paradise

Ok, I have a shiny new heavyweight throwbag. One more question - what's the best way to tie it to a rope? The attachment ring is too small to stick a loop of rope through as you would with string and I don't want a clunky bowline that will get caught in forks. Any ideas?

Yes, I have thanks. I say I'm a beginner - in fact I have my CS 38/39 and had a good teacher. It's just that the course is one week of climbing and that doesn't exactly make you a great climber so I'm getting in some practice.

Okay, think I might go and get a throw bag for the rope today. I know a throwline from the ground is the easiest thing but I want to practice without one to improve my climbing. To whoever said poles, it's all very well when you've got a groundie but I ain't lugging a poleset around a tree with me... (I'm not using saws up a tree alone, before anyone gets too concerned for my safety).

Cheers for the answers guys. I thought of using slings to get me further up the scaffolds but thought it would be a bit of a slow way to progress - might give it a go next time though. Hadn't thought of taking a short throw line into the tree - might get hold of one for that. What's the best thing for weighting the end of a rope then? I've only seen weights for strings but they would be too small I think? Tree cutter stu I didn't get your method - footlock up what? If you mean the rope then how are you getting it to the top of the crown?

I'm a new climber and have been practicing a bit on different trees. The only trees that have flummoxed me so far are planes - a load of 100 year-olds near my house. Several of them I get to a certain point and there's nothing but steep ascending scaffolds, unbranched, for some way up - and then my throwing skills let me down:thumbdown: So people who climb big planes regularly, do you tend to use throw lines or do you just get very good at throwing upwards in a tree? Just curious cos some of these throws would be 5 or 6m with no space to swing the rope. Also, does anyone know any videos online of different throwing techniques in the tree? cheers

How about automatic TPOs on any tree over, say, 1m DBH (excluding pops and willows perhaps) and within 100m of a building (woodland/rural trees should not be covered in general as FC deals with this). You could do it by age but most people have no clue about the age of a tree so the DBH would be better for a rule-of-thumb I think.

Okay, thanks for replying

I didn't remember till after I'd left that there might be a new one.

Hi everyone, I've seen a couple of mentions on here of a new skylotec harness coming out soon. I was in FR Jones today and they only have the usual. Anyone know if/when the new one is coming out? cheers

That would be ideal but I'd be surprised if anyone could do it that cheap in London. The cost of storage/parking and just the cost of living means that small businesses like that sometimes can't operate at a profit. But if anyone knows of someone do let me know. I have found a company that is a similar price to hippobags but say they can pick up within 24hrs - Garden Waste & Green Waste Clearance Sussex, Surrey Kent & London:: Junk Clear in case anyone else is interested. But £60 a job is still pretty dear. I think I need to regard it as the last resort and try to hook up with local tree surgeons as people suggest.

I'm pretty sure I can overcome this small hurdle - just in a different way than others might overcome it Thanks for your helpful comments Andy. Having investigated hippobags, the problem I forsee is that they take up to five days to collect them. If I have zero transport (one of the options I'm considering) that would mean leaving the hippobag outside the clients' houses and I think people might be bothered by it staying there for five days. Ideally I'd like a similar service that could pick up within 24 hours. If such a thing exists anywhere it would probably be in London - anyone know of anything? I'm in SE London by the way.

They look a bit promising actually - thanks, hadn't heard of them. Anyone got any experience of how reliable they are? Thanks for all answers btw - some useful ideas.

I'm in London. If I had sufficient local contacts I might be able to do as you suggest timtree - but at the moment I wouldn't know anyone in the appropriate areas. I've pondered the idea of a portable electric shredder and selling the merits of woodchip mulch and logpiles for conservation...

Wondered if anyone here had ever done work without a big chipper or truck/van and if they had worked out a system for dealing with the waste. This would only be work on small trees so won't be getting rid of huge volumes, but would be scattered around a bit geographically. I can only think of something along the lines of having a man-with-van on speed dial but that requires finding someone really reliable - not sure how easy it would really be. Any ideas?

