Paul Barton

Quite a few offer both, including some of the bigger companies such as Midland Forestry, Gristwood and Toms, AEMG....I used to work for one of them. We lost out on the opportunity to work for some clients, because they preferred to separate the services. I can understand why to be honest - there is a potential conflict of interests. I sometimes had to persuade our clients of our integrity. Trust is key - if the client suspects that the consultancy is feeding unnecessary work to the contracting side of the business then the relationship is broken. However, some clients love the 'one-stop-shop' of a company that can provide both elements of the arboricultural service. It can make things quick and efficient, and lead to good work as the tree surgeons have easy access to the surveyor that specs the work in order to ask questions if needed. Specsavers offer eye tests and sell glasses. Financial advisers get commission on arranging investments.... It's pretty common for companies to offer a range of services and in my opinion it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does require all parties to work with integrity and build trusting working relationships. I would say the onus is on companies that offer both services to demonstrate their impartiality to give the client confidence.

Welcome to Arbtalk Eoin!

Welcome to the forum Andrew - hope you enjoy it and I look forward to reading your posts.

What's the latest then Tony?

Good question - is it the OSX that makes Macs good, rather than the hardware? I don't know. Perhaps I am getting seduced by their good looks...

Excellent, thanks for the top tips!

Nice timing! ITV camera catches tree falling into River Severn | Central - ITV News

Thanks for this advice - can you explain what you mean by virtual machine? Would I keep my existing PC to run alongside the Mac?

Bing maps seem to be more relaxed: http://www.microsoft.com/maps/product/print-rights.html

Hi Kevin, I did it last October at Barcham. Jon Heuch is obviously a very knowledgeable and experience guy, so it's a great chance to quiz someone on the niggling questions you may have (and I did!). I found that there was a fair bit of discussion about soils, which although was interesting (for a while) often isn't wholly relevant for mortgage reports as in reality there is no allowance for any detailed investigation of soil at the site! Still, it all helps as background knowledge. Jon provides a booklet with relevant literature to reference, and a basic report template to help structure your reports. All in all pretty good value for money I think, and of course you get to use the CAS 'logo' for this module and get on their directory of consultants that have had specific training in this area.

Copying any part of google maps is against the terms of service, as far as I can tell: https://www.google.com/intl/en-US/help/terms_maps.html Previously I bought Google Earth Pro (£250 a year) which I think allowed use of the maps for business activities. Things seem to have changed now though, and Pro is more about using maps for creating personalised maps and applications.

Huh? I challenge you to explain that...maths was never my strong point. Or physics!

It can't be! If you pull 2 foot through but only go up 1 foot, your rope must be magically getting longer. The double rope technique (that I am aware of) is a re-directed 1:1 system. Look here: Pulley Systems | ropebook

Nope, unfortunately not. I don't use a normal Autodesk version of CAD - it's developed by a separate company especially for landscape architects and arborists. It's too good to part with unfortunately, so I am stuck with Windows.

Is it noticeably slower? I would pretty much only need to fire it up to work on CAD drawings, but if CAD runs really slowly then I don't think it would be worth the bother.

I am debating whether to get a Mac for my next main computer. My main issue is that some of the software I use will only run on the Windows operating system. I have seen solutions such as Parallels desktop that allow you to run windows and the apple OS at the same time, which appears to be a good solution - if it works! Does anyone have any experience of using this or similar?

Sounds like a scary day. Praying for good news and her recovery. Sent from my SGP311 using Arbtalk mobile app

I recommend that anyone wishing to provide information about Hi Line to the original poster should send him a PM. This forum is not to be used to air grievances about companies and any such posts will be deleted. Thanks.

Ha ha - I can see where you are coming from David given your responsibilities. However, if we are keen to see large canopied trees in the urban environment, (where there are always lots of stoopid people!) then we need to work hard on making our trees as storm resilient as possible - whilst still retaining their benefits. For me, this 'case-study' highlights the disconnect between a) arborists and b) landscape architects and contractors. All arbs know that severing roots can make trees unstable - so why aren't arborists consulted (or listened to?) when it comes to construction/re-landscaping/utlilities installation near trees?!

My thoughts exactly. I wonder how many urban trees the UK would see come down in similar conditions? Considering the amount digging up of streets and pavements we see, you would expect that there are quite a number of mature trees perched on severed roots waiting for a big gust! Brian Crane gave a presentation about the effects of cable installation near street trees in London at the last AA conference. He inspected numerous trenches and plotted trees with severed roots - from memory I think many of them are still standing 10-15 years on. I think he has plans to open up trenches again and re-inspect the roots some time....

The South african jerky is called Biltong - it's really good stuff, especially with a couple of pints of beer...oops.

Saw this posted at UKTC earlier - the cyclist had a very lucky escape (apparently). LiveLeak.com - Cyclist almost killed by falling tree during storm.

Cool, thanks Jack.

Did the training a few years ago but have never really used it. I may do a refresher and renew my license some time though as some contracts request it. I gather the recent updates to the system are significant so am interested to hear what they are.

I have that tablet. It's really good but unfortunately I can't find any decent cases like the otterbox stuff that will fit it. It may well be rainproof already, but it ain't drop proof as a dent on one corner of mine proves. To be honest I'll probably end up getting an ipad as the range of accessories is so good for them.