Botanic Garden Meise has over 3.000 trees in collection and many more in the woodland areas. Although the Botanic Garden only moved to Meise in 1939, many trees were planted long before that year. Historic notes, although few, make note about century old oaks, limes, beeches and elms possibly planted during the late 17th century. The oldest trees still remaining are presumably from around the late 18th or early 19th century.
In order to sustain the lives of these ancient and historic trees, it is vital that the trees and land around them are properly cared for. The aim of managemental activities should be to keep trees alive for as long as possible, without causing safety issues for visitors. It is necessary to clearly identify actual and potential threats of old trees in order to enable appropriate management.
Visual inspection of all trees is performed each year. An initial risk assessment is made for older trees and those trees portraying some health issues. By this we determine the health status of the trees. Crown, branches, foliage, trunk and roots are evaluated. Also fungi and possible diseases are observed and identified, and their possible effect on the tree is estimated. Another challenge is e.g. the compaction of rooting area caused by pedestrian or vehicular traffic. Every year these ‘care trees’ are re-evaluated.
A first inspection of a tree is done by one of our gardeners trained to perform these health checks. After his first risk assessment a second inspection is carried out by the collection management team. Ultimately, a decision is made about the action to be taken. Each action to be undertaken gets a certain priority from ‘not urgent’ to ‘high priority/urgency’. Actions are: (1) ‘do nothing’, (2) further (professional) investigation is needed, (3) pruning is necessary (4) eliminate tree or (5) other action (e.g. decompaction of the soil). In the case of pruning it should always be considered to spread the work over a number of years, since this minimises the pruning wounds created. Elimination is only considered when a tree poses safety issues for the visitors or staff.