As the most significant structural element in many landscapes, trees and their effective management underpin much of our work.
Our services will help you to manage trees in any environment – from private gardens, farmland and woodland, to development sites, streets and public spaces.
We also maintain close links with the contracting arborist community and can advise on suitably certified independent contractors to execute agreed plans. We can also monitor and evaluate this work if required.
Keep reading to find out how we might be able to help you.
Tree Condition & Asset Management Reports
Various statutes and regulations have established the level of duty of care required from owners or managers of land containing trees to ensure that foreseeable damage does not occur due to tree failure. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, owners or managers of commercial premises have the additional obligation to undertake regular tree surveys.
Our tree reports will help you meet your legal and moral duties. A first step is often the cataloguing of your tree assets, which can involve plotting them onto a GIS or CAD-based map, with a survey to assess their condition. This is typically followed by the development of an effective management plan that accounts for the condition and mix of trees in your care as well as the landowner’s long-term management objectives.
Arborcheck Tree Health Diagnostics
The Arborcheck system enables us to provide the most sophisticated assessment of tree health in our field. There are two parts to the equipment:
Woodland Management
With the increased focus on multi-purpose woodland, there are now many more strands to its effective management: landscape amenity value, wildlife and public access all have to be considered.
As arboricultural specialists, we have the knowledge and experience to help you protect and profit from your wooded property, and to plan for its future cost effectively.
Pest & Disease Management
Our plant health surveying work for the Forestry Commission has kept us at the forefront of developments in the area of pest and disease management.
We are therefore well placed to help you manage your stock and plan for potential problems as effectively as possible.
QTRA Safety Inspections
The Quantified Tree Risk Assessment (QTRA) system applies proven risk management principles to tree safety management. Instead of focusing solely on a surveyor’s descriptive assessment of a tree’s condition, it takes into account its condition plus its value and risk to the site and the users of that site, then numerically quantifies the level of risk on an industry-accepted scale.
This is particularly useful for those in charge of large tree stocks. Two of our arboricultural consultants are QTRA licence holders with 13 years’ combined experience of QTRA inspections.
TPO applications
Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) are written orders administered by local planning authorities (usually the local council, or National Park authority) that make it a criminal offence to wilfully damage or destroy (including prune or fell) a tree or area of trees deemed to offer ‘significant amenity benefit’. TPOs put a legal charge on the property or site concerned, although it is possible for them to be superseded by full planning permission or, very occasionally, reversed by a local authority in exceptional circumstances.
If you want to object to a TPO, it has to be done within 28 days of the order being made. Thereafter, if you want to carry out work to a protected tree, whether for development or tree health and maintenance reasons, you need to apply to the authority that issued the order.
We can lodge an objection for you if required, submit a TPO application for work, or simply advise you on what applications might be appropriate or most likely to get approval. If an application for work is unsuccessful, it is possible to appeal that decision and we can help you through this process.
Mortgage Reports
Mortgage companies often insist that a pre-purchase tree survey is undertaken to assess potential risk to persons or property when:
Our arboriculturists understand the implications of the built environment meeting the natural world. Our recommendations – in conjunction with other specialists such as structural engineers where necessary – can help you address any risks swiftly, to enable the purchase of your new home to proceed.
Method Statements
An arboricultural method statement (AMS), which is often a condition of planning consent, details how construction works near trees are to be carried out to ensure they are safeguarded. As well as detailing any necessary tree surgery, the AMS contains a timetable of works adjacent to trees, and specifies how trees, and their root systems in particular, will be protected during this activity – for example with protective fencing, hand excavation within tree protection zones, or site supervision by the project arboriculturist. It may also include specification for the design of protective fencing, trenching methods, location of bonfires or chemicals, etc. If trees are to be planted, it will describe their storage and site preparation.
Our method statements are sufficiently thorough to be acceptable to a planning authority, easy for you (the client) to understand, and practical to execute.
Veteran or ancient trees are important because of their ecological, aesthetic and cultural interest, due to their age. They provide habitat for a range of organisms such as fungi, insects and birds, and are a valuable resource that should be preserved or enhanced where possible.
National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states that veteran trees should have high importance in the planning process and therefore veterans found on potential construction sites need particularly careful assessment and management so that they can be safely retained within new development.
However, retaining veteran trees on a development site is often a complicated and politically charged issue. We can advise on how best to deal with veteran trees, based on the latest specialist guidance and according to each project.
Our arboricultural services are provided by our subsidiary company JP Associates.
