Tree Risk Surveys

Trees situated close to property or on publicly accessible land present potential risk to both personal and public safety. Landowners are responsible for damage or injury caused by trees on their land and have a duty of care to prevent foreseeable harm occurring to people from any hazardous trees situated on their property. Trees need to be assessed regularly and managed to keep risks of causing harm or injury low.

We manage in excess of 50,000 trees in populations around the UK and provide our clients with the peace of mind that their liability for public safety in relation to trees is in our hands. We take this responsibility very seriously and have always considered our role to include the proportionate allocation of resources to manage risks from trees at a defendable level.

The Treework Environmental Practice Method for Tree Risk Inspection and Management provides high quality and cost effective management for trees that give tree owners and manager confidence that their duty of care for public safety is being met, that tree works are being carried out to a good agreed standard and that their resources are being spent effectively and proportionately.

In order to ensure that our clients receive the best service in terms of value and reliability we have consulted with experts in the field of risk such as DARM and QTRA, managers of tree populations and associates within the industry and we delivered The Future of Tree Risk Management Seminars in 2006 and 2007 (VI and VIII in the Innovations in Arboriculture seminar series). The National Tree Safety Group with the Forestry Commission was created out of these seminars and published the guidance document Common Sense Risk Management of Trees in 2011.

One of the key requirements when assessing risks posed by trees is to gain an understanding of the likelihood of structural tree failure.  In order to better understand the mechanical properties of tree roots and stems and their likelihood of failure in high winds we partnered with Baum Static Group in Germany and have studied, and now provide training in Static Load Testing of trees and Wind Load Analysis. Our Senior Consultant, Paul Muir, is the UKs leading expert in this field and all of our consultants are trained in these principles.

Tree risk surveys include:

• Site mapping according to risk
• Tree Risk inspection inventories
• Intermediate tree inspections
• Detailed individual tree inspection
• Internal decay detection and trunk decay mapping
• Tree Pulling Tests
• Excavation and assessment of tree roots
• Trees plotted onto GIS or using GPS/Laser
• Quantified Tree Risk Assessment (QTRA)

We can provide the following outputs:

• Maps of tree positions with legends for easy identification of tree characteristics
• Data in a range of standard digital formats for integration in database management systems and GIS
• Analyses and reports on findings
• Easy to read schedules of survey data
• Prioritised works schedules
• Works orders
• Archiving of completed work
• Assessment of implications for future policy

From single trees to entire populations, our tree risk management approach means that we take on much of the burden of responsibility for tree safety from the tree owner. As well as undertaking tree risk surveys Treework Environmental Practice provide a comprehensive tree management service.