Tree Safety

Tree Safety – As a tree owner or occupier of land on which trees grow you have a responsibility (or duty) to act in a prudent manner to prevent your trees causing reasonably foreseeable harm to people or property.

We offer advice independent of any tree surgery business, this is founded on academic and technical qualification allied to more than 20 years experience of tree hazard and risk management covering highways, including motorways and trunk road networks, local authorities, estates, private schools and home owners.

This forms a key part of an internationally recognised method for tree inspection known as Visual Tree Assessment (VTA) and is widely considered to be the standard method for the determination of tree condition. VTA describes a general approach to tree surveying carried out from ground level based upon published work by Mattheck and Breloer (1994) which assists the experienced tree surveyor to interpret the “body language” of trees through a systematic process of visual examination considering a tree’s overall appearance including vitality, defects, signs or symptoms.

VTA enables the surveyor to draw conclusions about tree condition and the potential risk for failure at the time of inspection, or may justify the requirement for further investigation (detail inspection / aerial inspection) in cases where more information is required to help with interpretation.

The scope of  inspection will need to be appropriate to the size of the survey area and the site context – we offer comprehensive survey type which covers inspection and reporting on all significant trees / tree groups or, negative reporting survey type which covers inspection but reporting only for trees requiring remedial work / further investigation / monitoring.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

We provide you with a report to document the survey and risk assessment process and risk reduction recommendations in order to demonstrate you have taken reasonable steps to identify the risk of harm posed by your trees.

It may be necessary to obtain additional information on a tree’s condition to justify its retention,  removal or management. We are able to offer use of the following techniques to better understand the extent of cavities or wood decay.

Comparative soundings: use of a mallet to aid an experienced surveyor to interpret sound changes associated with reduced wood density / hollowing.

Measuring probe: use of a probe to measure the extent of cavities / wood softening.

Resistograph: a calibrated instrument comprising a fine needle like drill which measures the wood’s resistance to penetration and torque to depths of up to 300 – 500mm; results are represented on a graph. The graph can be interpreted to better understand wood condition or presence and extent of cavities.

In some cases, it may not be possible to identify or fully assess the significance of tree defects signs or symptoms from a ground level inspection. In such cases we are able to arrange aerial inspection and reporting to improve the accuracy of risk evaluation.

Land owners may require a longer term over view of their trees to better understand the benefits / potential risk associated with factors including species, age, impact of climate change and susceptibility to pest & disease.  This information may be used to direct and prioritise operations for tree removal, tree management and re stocking on a strategic level. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

We have a proven track record of providing cost effective support to assist local authorities and highway authorities with their work load. Whether that be tree safety inspections, tree condition survey and data capture using Ezytreev software or detail tree inspection – please contact us to discuss your requirements.