51 years of the Arboricultural Journal; a commentary

Abstract

This paper provides a brief overview of the Arboricultural Journal from its inception in 1965 until 2015, with comments on some of the main topics, and thoughts on the development of arboriculture over this time, together with the role of the journal, both now and in the future. There were 163 issues of the journal over this period, and it has not been possible to mention every single item or topic, so the comments which follow are inevitably selective, and there may be some bias towards the subjects that have been of greatest interest to the reviewer or which appear to be of particular importance.

Keywords:

• arboriculture
• silviculture
• urban forestry
• values
• management of tree populations

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Steve Coombes for comments on an earlier draft, and to two unnamed reviewers, both of whom made helpful comments, although I am not sure that I have made sufficient amendment to my original text to keep both of them completely happy. The editor of this journal has also added a number of words or comments to the text, all of which are gratefully acknowledged.