Katherine Holden, about to turn 70, will soon undertake her project CLIMBING TREES AT SEVENTY-One Woman’s Quest to Save Wild Trees. Holden began tree climbing at 69, and will climb in eight endangered forests worldwide to experience, explore and share with audiences the splendors of and threats to each forest. Through writings, photographs and video, she will let the forests inform the world of their beauty and bio-diversity and why we need to protect them, for the sake of all life, everywhere.

Tree Boat Time Lapse from Drew Fulton on Vimeo.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Tree climbing is no longer kids’ stuff. With the right equipment and training, a killer view (and workout) can be yours.

…

“Rec” tree climbing has its heroes, like Peter “Treeman” Jenkins and his wife, Patty, who established Tree Climbers International, the activity’s primary organization. It has its Boswells, like the author Richard Preston, whose book “The Wild Trees”—an ascent into the world’s tallest trees—was a result of Mr. Preston’s own interest in climbing. It has its Einsteins, like Margaret Lowman, who pioneered the science of canopy research, and calls the vast realm of tree tops the “eighth continent.”

Read more

DC Randle explores the Amazon Rainforest canopy and talks about what made him want to become a biologist, what he tells his students and what he likes best about the rainforest canopy.

May 2011 – Tree climbing class from NC Museum of Natural Sciences and NC State University biology department under a giant willow oak after the first climb!

(click image to enlarge)

TROPICAL TREE CLIMBING

Amazon Tree Climbing Expedition – 7 Days/6 Nights

Jan. 16th- 22nd 2011

­Come join us into the rooftop of world’s largest forest!

Have a passion for nature? Have desire for adventure? Looking for that next exotic getaway out of the norm? Then we welcome you to become part of our Amazon Tree Climbing Expedition.

Drift the rivers, wander the trails, explore the canopy.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to explore, adventure and ascend into some of that last truly wild places on earth.
For more information-
http://www.tropicaltreeclimbing.com
or
contact – Tim Kovar with New Tribe / Tree Climbing Northwest -
email: treekster@mac.com

The unofficial but sanctioned 2010 JTCC report:

The 2010 Japan Tree Climbing Championship was a tremendous success!

IIDA City was a great host city. The climbing and level of technique and skills of climbers were superb and the support of sponsors, judges, technical staff was wonderful. The news coverage and media support was fantastic. 6 major newspapers covered the event as well as TV and radio support plus news coverage. Over 47 volunteers and total of almost 300 spectators and participants for two days it was a huge success.

The Vice-Mayor of IIDA attended the Championships as did politicians and Mr. Hayashi the Head of the Hanin Foresty Cooperation. The Prizes offered from our Sponsor were a big hit. Each prize included an explanation and brought cheers from spectators and Climbers.

The Japan Tree Climbing Championships were organized and produced by Dr. John Gathright Chubu University and Founder of Tree Climbing Japan and ISA Liaison. The Championships were presented by Tree Climbing Japan with special support from ISA and ITCC.

The Championships would not have been possible without the help and dedication of the Tree Climbing Japan and JAA-ATT head trainers and Judges, volunteers and support staff. We are grateful to all 47 volunteers for your help and support. Mr. Goto was our professional tree top video camera man and Mr. Ogiso was responsible for the posters and printed materials. Mr. Ando translation of ISA ITCC rules and Summary’s was much appreciated

Mr. Hara the president of Bungobayashi Landscape and his team not only negotiated the use of the park but spent countless hours and effort of tree work, landscaping and beautification so that the park was much more beautiful and safe after the Tree Climbing Championship. IIDA city is very grateful for beautiful park and recommend us to other city but also would like us do championship in IIDA for 2011.

Mr. Hideki Kawajiri offered his time and expertise as the Head Judge and Assistant to Overall Head Judge and ISA Liaison Dr. John Gathright. The judges. Mr. Watanabe, Mr. Morita, Mr. Ando, Mr. Nobuhara and the JAA-ATT members also gave hours and hours of their time for judging and set up.

The Championship squedual was organized for introduction of ISA and explanation of ITCC rules and regulations. There were also special CEU classes done by Dr. John Gathright on Safety positioning and Hazard trees with assistance from Hideki Kawajiri. Mr. Kawajiri is expert on trees and fungi gave a very informational and interesting speech on Ancient trees, and Tree Culture as well. This is total for 6 CEU’s.

The Championship was collage of traditions and culture, climbing techniques and fun. The Championship was great venue for an international exchange of ideas techniques and worldwide vision for arboriculture.

The Tree Climbing Championship as included some exciting traditional Japanese ceremonies as well as ISA and ITCC rules, regulations and introduction. The Special letter from ISA Jim Skiera and Derek Vannice were also translate and read at the opening and appreciated by everyone.

Special to Japan was a Purification and Respect to the Trees and Nature Gods to protect the climbers. Mr. Hara also arrange to have a Troupe of SHISHIMAE Japanese Traditional Dragon/Lion dancing bless the Championships and bite the heads of the Organizers.

