Sharon: I run my own consultancy practice - Sharon Hosegood Associates Ltd, based in Chelmsford. We provide services to the construction industry, large landowners, pressure groups and I practise as an expert witness. I am also involved with a community tree project for Epping Forest District Council. I work with Lloyd Bore with the new TreeRadar. Having my own practice has given me more freedom to try new things. Alternatively, how many female arborists have heard 'Surely you’re not going to be lifting/climbing/cutting that?!' Sometimes harassment and discrimination at work come from clientele and the wider community. Simply by association, it may alter their perceptions.

Ans: The poet did not mention the departure of the forest from her house because it is a part of human nature to ignore the important matters of their life. We all know that trees are so important for our survival on earth. But still human beings are cutting them for making profits without even thinking of the aftermath. Lisa: What are some of the challenges you faced in establishing yourself within the tree care industry?Lisa: You are well liked, respected and appreciated by both members of the LTOA and non-members. What are the secrets to your success? I had difficulties at college convincing some of my tutors that I wanted to pursue a career in the private sector. I think that there was an assumption then that I'd take up a public sector position once qualified and experienced but I really wanted to be working independently.

A competition climber since 2008, Bo travels internationally to compete with women from all over the world and with the exception of a small break, averages five competitions annually. Tree climbing competitions and championships are held internationally and there are a growing number of competitions, competitors and spectators every year. The first competition I ever watched was nearly 20 years ago and there was only one female competitor. Of course she came top of her class! She was impressive, strong and fast, perhaps appearing even more so as she was brave enough to go solo when women entering tree climbing competitions were a rarity. If I knew her name, I would properly salute her true pioneering skills.This year 20 female competitors entered the ISA International Tree Climbing Championship (ITCC) in San Antonio, Texas, compared to 44 male competitors. Things are certainly changing. Nowadays, women are more comfortable competing in what can still be considered a male-dominated industry, and women are also more accepted in that role than 20 years ago. 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. 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.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?

The main aim of the event is to provide an opportunity for the growing women in arboriculture community to share experiences, ideas, projects and to spark further initiatives which hope to encourage greater diversity within the sector. In my experience, some of the most successful and content people are multi-disciplined. That is, they have knowledge and experience of areas outside of arboriculture that can be used to complement their urban tree management role. This brings value to their roles as employees, employers and urban tree managers. It may be conservation, forestry, horticulture, landscape design, planning, geology, engineering, construction, physiotherapy or other complementary disciplines. Support International Women's Day: You can find out more about International Women's Day and the #PressforProgress campaign here: www.internationalwomensday.com/ . Explanation of the Poem– Her head is full of the slow sounds made by the trees which are desperate to move out. These sounds will not be heard the next day. The poet asks the reader to listen carefully as a change is about to take place. She hears the glass window breaking and the trees stumble out into the night. The wind is blowing outside. It meets the trees. The moon is like a mirror and it appears to have been broken into pieces as the shadow of the oak tree divides the moon into many fragments. 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.Women in Trees made us happy—and hungry for more. So Hatje Cantz asked the obsessive collector Raiss if he might have some more of “the goods,” and he did. He has, after all, spent 25 years searching for and finding anonymous masterpieces such as these, which is why we now have More Women in Trees: how can you possibly get enough of them?

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.Teachers love questions (and answers). Lisa Sanderson is a Training Developer and Lecturer for The Training Tree and an Arboricultural Consultant for Ian Keen Ltd. 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. I grew up in the south of England during the height of the Dutch elm disease epidemic in the mid-1970s and saw hundreds of majestic trees die. We lived in a house affected by subsidence after the 1976 drought and during that year we lost a sycamore to sooty bark. All these events happened while I was still in primary school but it had a big impact on me and made me acutely aware of the value of trees. Some of the photographs were taken when Germany was the roiling epicenter of World War II. Some of the women in them probably hailed Hitler. Some probably died in concentration camps. But for those moments suspended in the branches above the current of their epoch, islanded in space and time, they shared something singular and lovely, united in a sisterhood of sylvan joy. The exhibition will also celebrate the contribution of the WWII Lumberjills: a group of women who played a vital role in maintaining the supply of timber during the Second World War. People who have pictures of working Lumberjills from WWII are also invited to submit their pictures for display at the forthcoming exhibition.