John Nicholson

John Nicholson is a Fellow of the Arboricultural Association and provides CGD with an expert source of specialist advice in the areas of tree planting, woodland management and ecology. Qualifying with an HND in Aboriculture & Urban Woodland Management, John worked with Eamonn Wall & Co between 1995-1998 as a woodland consultant, progressing to Co-Director before setting up his current company, John Nicholson Associates. Since then, he has worked on over 400 golf courses, giving advice on trees and woodlands, conservation management and habitat restoration. John has always been aware of the need for specialist advice and has therefore recruited the help of ecologists Mike Edwards & Barry Anderson to assist in habitat creation and management.

John has written articles on arboriculture and urban woodland management for Golf Management Europe, Greenkeeper International, The Golf Club Secretary, Bunkered Golf Magazine, Golf Club Management, Golf News International, Horticulture Week and Through the Green (the magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society).

During his career John has undertaken the design, planting and maintenance of over 500,000 trees in golfing landscape and has successfully gained grants for over 200 clients for both the establishment and management of woodland. John has been involved in a large number of habitat restoration projects which has involved removing trees from inappropriate sites such as heathland and links, including work for The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in preparation for the 2001 Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes. He has worked with English Nature and the RSPB on numerous sites where the land has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest or Special Area of Conservation, and restored habitats including projects at Trevose in Cornwall, Seacroft, Lincolnshire, Southport & Ainsdale, The Seafton Coast Project and Wimbledon Common.

John is a registered consultant with ADAS, The National Forest, and is a Member of the Forestry Commission Liaison Group and Houghall College's Arboricultural Industry Liaison Group. John has written a number of articles for magazines including Greenkeeper International, The Golf Club Secretary and Bunkered Golf Magazine and has given lectures at BTME at Harrogate, The London Tree Forum, The English Golf Union Road Show and the North-West Conference for the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association at Mere, as well as County Golf Unions and other associated bodies.

John's philosophy is simple:-

'On established layouts, it is essential to maintain the 'genius loci' of the landscape and our management prescriptions always reflect this. The character of a course can often be changed unintentionally through lack of management, i.e. regeneration blocking scenic views, infringing on play or by woodland encroaching onto an inappropriate site such as a heathland or links course, where the natural ecology which attracted golf in the first instance will be destroyed.

Woodland management and conservation are often the bottom of the list of priorities for golf club committees as it is often mistakenly thought that the environment will manage itself. Unfortunately this is not the case and it should be noted that there is a great difference between conservation and preservation. You cannot preserve a landscape or golf course as it is a living entity and will naturally change over time. You can however conserve it in a desirable state by management'.