His Majesty The King

Barcham was honoured by a private visit from His Majesty The King!

We were all very thrilled to show His Majesty The King around Barcham on Monday. The private tour included a walk through our potting barn and young tree production area and culminated with His Majesty planting an Acer platanoides Princeton Gold to mark the start of the main avenue in our newly forming arboretum. On our walk back we stopped off to see a batch of recently potted Fotheringhay Oak in 45 litre containers; we collected the acorns from this tree six years ago.

His Majesty was quick to engage in conversations with many of our staff along the way so there were many cherished memories of the day!

Plant Health Policy

Barcham Trees uses an Environmental Management System and as part of this Bio Security is a key part.

Bio Security at Barcham Trees involves the careful management of Plant Health as described below:

• To carry out a Pest Risk Analysis for the business and review annually.

• To ensure the business has designated person/s responsible for plant health, and ensure they are
adequately trained.

• To ensure the business remains up to date with all plant health legislation by close partnership with relevant parties, for example DEFRA.

• To have a system in place for the identification and quarantine of regulated pests and disease on the Nursery.

• To train all relevant staff in Plant Health best practice.

• To ensure the business has best practice in place for good husbandry standards across the Nursery.

• To ensure that all suppliers and contractors are fully aware of our Plant Health controls and follow these standards whilst working with Barcham Trees.

• To communicate with all staff the importance of Plant Health and the relevant procedures we have in place to manage good compliance.

• This policy will be signed off by the Managing Director.

• To ensure that Plant Health is part of our continual improvement cycle and is reviewed at least once per year.

The Management team recognises the value of involving all levels of staff to deliver this policy effectively. Employees will therefore participate in all stages of our Plant Health controls and will receive relevant training to enable them to fulfil their duties.

A signed copy of our Plant Health Policy can be sent on request.

COVID-19 Update 13th May 2020

Update: 13th May 2020

Further to the announced easing of lockdown this week, we be extending our delivery service, working towards resuming a more “usual” service in the weeks to come.  We are therefore starting to perform deliveries further afield and are able to work with our customers to offer combined deliveries.

In order for us to be able to safely deliver to you, you will need to consider making provisions to ensure you are able to facilitate a contactless delivery, with no paperwork.  We ask you to maintain 2m+ social distance from our drivers at all times. Please contact our sales team to discuss if you have any queries.

The process of organising and preparing deliveries is taking a little longer than usual, so please be aware that we may not always be able to keep to our expected lead times for delivery.  If you can please be patient with us we would really appreciate it.  We will get your order to you as soon as is possible and will continue to look after your trees until we deliver them to you.

The sales team are all available and working, so are happy to support you remotely in anyway that we can; technology is thankfully on our side, so we are happy to help with photos and video calling.  The nursery remains closed to visitors at this time.

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your co-operation and understanding in these difficult times.

19th March 2020

As the global crisis of COVID-19 continues to affect us all, here at Barcham Trees we continue to monitor and respond to all government advise as it is issued.

Our main priority first and foremost is to all our colleagues and customers during this difficult time and as such we have introduced measures which help to support our team and deliver for our customers to the highest standards we can.

As such we will not be allowing any customer visits to the nursery until further notice, we will still however be able to offer photos of any of our stock and we are also still operating our two websites as normal where you can view photos of all types of stock and also have access to our buy the tree you see service.

Our sales team are now all operating remotely, and it is very much business as usual for them so please feel free to contact us as usual using telephone, email or web chat.

In light of the evolving guidance from government, we have now made the decision to reduce deliveries made to our customers.  From now on you will need to contact our despatch team to see if your order can be delivered; deliveries will be subject to criteria being met in order to meet the government guidelines to protect both our delivery partners and our customers.  We plan to review this protocol in due course and are optimistic we can resume with more comprehensive delivery service after Easter 2020.

During these difficult times we remain focused on delivering the very best service we can to our customers whilst supporting our team.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Biosecurity: the inherent contradiction

Keith Sacre of Barcham Trees considers the inherent difficulty in meeting ambitious trees planting targets with limited stock..

THERE is a long-overdue focus on the planting of trees. It has become fashionable, at last, to recognise the benefits which trees provide, and encourage more tree planting across the UK and indeed mainland Europe. Politicians at both national and local level are increasingly supporting policies to stimulate and increase tree canopy cover. Please see PDF for full story

Barcham Trees gain key environmental certificate

ALI Registered Affiliate Barcham Trees have become certified with the sustainable, environmentally responsible ISO 14001:2015 standard. ISO (International Standards Organization) specifies parameters for the highest level of compliance to standards of environmental responsibility.

Based in Ely, Cambridgeshire, the business decided in early 2018 to pursue certification of ISO 14001:2015, by setting in place all relevant processes and procedures needed to satisfy the requirements of the standard.

Speaking about the certification Mike Glover, Managing Director at Barcham Trees, commented:

We have looked at all levels within our business in terms of environmental aspects and impacts and set ourselves rigorous objectives and targets such as increasing our recycling levels and reducing the use of peat.

Mike added:

This standard has also brought the business closer together. Everyone has been involved and communication within the business has become so much more inclusive and worthwhile.

Stage one was to identify all areas of the business that had an environmental impact; ranging right from suppliers through to customers. At every stage of the product life cycle, Barcham looked at the businesses impact upon the environment.

An Environmental Policy was drawn up, which included targets around the use of natural resources such as peat and water, reducing the number of harmful pesticides and formalizing our robust Bio Security Procedures, the system also focuses on improving the knowledge and engagement within the team, encouraging them to reduce their impact on the environment too.

To discuss Barcham’s ISO 14,001 certification please telephone Paul on +44(0)1353 720748 or email.

 

Aborcheck, looking beyond the visual problems with trees

Arborcheck have a released a new youtube video explaining just how the tool works. Many people can identify visual problems with trees but arborcheck is an early warning system that not all might be well.

Click HERE to view the video

Biosecurity

Landscape architects and designers are being given the opportunity to discover more about tree health, biosecurity and tree nursery practice at training days to be run by Barcham Trees at its Ely, Cambridgeshire, nursery in the summer of 2018.

Barcham’s Keith Sacre explains “We have already been approached by landscape architect and garden design practices to offer their staff continual personal development (CPD) sessions on plant health and biosecurity. The question of biosecurity is recognised as being one of the most critical issues of the moment, with the threat posed from uncontrolled importation of plant material growing exponentially. Given our position and experience, we can offer sound advice to anyone involved in the selection and use of trees in the landscape, especially regarding injudicious use of imported stock”.

The days will focus on biosecurity control measures, the impacts on production, how nursery practice can increase and maintain plant health, and what the individual specifying trees can do to reduce the risk of importing pests and diseases. To express an interest in a training day, practices are invited to e-mail Keith [email protected] All events will be free-of-charge with complimentary breakfast and lunch included. All sessions will be held at Barcham Trees’ nursery. No dates have been set yet and the number of days available will depend on demand.

biosecurity

Biosecurity

oak processionary moth