Dr Mark Johnston is an independent scholar of arboriculture, landscape, and urban forestry. He has a PhD in urban forestry and is a fellow of the professional bodies for arboriculture, forestry and horticulture. During a recent visit to New Zealand and Australia, he took time to discuss arboriculture past, present, and future with The Australian Arbor Age magazine.
With over 50 years’ experience in the tree world, including working as a tree surgery contractor, tree officer in local government, consultant in private practice, government adviser, and university academic, the likable Mark Johnston has seen some big changes since he first worked in and around trees in the early 1970s.
“I started in 1973 as a forestry worker,” he said in a voice made husky by recent speaking engagements. “Then I discovered this thing called ‘tree surgery’. When I left the Forestry Commission, I set myself up as a self-employed contractor. After dabbling in tree surgery, I had the chance to attend Merrist Wood College in Surrey, England, which was the only place teaching arboriculture and tree surgery at that time.
“That’s when my career really took off. I qualified as a tree surgeon and went on from there.”
Momentum
As his studies progressed, Mark found each qualification he earned set him up to qualify even further, and he pursued an academic career.
“Eventually, after many years, I did my doctorate,” he said. “I worked pretty much full time on the doctorate research from 1994 to 1998, and I financed my study by working part-time as a fundraiser for a housing charity and the British Red Cross.”
Mark’s academic career is marked with some considerable milestones. In the 13 years he spent commuting between his home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Myerscough College in Lancashire, England, he was involved in launching the first Bachelor of Science, and then Masters, degree in arboriculture and forestry. He was also involved in developing the world’s first online degree courses in arboriculture.
“That was some breakthrough,” he said. “People from all over the world studied remotely with us at degree level.”
Recognition
During his career, Mark developed several urban greening initiatives in Britain and Ireland, most notably with city-wide projects in London, Dublin, Cardiff, Glasgow, and Belfast. He acted as consultant to the Countryside Commission and Forestry Commission in the development of the national program for the Community Forests Initiative, which created 12 new forests on the fringes of major cities in England. He was the main author of a UK government report on urban trees in England, and went on to lecture or advise on projects in the United States, Canada, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and various European countries.
After decades of working with trees and their effects on society, Mark’s specialty is community engagement with urban greening at a policy or strategic level.
“It’s the nuts and bolts of working with people,” he said.
“I did some pioneering research back in 2008 with a government study called Trees in Towns II. I correlated canopy cover with the indices of multiple deprivation. It was later picked up by American Forests in the US and developed into ‘The Tree Equity Score’ to show local authorities the priority areas, and it’s since been picked up by the Woodland Trust in Britain and developed into the Tree Equity Score UK.
“I think this goes to the roots of urban forestry.
“I’ll quote myself from an early paper: ‘The aim of urban forestry is to improve the welfare of urban residents. The planting and care of trees is a means to an end, not an end in itself’.”
The value of Mark’s work has been acknowledged worldwide, but an MBE must’ve been a high point, even for one so awarded.
“The MBE was in recognition of my work in the development of urban forestry in Britain and Northern Ireland,” he said. “But the citation particularly mentioned my cross-community work in Belfast where I managed to bring people together across the community divide.”
Measured thoughts
With decades of dedication and experience, we asked what developments Mark had been most and least impressed with during his time in arboriculture.
“The good things have included big advances in technology,” he said.
“When I started out it was all pretty basic. But when you look at today’s mapping tools and high-tech gear available in arboriculture, it’s amazing how it’s come on.
“Linked to that has been greater attention to health and safety. I’m quite horrified at some of the things we used to do in the old days.
“Another good thing is there’s a lot more public recognition of our industry. Although the term ‘arboriculture’ isn’t that widely understood, a lot more people are aware of what an arborist is.
“The other thing I think that has catapulted us forward is the concept of urban forestry. Arboriculture tended to focus on the individual tree or small groups of trees, but the idea of the total management of the urban forest resource, and recognition of the environmental, social and economic benefits of urban trees, has moved to a new level.”
There were also aspects of arboriculture Mark felt hadn’t been so positive.
“We’ve been a bit slow to develop higher-level courses,” he said thoughtfully. “We do have degree-level courses now. We’ve taken arboriculture from a craft occupation to being a profession. In my area of operation, Britain and Ireland, I wish it had happened a lot sooner. It took a bloody long time and a lot of work to bring it up to that level.
“One of the good spin-offs from that is that there are now a lot more women in our industry.
“When I started out there were virtually no women in arboriculture at any level. But as we developed degree-level courses at Myerscough College, a lot more women signed up. They weren’t required to become proficient in chainsaw use and tree climbing. They learned an appreciation of those things, but proficiency wasn’t a requirement for a degree-level qualification.”
Local knowledge. Global outlook
Mark’s visit was his first to Australia and New Zealand. He was thoroughly enjoying the Blue Mountains of NSW and, as we spoke to him, was eager to visit Tasmania.
We asked if he had any thoughts on arboriculture for Australian practitioners.
“First of all, globally our towns and cities are becoming less green. Various studies are showing that. We need to get our act together, and governments need to get their acts together. If we’re going to be serious about green cities in the future, we need to start working on it, because in many ways we’re going
backwards,” he said.
“We also need to work on our industry’s image to show we’re tree experts. We don’t just cut down trees. We’re about urban forestry and urban greening and we link arboriculture to a wider greening agenda. We all need to embrace that as an industry and show we’re part of the solution, not part of the problem.
“Linked to that is we still have a big carbon footprint for what is a relatively small industry. I’m delighted some important strides are being made by many companies in that direction and it has to be encouraged. The use of electric equipment and vehicles should be embraced.”
A highlight
After what has been a rewarding life in arboriculture and academia, we asked Mark for a single high point of which he felt most proud.
The answer came back immediately and without hesitation.
“The promotion of urban forestry.
“I was lucky enough to be on the ground floor in the mid- to late-1970s when the international urban forestry movement was taking off, and I knew some of the key people. I was in touch with Erik Jorgensen, the guy who coined the term around the concept.
“I’ve been pushing urban forestry for 50 years and it’s great. Things like the honour of giving the keynote address at the 2025 ISA conference in New Zealand, looking at the past, present, and future of the international urban forestry movement…all that has been
wonderful. It really was a buzz.”
Mark’s books and publications, including his free autobiography e-book Planting Ideas in the Urban Forest, are available at markjohnstontrees.com.
