Paul Barton

The way I did it manually in Autocad (before buying a purpose built program) was to draw a cross with the N,E,S,W dimensions and then use a 'spline' to connect them.

Ok, I think this has strayed enough from the original post now and unfortunately moved in to territory we don't want to host. Thread closed!

Hi Dilz, I did the QTRA training about 10 years ago, but didn't use it afterwards. I did the training again last year and found it much more approachable. Whether you end up using it or not, you will come out of the course with a better understanding of tree risk. I would highly recommend it.

There you go - taken from Trees in Towns II.

From memory I think it's about 25% failure rate. BS8545 may mention this in the introduction.

The development company are the Welsh Government!

Good to know the tree should live for many more years, although I can't help thinking that it was never really in grave danger. There have been some pretty comprehensive environmental surveys and impacts assessments for this project. The Oak's root system was assessed using a tree root radar some time ago - this probably wouldn't have happened if the tree was due to get trashed by a new road.

No, but it's a good idea!

I worked on the tree survey that Amey procured in 2012 at the beginning of the PFI contract. What a great city with a lot of mature trees. As I was involved in the data collection, rather than analysis, I can't say a lot about whether the felling is appropriate. There certainly seemed to be alot of fully mature trees across the city, but that's the case in many historic cities in the UK. A long-term strategy to selectively fell and replant trees isn't necessarily a bad one if well planned. But from what I have read, much of the felling seems to be about preventing damage to paths and roads, rather than because the tree is in poor condition or unsuitable - simply implying that trees are not considered to be a priority highway asset. I wonder, if Sheffield had had an urban forest evaluation using iTree to demonstrate the financial value of the ecosystem services that the trees provide, would this be happening? Or at least, would it give the communities that oppose the felling more of an evidence base to argue from?

Ha! Thanks for the un-enlightening discussion chaps!

They were just hypotheticals to illustrate my question Jules. How do you calculate and show woodland RPAs?

No worries! Following on from your question, how do you (and others) calculate and show the RPA of groups and woodlands? Offset from the stems by the average diameter/largest diameter? Estimated offset from crown edge? Measure stem diameter of every edge tree and plot umpteen circular RPAs?

No need to survey every tree. Here's an extract from the BS: 4.4.2.3 Trees growing as groups or woodland should be identified and assessed as such where the arboriculturist determines that this is appropriate. However, an assessment of individuals within any group should still be undertaken if there is a need to differentiate between them, e.g. in order to highlight significant variation in attributes (including physiological or structural condition). NOTE The term “group” is intended to identify trees that form cohesive arboricultural features either aerodynamically (e.g. trees that provide companion shelter), visually (e.g. avenues or screens) or culturally, including for biodiversity (e.g. parkland or wood pasture), in respect of each of the three subcategories (see 4.5). 4.4.2.4 The categorization of a group or woodland can reflect a future potential that is contingent on appropriate management being undertaken to promote the development of the better specimens, based upon established arboricultural and silvicultural principles. Such management requirements should be noted under “general observations” within the schedule and included within the post-development management plan (see 8.8.3). NOTE Typically, the works will need to be phased over a number of years so as to maintain the necessary degree of companion shelter.

A fiver says Steve was joking about starting a petition. Why doesn't Mendiplogs start one as it was his idea?

Nice shots Sean. You manage to make some otherwise pretty mundane scenes look cool!

What a post in a monumental thread about your journey. You're clearly made of some special stuff Sean, and I have no doubt that 2016 will be a momentous year for you. Blessings and best wishes to you and your family.

Once again, that wasn't what was posted! If you don't understand the concept, don't knock it!

He didn't say they were. Often there's a choice involved though...e.g long hours, stress vs family time, leisure time.

Have you tried the Arb Association website? I'm pretty sure you can download some word document templates.

Photos are a bit blurry on my phone, but looks like good ol' Leyland Cypress to me.

Apparently these are good as you don't need to replace the ink cartridges. https://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/consumables/16265

Was that 27k council owned trees? There were probably at least the same again on private land.

This thread is going nowhere so I'm closing it. Sort out your differences somewhere else!

Isn't this thread 9 days early?! Happy mid-December everyone!

I did a job at a school recently where an old student rang up one day to offer £2 million for a new sports centre! Good on you mendiplogs - hope you can find a few like minded and deep pocketed parents.