German Tree Care Conference 2025 draws positive balance

The German Tree Care Conference 2025 in Augsburg from 6 to 8 May once again impressed with a wide-ranging programme and plenty of room for practical experience. The figures for the leading European conference for tree care speak for themselves: 3,063 participants from 39 nations, 46 specialist lectures and practical demonstrations and 8,800 square metres of exhibition space for the conference-accompanying tree care trade fair.

In particular, the enlarged outdoor area and the ten metre high tower in the tree climbing forum were used by numerous participants and speakers for arboricultural demonstrations. Special mention should be made of the Fachverband Obstgehölzpflege e. V., one of this year's two specialist partners. It provided comprehensive insights into the planning and care of orchards. In theory and practice, the experts from the association demonstrated what needs to be considered when caring for large-crowned fruit trees and what requirements fruit trees have in public spaces. The second specialist partner was the European Arboricultural Council e.V. (EAC), which is responsible for European tree care training, among other things. It also promotes European cooperation in a variety of projects, which were presented at this year's conference.

The third day of the German Tree Care Conference 2025 attracted interested parties to the specialist presentations. The focus was on various pathogens that cause lasting damage to urban and street trees in particular and are a challenge for practitioners. Another topic was biodiversity, which is becoming increasingly important in Europe. 
The specialist presentations from this year's conference can be found in the Tree Care Yearbook 2025.

This year's Tree Climbing Forum was once again a meeting point and communication platform for arborists from all over the world. The practice-oriented programme was correspondingly international. On the opening day, Prof Dr Dirk Dujesiefken used a new presentation technique to address the topic of ‘Understanding tree life - wood anatomy made visible’. His lecture was flanked by two contributions from Australian tree experts. Steve Pearce spoke about Tasmania's giant trees and Sam Hardingham posed the provocative question of whether there are perhaps too many arborists for a decreasing number of trees. Professionally relevant facts and figures also attracted attention in the climbing forum. As every year, Carsten Beinhoff from the SVLFG gave a detailed overview of the accident statistics in arboriculture.

The tree care trade fair has become an attraction in its own right at the German Tree Care Conference. This year, 1,078 visitors came to the Fuggerstadt for this event alone. 168 exhibitors from Germany and abroad presented technical innovations and services relating to tree care, and the outdoor areas in particular were significantly larger than in previous years.

The dates for the German Tree Care Conference have already been set for the coming years: 5 to 7 May 2026, 4 to 6 May 2027.