Jon Hartley

Nice to see a bat eating insects!!! We only see fruit bats in Queensland with any regularity....wierd the things you miss about home!!!

I have an HTC. Im no technofreak but if you can take a call from a client on an Iphone without it dialing for a pizza half way through your conversation Im sold!!!

Have a look here NPTC | QualificationsForestry & Arboriculture This is the main qualification route taken in the UK. Hope it helps

Why would you leave the office, drive to a clients home/business, spend time and resources investigating the situation and then give away your product? If this is something you do regularly you are selling yourself and the industry short. If somebody comes to see your tree and gives you "free" advice I guarantee they recommend works and offer their services for such works. There is an obvious conflict of interests here! Its very nice if you can find someone to do this for you however!! Like I said before, there are a lot of qualified people on this forum and if you upload the right pics, you will get good general advice for a whole host of tree related issues.

That trees vitality doesnt look too good! Id have someone come and have a look. Good advice is worth paying for! Im sure that there plenty of well qualified guys that are relatively local to you here on the forum. You can also find a list on the Arboricultural Association website. Good luck

All cutting is wounding. By cutting off all the green bits the tree wont be able to produce food and will become reliant on carbohydrates that it has stored within its woody structure and roots untill it can replace the lost leaves. Ash does appear to "cope" with the hard pruning being suggested here. It will rapidly (depending on the time of year) put out new shoots in order to replace the leaf area it has lost. The result will be a very dense canopy (which could block more light than already does). This kind of stress limits the trees defences against pathogen attack. Decay fungi are already present in the wood. They are simply waiting for the right conditions to become active. By topping the tree and causing such large wounds in the stems it is likely that this will be the case. This is why we dont top trees. Its not an easy decision to make but sometimes its better to just realise that it may be the wrong tree in the wrong location and remove it! There are other trees behind so it wouldnt be a massive shock if it was to go and the other trees look young enough to respond well to the altered exposure they would be subjected to. Didnt you notice the tree before you moved in?

...I was doing some further reading and found the answer to that question! Did you still pay for the full six modules?

Good Tip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!