Consultants and tree tags - why

[j r hartly]

Some reports make you wonder if they even got out of their car! Others are pages upon pages to decipher before you can correlate with a map. And others are spot on. Makes you wonder that if they've all been through the same courses how they are different?

 

trees, waves and cakes!!:-)

[Gray git]

Just pricing a very large job with multiple large trees to fell, trees plotted wrong On maps identified wrong in report and when On site hard to identify which 3 are to fell from a group of closely Growing mature beech made harder by the fact 6 are marked with big crosses meaning fell! Spoke to the consultant who's solution was price which I think it should be and if I get it he will come out and tell me which it is, this could be @a vast difference in cost as some will fell and some will be a dismantle. Pulse over 80 trees in woodland area which are impossible to identify and again will be decided On award of contract so having to work it out on worsed case scenario.

[sloth]

Just pricing a very large job with multiple large trees to fell, trees plotted wrong On maps identified wrong in report and when On site hard to identify which 3 are to fell from a group of closely Growing mature beech made harder by the fact 6 are marked with big crosses meaning fell! Spoke to the consultant who's solution was price which I think it should be and if I get it he will come out and tell me which it is, this could be @a vast difference in cost as some will fell and some will be a dismantle. Pulse over 80 trees in woodland area which are impossible to identify and again will be decided On award of contract so having to work it out on worsed case scenario.

 

That takes the P, whoever paid good money for a report like that ought to complain until it's sorted.

[Amelanchier]

That takes the P, whoever paid good money for a report like that ought to complain until it's sorted.

 

Exactly. Problem is some other contractor will probably just put a price in... We've just declined to put a tender in for a local authority on the basis that the plans and spec were unclear ("consider felling or reduction") - we heard yesterday that it had been awarded to a competitor. If all the tenders had been declined, someone at the LA would have had to explain why.

[Philip Anderson]

Exactly. Problem is some other contractor will probably just put a price in... We've just declined to put a tender in for a local authority on the basis that the plans and spec were unclear ("consider felling or reduction") - we heard yesterday that it had been awarded to a competitor. If all the tenders had been declined, someone at the LA would have had to explain why.

 

How does ("consider felling or reduction " ) comply with anything in BS 3998 if the consultant / tree officer / inspector is sitting on the fence then they shouldn't be in the job,they are paid for their expertise and should use it and be clear and decisive unless he meant a 100% reduction!!of course.

[Amelanchier]

How does ("consider felling or reduction " ) comply with anything in BS 3998 if the consultant / tree officer / inspector is sitting on the fence then they shouldn't be in the job,they are paid for their expertise and should use it and be clear and decisive unless he meant a 100% reduction!!of course.

 

Good isn't it! Clear as mud - I'm not even sure that you need to get a saw out for that spec. You're being asked to consider the options, not undertake them! Talk about passing the buck...

[Paul Barton]

How does ("consider felling or reduction " ) comply with anything in BS 3998 if the consultant / tree officer / inspector is sitting on the fence then they shouldn't be in the job,they are paid for their expertise and should use it and be clear and decisive unless he meant a 100% reduction!!of course.

 

I don't think there is anything wrong get with giving a client options. There are many trees that could be retained by heavy reductions but retaining trees with defects has a long term cost implication for the client. I would rather inform a client that some action needs to be taken in order to reduce a risk and let them decide how to spend their money...once they are fully informed of the management implications.

 

I'm not necessarily condoning a woolly recommendation such as "fell or reduce" but I think tree surveyors have to accept that clients don't always have the resources to do exactly what we'd like them to do. In which case options can be given to help them decide.

[APC]

I don't think there is anything wrong get with giving a client options. There are many trees that could be retained by heavy reductions but retaining trees with defects has a long term cost implication for the client. I would rather inform a client that some action needs to be taken in order to reduce a risk and let them decide how to spend their money...once they are fully informed of the management implications.

 

I'm not necessarily condoning a woolly recommendation such as "fell or reduce" but I think tree surveyors have to accept that clients don't always have the resources to do exactly what we'd like them to do. In which case options can be given to help them decide.

 

 

agreed. I'm guilty of giving the option on occasion, internally, in which case the particular tree is discussed with my boss as to how exactly he wants to spend the money. positives and negatives stated to them. I don't like doing this though as like matey above says, sitting on the fence is guff. I'd never present a contractor with a choice though.

[Paul Barton]

I'd never present a contractor with a choice though.

 

Also agree with that.

 

I tag trees (with price agreed) on sites where identifying particular trees would be difficult with just a plan. If there is a decent topo and lots of reference features on the plan tags aren't needed.

[Gray git]

Giving the owner options as part of a report is fine, I often do when wrighting them.

But as a contractor tendering row the work I want to know the final decided option written in such a way I could give it to any of the lads and say go get em with no feet of cluck ups in identifying what's what