Really? That's not good news.

As someone who got my Driving License after 1997 it is very disheartening to see this as a standard requirement for many jobs in the arb industry. And I think some of the bigger companies (who can well afford the training) are the most guilty of it. At some point surely employers are going to have to accept they can't specify this any more - I mean, there's obviously a steadily diminishing pool of people with a pre-97 license, and the 7.5 tonne + trailer is too expensive for individuals to get themselves. But it seems a lot of employers will only change when forced to. I've even wondered if there would be grounds for an age discrimination claim in there: "Indirect Discrimination – this applies where an employer imposes or operates (and cannot ‘objectively justify’) a provision, criteria or practice which puts people of a particular age or age group at a disadvantage. " UK Age Discrimination Act I'm not saying I would take it to court and argue endlessly about whether employers can 'objectively justify' the requirement, but I'd probably cheer from the sidelines if someone else did. Of course I understand the business case for specifying it - why not reduce your training costs as much as possible? But a lot of people under 30 must be getting seriously pissed off with seeing it, and it doesn't say much about the willingness of the company to invest in younger people.

Thanks guys - like your ideas Phenom btw to the fell-and-replant brigade, have you ever wondered if you are part of the reason we're losing tree cover in towns? It seems a very gung ho response. There's nothing wrong with the tree (the shade is a mild annoyance, that's all) and no risk of subsidence - so it could have a good 40 years of useful life left in it. I've advised him to plant a slower-growing tree now in the other corner of the garden so there is a semi-mature there when the poplar pops its clogs.

He'll never go for it - he's a hippy. Just a hippy who wants a bit more light So has anyone tried it on poplars and tracked the results? That's what I was getting at really.

Ah, but it's for a friend. Looking at the tree today I suspect it has been crown-thinned (badly) in the past, which accounts for the crown being so thick and bushy today. My instinct says attempting to thin is only going to make it worse but he isn't convinced so I thought I'd ask those with more experience. I suppose if it were done every year it might work, but I'm not gonna do it every year and I doubt he'll pay for that.

I think it's a hybrid poplar of some kind, though I'm buggered if I know which one. Someone wants it pruned for light because it's next to the house. Would you?

I was thinking more of basic tree surveying rather than consultancy work. For instance there's a utility company (I think) currently advertising for experienced tree inspectors: http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=42421529 I don't think this would require the same level of knowledge as a consultant would it? In answer to the age question, I'm in my early thirties.

But this is the problem. On the one hand I have people saying 'you've got to do time working on tree gangs' and on the other I have people (including an agency I was talking to the other day) saying 'employers probably won't want you for manual work'. At some point I'm just going to have to start ignoring advice

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies - even if they contradict each other As for why I'm doing this - because it suits me right now, and the economy be damned. Worrying to hear that so many people are training up right now though *sharpens knives* But I'd be really interested to hear from people who've done surveying/inspecting - particularly how they got into that. I guess the physical labour thing isn't such an issue with inspecting but I'm not sure how people start out doing those jobs.

Thought I'd try asking for advice here. I'm doing a course at the moment in an attempt to change to arboriculture - I used to be an office slave and couldn't stand it any more. I'm not particularly thinking of becoming a tree surgeon (tree officer jobs are my likely goal) but was thinking of getting a job on a tree gang to get some experience, just as a groundie. However I've been informed that most people don't usually consider career changers who haven't done manual labour before for manual labour jobs. Is this a fair assessment do you think? I accept that, having spent the last ten years doing office work, I'm an effette weakling, but if I'm happy to hump branches around all day it seems a shame if no-one wants to let me. If I have the relevant tickets, what do you reckon the chances are of finding a groundie job? I've also wondered about inspection/surveying jobs - but every job I see advertised asks for experience. I can get LANTRA certificates easily enough but experience is harder to come by when everyone wants experience.... Any thoughts? Is it just a matter of finding someone prepared to take a risk with a newbie? And will that take a while? Or do you know of any routes that would bypass this sticky lack-of-experience situation? I live in London btw cheers