A special Rescue demo was also included to explain how ISA stresses safety for trees and people. Rescue in the Trees is not taught in Japan and was of great interest to all. GRCS was also very interesting and lots of inquiry after demo. We are positive about testing results of this product.

The 2010 Champion of the Master Climb was last year’s champion Mr. Takahashi second place was Mr. Ujita . Mr. Ujita had the top score and a considerable lead for all of the preliminary events but placed second in the Masters. He will be attending the 2010 ITCC in Chicago with Mr. Takahashi this year as assistant to Dr. John Gathright.

All of the Climbers and Organizers will be taking a rest for a few days before the official website and Video will be produced and distributed to Climbers.

Will there be a JTCC in 2011? We sure hope so! Rumor has it that Dr. John is strongly considering it and that there a few cities that have offered their parks. The unofficial guess is that there will be so everyone please start early to get ready for 2011 JTCC. Mr. Takahashi don’t rest easy because there are many hungry and talented climbers ready for the next challenge.

Oh By the Way the area where the Championship was held will be re-named the “TREE CLIMBING PARK” by the City of IIDA to honor Tree Climbing Japan and all of the members. Thank you very much for all of your efforts.

For photos and details from the event, view this PDF.

Danté Fenolio was part of the science team for the latest expedition to the canopy walkway in the Amazon with the New College students. He has two recent blog posts that contain some great images taken during the trip.  His blog posts are here:

• The ACTS Canopy Walkway
• More Bioluminescence

Edward Morrell is looking for opportunities to use his skills as an arborist and tree climber for the purpose of scientific research. If you can help, please contact him. He writes:

As an arborist I have developed an affinity with the environment. Due to current environmental concern I would like to transfer my skills in order to aid scientific research. Through my industry I have developed an in depth knowledge of aerial access and rigging techniques to enter the canopy of trees. The demands of arboriculture have enabled me to adeptly maneuver to all areas of a trees canopy. A future in academia and the opportunity to learn is an appealing and motivating prospect. If you require someone with my training and would like more information my contact details are:

Name : Edward Morrell
Address : 21 Sandy Close
Petersfield
Hampshire
U.K
GU31 4HF
E-mail : edewok@yahoo.co.uk
Tel : 0044 1730264957

Tree Training in Smith Woods 

Another great fall day in the hometown Smith Woods. Huge trees. I swear the trunks are actually ancient pre-internet-age monsters that ate up the early settlers, as they are FAT, perhaps housing hundreds of bodies..
We taught a two day tree-climbing training this weekend for future tree-instructors at COE. The first day we went over access and rope climbing. The second day: high-angle exploration…at it’s best! It was quite cool. Fall weather, 100 off the deck

101 Urban Tree Climbs

From Ginkgo to Elm, from street-side to urban forest style, from 3 to 80′ tall, Eric Tartter and Dave Katz achieved their first urban tree climbing expedition: free climb more than 100 trees in one day!

Starting around 10am and climbing continuously until around 5PM, we challenged our climbing techniques, strength and endurance. We climbed with no ropes, or harnesses, and mostly stayed less than 20 feet of the ground. There were some falls, but mainly just sore muscles and shredded skin.

In an attempt to inspire a connection with trees and urban-type-natural areas, Eric and I set out to climb 100 different trees in Manhattan.  We figured that since there approximately 1 billion people in the city this time of year, we could share the love and respect for trees with a lot of people, just by climbing up and hanging out in the branches. We started out climbing up some street-side Lindens, but by the time we got to central park, Eric decided to kick it up a notch on a Chestnut Oak. While previously we climbed trees with lots of branches, Eric started employing rock climbing techniques and scaling up the trunks of numerous trees: bouldering style. For a few of the trees, I stood at the base pondering his amazing strength and abilities…unable to repeat his moves with my huge boots!!

Around tree # 35 (English Elm) Eric wanted a harder challenge. He found hard “problems” on some London Plane trees and worked the sequences of the moves until he sat high in the crown of the trees. Unfortunately for me, I had to follow suit in huge winter boots! It wasn’t until tree #73 (Red Oak) that the police tried to stop us by attempting to guilt-trip us “This Isn’t wilderness, this is A man-made Park” and “Only Children Climb Trees…” For the following three trees we were a little discouraged, but by #80 the spirit was revived. # 80-88 was all trees that hung over the frozen pond near the Brambles in central park, key word “Don’t fall!” 90-95 were tall white pines with a billion of ladder-rung-type branches that were easily climbed to 35 feet. By tree 100 I was sufficiently tired but Eric pulled off a hard sequence of moves on an Elm tree. I almost feel out of the tree, completely exhausted, but managed to hang on. 

The trees we could identify: Red Oak, Chestnut Oak, English Elm, Ginkgo, White Pine, Red Pine, Hawthorne, White Ash, Crabapple, American Beech, Red Maple, Sweet Gum, London Plane tree, Black Locust, Little Leaf Linden, Black Cherry, and Sweet Birch.

Although we’ve climbed almost all of the species before, the individuals in central park had unique characteristics and some interesting blundering opportunities. I think a handbook to tree climbing in central park is on the horizon…