I hadn't really mastered climbing, needed to develop my skills further and often felt way behind the lads on my course. Explanation of the Poem: The poet says that the trees are moving out of the confines of the houses, into the open forest. This is unrealistic as trees are immovable and hence, we realize that the poem has a symbolic meaning. We interpret that trees refer to females who have healed themselves and are ready to move out of their homes, into the forests to fulfil their primary purpose of filling the world with mankind. Further she adds that the forest has been empty for the past many days and so, no birds can be seen as they do not have any trees to sit on, on insects can be seen as they do not have any shelter and the Sunlight cannot form any shadows. The forest of humanity has remained empty for many days but will soon be full and bright. Arboriculture or Urban Forestry is relatively young industry. Traditionally many people started their careers working on the tools, then progressing into local authority work as a Tree Officer or by going into private consultancy. As the industry has grown and the importance of trees has become more widely known, so has the variety of roles available.

Sharon: In the late 1980s I had a poor perception of what arboriculture was and focused on landscape design in my local authority role. Without the guidance and support of tree officers at Essex County Council, I would have been directionless. As my career progressed, I am indebted to prominent individuals in the industry for believing in me. I had low self-esteem due to being a full-time mum for so long and due to my slight dyslexia. I had poverty of expectation of what I could achieve which was blown away when I went into private practice in 2005. A woman stands on stumps of chopped branches, one knee raised and a hand behind her head, in a pose more suited to a swimwear shoot on the beach. She’s looking away from the camera, not quite in the tree but perched uncomfortably on the edges of it. It looks like some kind of pine tree, spiky and unforgiving. When asked what advice she would give to women entering or trying to progress within our industry, Arboricultural Association Registered Consultant Lesley Adams gave these words of wisdom: A glamourous woman reclines on a long, low branch reaching out over a river or lake. She is partly obscured by leaves. Her feet are bare and she wears a big smile, as if she is what she’s doing is thrilling and spontaneous. But there’s something odd about the angle of her elbow – a forced relaxedness, and her hand is cupping the tree as if for support. Idra Novey is an award-winning poet and translator and the author of the novels Ways to Disappear and Those Who Knew , which is forthcoming in November.Some claimed she had been a German spy while others wrote books and Simon Holt wrote an opera about her. The verdict of an inquest into the death was "murder by person or persons unknown" but police investigations ended up at a dead end. Do we need our own groups? Are we causing more problems than we are solving by segregating genders? There are issues specific to female arborists, e.g. wearing men’s PPE and dealing with gender-related discrimination and harassment. Many do not feel comfortable talking about this in front of male colleagues, so it is reassuring to have somewhere to go for constructive advice. Newcomers need support and inspiration. If women require this from female peers, then these wider support networks provide a valuable service and increase professionalism by instilling confidence, motivation and diversity. How do we attract more females into arboriculture? Do we need to? Kirsty studied an NVQ Level 3 in Arboriculture and Forestry and now spends the majority of her days climbing or working on the ground as part of a team taking care of trees on behalf of South Tyneside Council. Katherine Mansfield also saw a potential malignancy in trees, describing them as mysterious forms that ‘might have claws instead of roots.’ This contrasts with Virginia Woolf’s description of Septimus Smith’s rapturous oneness with the trees in Regent’s Park: ‘…the leaves were alive; trees were alive. And the leaves being connected by millions of fibres with his own body, there on the seat…’ This Modernist implication of ourselves in the perceived object echoes much earlier representations of women and trees in mythology and folklore. Many of these stories contain a transformation, blurring the distinctions between gods, humans and trees.

