Paul Barton

Jeez, you make it look so darn easy! Thanks for posting Reg, always a pleasure to see a real expert doing what they do best.

Well done guys - it's over now so don't stress about it any more. I came away last year feeling like I had made quite a few mistakes but I managed to pass so you never know. Enjoy having your social life back for a bit!!

Spotted that in the supermarket yesterday - had to buy it. It's got some awesome pictures. Obviously I can't read the articles by myself...

Hey Alasdair, don't under-sell yourself mate. You must have some experience if you are just finishing a job? Hope you find something soon.

Excellent job Qtip.

Coupla pics. 1. A beech tree I inspected today - have a niggling feeling it might need to come down!! (Meripilus, Ganoderma and Polyporus...) 2. Sycamore gap on Hadrian's Wall - apparently a scene from Robin Hood was filmed here? Anyway, it was a pretty cool sight.

All 84 miles chap, in 4 days! Knackered! Nice trees by the way!

You reckon the modular course will be better then Tony? How're you getting on by the way - end in sight?

Just missed you there John! I just walked past it 2 days ago on the Hadrian's wall walk!

Thanks for that Gmann. You have confirmed my fears! This may be impossible to answer, but I will ask anyway: roughly how many hours of home study do you think are needed per week. Are you studying for a couple of hours every night? Plus weekends....? And how much do you reckon you have spent on reading material?

Bump!

I would have thought there are cheaper and more up to date books than Shigo's tome by now.

Have other people heard that the assessment framework for the PD and Tech Cert is going to be changed as of next year? Have spoken with Treelife and they say that the PD won't exist after 2013 so they are starting the last course in Jan 2010. They are involved in writing a new course and assessments but essentially no one seems to know what that will look like. I am thinking about enroling but am aware it is a pretty massive (and expensive) course. Are there any current Prof Dippers on here that could shed any light?

Congrats Jay - sounds like a great start. Hope it works out well for you.

I like the simple idea of tip 4 - that problem used to really wind me up! Nice one.

Thanks for your feedback. I agree that the tree is hardly a top specimen - but it is in a fairly tree-less estate so it feels pretty valuable in its setting! Unfortunately I condemned a number of trees at this site so I guess my heart was telling me to ease up and stop the genocide! Best not to get too emotional about these things though huh?!

You are right, I asked for opinions, which have been given and have been very helpful thanks. I have learned something through this thread and I hope a few others may have too, even if you have not sir. I didn't realise you were the Arb world oracle. Why don't you have your own section of Arbtalk where you ask terribly difficult and important questions and then answer them yourself to show us all how jolly clever you are?

As an aside, much as I would like to suggest replanting in these surveys, that decision ultimately down to the school/owner. While they will almost certainly take my advice to fell a tree, the likelihoold of shelling out for a new tree is much less.

Yeah that's right chap - I have seriously nothing better to do than make up scenarios that I don't actually care about just to up my post count on the forum:mad1: I would have thought that it is prefectly obvious that I could recommend a fell and replant from the outset, but I happen to think that it is a decent enough tree to be considered for retention for at least a few years while a suitable replacement tree becomes established. I don't know what you mean by "repeated high maintenance" - I am considering installing a simple brace to reduce the probability of a major failure, that's it! Bundle2 - in case you hadn't noticed the idea (as far as I understand it) of this forum is to be a place to swap ideas/experiences and a place where we can all learn from eachother. I resent your comment about my suitability for my current job - I may not be as clever (or arrogant) as you but I don't expect to ask for some opinions and then be informed that I can't do my job properly. You may apologise to me in writing below...

Ok, here are the pics. Thanks for your replies so far - it is interesting to hear the varied points of view. I agree that the 'safest' and most risk free course of action is to fell and replant, but I am trying to steer away from over-cautious knee jerk reactions where possible and learn a bit more about how we can effectively try and manage trees with defects instead of going for the chop as a first option. It may well be that in this high target zone that is the best thing to do but I am interested in other possibilities first.

Excellent, thanks for the replies chaps. I concur with you matt - that was my first instinct but I wasn't sure if that was a recommended way to deal with a situation like this. Most bracing I have seen has been on much more open-crowned trees like cedars or spreading multi-stemmed ash etc.

Hi guys, I am after some opinions on cable-bracing - something I don't know a great deal about to be honest. I am carrying out some tree surveys in schools at the moment. Obviously these are high target areas with hundreds of delightful kids running around at any time of day, so I am taking a fairly cautious approach to management recommendations. Recently I came across a nice hornbeam; about 30ft in height and almost 400mm in diameter. The stems forks at around 1m in to 2 main stems - but the union is seriously included. Now I know that included unions don't necessarily spell any iminent disaster so I don't want to overreact - but at the same time they are a known defect and a potential point of failure.... The tree is situated adjacent to a concrete playground on one side, and a boundary fence and public footpath on the other side. Having noted a defect of sorts, I need to offer some kind of recommendation. I think a crown reduction to lessen sail area etc would more or less ruin the tree as hornbeams are pretty difficult to reduce well - and this is also a short term fix. Is bracing an option in this kind of scenario? I am thinking in terms of damage limitation if the union fails just to give the tree a few more decent years usefulness and remove/lessen any iminent hazard... Apologies for no photos at this stage - I will try and get some up soon. Any opinions welcome!

Thanks for your replies. That sounds great Giles - I'll PM you my email address if you don't mind forwarding that construction detail. I love this forum!

I heard that too - quite funny to have our industry being chatted about on the radio. To be fair on the guy interviewed, he said it was possible to do the training in 3 weeks but that it takes much longer to be any good. When you think that you could probably cram in a few NPTC tickets and training in 3 weeks and pretend you are a tree surgeon he is probably not far wrong. He did an ok job at telling it how it is though. The interview was at about 5.25pm this evening, so about 25 mins in to the show.

Ok, thanks mate.