decay detection, weapon of choice?

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Don't do it! Be owned by the lender that is. Not the time for increasing debt - absolutely not.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Don't do it! Be owned by the lender that is. Not the time for increasing debt - absolutely not.

 

I have to, i am owned I will continue to be owned until i make more money, and you have to speculate to acumulate!

[BatiArb]

i either use my boot or a long pokey stick from their garden, job done. a stick covered in worms and glupe usually does the job

 

Any means of assessing the condition of a tree is only as good as the knowledge, experience and qualifications of the arborists providing the professional opinion.

 

We now have a broad spread of different assessment tools at our disposal and hierarchy of methodologies that starts with a prod and a poke at the tree. This can only ever be a starting point when practicing tree care......

 

However, if you are looking for an excuse to take the tree down, then i am sure it can be quite convincing to the uninformed client.

 

Thankfully we are now in an era where TPO applications to remove trees require more than just an opinion of the tree to agree felling. Evidence is required to demonstrate the tree condition is such that tree removal is the only option.

[arb culture]

Andrew - I think you must have read a different set of TPO legislation to me. TPO'd trees are usually removed without the level of evidence you seem to think is required.

 

Hamadryad - If I were you I'd wait until after you've done some of the training you are discussing in other threads, and more importantly - do some market research to see if the level of investment would be returned.

 

At the moment I do visual inspections and call in others to do Picus etc if required. In the last three years I haven't had a single incident requiring more than a sounding hammer (rubber mallet) and a probe (long metal rod), along with my own knowledge and experience. I am very glad that I didn't invest in expensive decay detection equipment, I don't think I would have seen a good return.

[Stephen Blair]

 

 

However, if you are looking for an excuse to take the tree down, then i am sure it can be quite convincing to the uninformed client.

 

I dont need to create work, i am still at the dirty end of the industry so i will always have something to do, if guys like us didnt do jobs at the lower end of the market then who would, like it or not, most customers dont care about the tree, they care about cost. If a tree is going to cost £300 to remove to eliminate the danger, or a lot more to find out how bad it could be then what do you think they will do, tree officers dont take responsibility for the trees, the council doesnt back up what they say by putting the tree on their public liability insurance, and no tree is worth more than a life.

 

And what is worse, to con a customer into pruning a tree every few years that is on its way out or fell and replant, we arent dealing with the tree we are dealing with the trees owner.

 

I am dealing with neglected coppice from after the war, not aincient oaks in a field on a country estate:001_smile:

[Tom D]

IME decay detection does not create work for contractors, in fact it does the opposite. It would be rare for decay detection to condemn a tree that VTA has not picked up, on the other hand it is quite common for trees condemned by VTA to be saved by decay detection. And indeed this is why decay detection is often used in situations where clients are keen to keep trees which they have been advised to remove. After all as a tree owner worried about liability issues why would you want expensive decay detection work when cheaper VTA will meet all your requirements?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Any means of assessing the condition of a tree is only as good as the knowledge, experience and qualifications of the arborists providing the professional opinion.

 

We now have a broad spread of different assessment tools at our disposal and hierarchy of methodologies that starts with a prod and a poke at the tree. This can only ever be a starting point when practicing tree care......

 

However, if you are looking for an excuse to take the tree down, then i am sure it can be quite convincing to the uninformed client.

 

Thankfully we are now in an era where TPO applications to remove trees require more than just an opinion of the tree to agree felling. Evidence is required to demonstrate the tree condition is such that tree removal is the only option.

 

 

Andrew thanks for that, its a good point.

 

A friend of mine is having trouble getting consent to fell a few trees, the TO wants a "arboricultural report" before he will consent to the works, at least now I know why this is increasingly common.

 

Whilst many people in here remain blind to the obvious trend our work is going into, I am not so foolish. I will be well placed in a year to provide detailed evaluation and reports to ALL parties reqiuring them, including the average contractor, thats a big market.

 

as for my return on investment, a pair of tri nocular scopes, a canon D5 camera,increment corer and fracto will set me back around 7-8k, I reckon I would make that in 2 years on top of my usual wage as a climber.

[arb culture]

You should easily make that back (and more) if you work hard and work clever.

 

Good luck!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

You should easily make that back (and more) if you work hard and work clever.

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks, some reassurance much needed at the mo!

[Stephen Blair]

.

 

Whilst many people in here remain blind to the obvious trend our work is going into, I am not so foolish. .

 

.

 

you are getting older, your bills are increasing so you need to find another way of earning some money. this doesnt mean everyone else is blind tony.