BOOK REVIEW:
Planting Ideas in
the Urban Forest
Autobiography of a Tree Expert
by Mark Johnston • reviewed by Ian McDermott
Many readers may know Dr Mark Johnston as
a pioneer in arboriculture and urban forestry not only
in Britain and Ireland, but internationally. I've known
Mark for a long time but I didn't know all the similarities
between us—beyond a love for trees—until he released
his autobiography. For starters, Mark has a brother called
Ian, we both have a daughter called Charlotte, and we've
both had a dog called Prince. It was meaningful and
entertaining to read his story and see the many types of
connections we share, both personal and professional.
When I came into the arboriculture world, slightly
later than Mark, he was flourishing during the Peter
Bridgeman era in the 1970s, a time when I knew the
names of all those twentieth-century innovators in
British arboriculture and forestry. We now have the
chance to meet these people through Mark's eyes,
and to get to know the many facets of Mark himself.
I can proudly say that Birmingham—my home city—
and the Black Country towns in England's West
Midlands were collectively one of three centres of
the emerging urban forestry movement in Britain
in the 1980s, along with Mark's Forest of London
Project and Northern Planners in Scotland.
Ian McDermott has been
a leading figure in British
arboriculture and urban for-
estry for many years. He
is a founding member of
Birmingham TreePeople.
Based in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, Dr Mark Johnston
MBE, FArborA (Hon),
FCIHort, FICFor is an
independent scholar of
arboriculture, landscape,
and urban forestry.
Mark Johnston's free e-book, Planting Ideas in the Urban
Forest: Autobiography of a Tree Expert, can be downloaded
at: www.markjohnstontrees.com. It's Mark's way of saying
'thank you' for fifty glorious years in the tree world.
28 CityTREES