Although this has been slowly changing, with many more women proving that working with trees is not just for men, there is still much work to be done to help improve the current numbers and make it a more attractive career prospect for women. Their mute, defiant delight seems to be saying, “My grandmother was jailed for wearing trousers but I can win the Nobel Prize in Physics”; seem to be saying, “My mother could not vote but my daughter can be chancellor”; seem to be saying, “I can go as high as I please, damned be gravity and grace, so I can peer at broader horizons.” In recent years, in Italy, attempts have been made to restore an equal relationship between trees and humans in anthropic contexts, based on the adoption of decalogues for the protection of trees inspired by the principle of contracting: tree specimens are welcomed in cities because of the ecological, environmental, aesthetic and cultural benefits that they ensure. In return, they are guaranteed inalienable rights. One of the most effective applications of this approach allows limits, opportunities and exceptions to be established during tree stability assessment campaigns by educating citizens to live together with what we call "acceptable minimum risk." The authors will present experiences that affirm the development of decalogues created in Italy. Speaker Biography Stefania Gasperini, Bo: Being self-employed, my work is very shifting and goes from doing NPTC assessments solid for a few weeks to full-on climbing the next, or a mix between the two. It also involves doing surveys, working at trade shows, running workshops or training courses and setting up and judging the 3ATC competitions. Be professional, be pragmatic in your approach and do not act in haste. You may meet narrow-minded people in your life but it doesn't necessarily mean they are sexist or that you have no place in the industry. Those people exist everywhere and you may meet them in both your working and personal life but you should just carry on, work hard and do the best you can. Make friends and always find someone to share ideas with; it's an enormous help.

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The sequel is in no way inferior to its predecessor: the unique collection of historical amateur photographs, assembled and curated by the artist Jochen Raiß, feature a phenomenon that is presented in both a humorous and loving manner: young women posing in trees. LANTRA conducted its own survey that looked at the 'hidden' workforce ('hidden' being not included in strictly tree- and timber-related businesses, e.g. councils): 'Importantly, inclusion of the hidden workforce improves the gender balance in the industry, increasing the number of women in trees and timber occupations to 19% compared to 7% identified through official statistics' (LANTRA 2011: 2). 2 I’m not saying we need to recruit more women regardless of abilities or suitability to particular roles. Statistics show women form a small percentage of the land-based workforce (ONS 2014). Some sectors (including forestry and fishing) have sample sizes of women workers too small for reliable estimates, 1 making it impossible to generate percentages for this article. In this third of a series of articles celebrating successful women who work with trees, I posed some questions to Sharon Hosegood. Sharon is a successful consulting arborist currently running her own practice in Chelmsford. Amongst other things, Sharon is an expert witness, a Chartered Arboriculturist and is actively involved in engaging communities to develop sustainable treescapes. Recently, Sharon represented modern arboriculture by demonstrating tree radar investigations on a 440-year-old oak for the BBC television programme Britain Beneath Your Feet.

Human beings relationship to nature has changed in the short turn of a few thousand years. In the past, direct dependence on the environment, whether more or less "wild" (hunting/harvesting) or "domesticated" (breeding/agriculture), required knowledge based on the understanding of rules and needs which, even if modified, govern the life of both plants and animals. Of this today very little remains; deprived of daily relevance, such knowledge and skills are now lost or in fact relegated to a residual folkloric marginality. From a cultural point of view, however, it is a process dominated by anthropocentrism. For centuries man has placed himself at the centre of creation; the animal and plant worlds, considered intrinsically "inferior" were therefore subservient to the well-being of humanity.

For a long time trees were seen as solitary organisms and were managed with little regard for their interconnected environment and associated organisms. As we now know, and as with much in life, trees are made up of an array of endosymbiotic organisms (such as mitochondria, chloroplasts and endophytic fungi) and rely on a great deal more outside of their structural confines. This reliance on others for success is a key lesson in my view and one we should be applying to our everyday work and personal lives - this interdependence extends to all of life. Along the way, I came to cherish trees not only as aerial playgrounds, but as wonders of immense poetic, philosophical, and ecological import. I enjoy the fact that I’m always active and outdoors, and that I get to climb trees for a living! Every day is different, which keeps it fresh and interesting. I’m also fortunate to be able to work with a good team of people, which is always a bonus.