Simon Pryce is an independent Arboriculturalist. He graduated from the University College of North Wales, Bangor in 1977 with an Honours degree in Forestry. At the time there were few jobs available in conventional Forestry and his rock climbing and mountaineering experience led him to work in Arboriculture, initially as a tree surgeon based in Scotland. Since then he was had a varied career, working with trees throughout the British Isles, Ireland and the USA. He joined the Arboricultural Association in 1980 and was elected a Fellow in 1989. He was on their list of approved contractors while working as a contract manager for Southern Tree Surgeons and has been on their Register of Consultants since 1992. He is a Chartered Forester, Chartered Biologist and Chartered Environmentalist. From 1993 he was an Arboricultural Inspecting Officer for Tree Preservation Order Appeals, retained by the Department of the Environment and its successors. In 2008 this was taken over by the Planning Inspectorate and he has continued as one of their Inspectors. He is an Associate of Treework Environmental Practice, a multi disciplinary practice based near Bristol. He contributed to Principles of Tree Hazard Assessment and Management by Dr David Lonsdale, published by DETR in 1999, and currently the leading work on this subject. He is the Arboricultural Association’s representative on BSI Committee B/213 revising British Standard 3998 – Recommendations for Treework and BS 5837, Tree in Relation to Construction.   Click for larger image Between 1999 and 2006 he was the lead assessor for the Arboricultural Association's Registered Consultant scheme and was an examiner for the Professional Diploma in Arboriculture when run by the Royal Forestry Society.