daveindales

I know that the client and neighbours have had issues in the past, and feel like I have unwittingly become entangled in their issues.

Thanks for that Chris. That's what I wanted to hear.

Ok, here we go!!!. This is the first time in being an arbtalk member that Iv'e felt the need to ask for some advice. Bit of background info. I've been working with trees since 1985, and have a professional arboricultural qualification (HND Arb) I have a very good working relationship with my local planning authority, which in this case is The Yorkshire Dales National Park. I work for them regularly and have just planted over 6000 trees for the establishment of new dormice habitats. Over the last two weeks, I have stopped work on two jobs, as I noticed nesting birds in the trees that were to fell. One, a blackbird nest and the other a pigeon. Recently, I was asked by a client (ex copper) to fell 3 semi-mature trees. A horse chestnut, sycamore and an ash. These were in his garden, which also contains a number of other semi-mature sycamore and ash. All three were to section fell. Lack of light,and the trees getting too big was the reason they were tobe felled. Naturally, I looked at the three trees, deciding how to dismantle, and subconsciously noted no nesting birds in the three trees. Before the trees were felled we had a general chit chat and the client mentioned woodpeckers were seen and pecked the metal parts of telegraph poles. No mention of nests. Section felled all the trees and came across no nests, and no cavities at all in any of the trees. If any were seen either beforehand or during felling we would have stopped. All the trees were not in leaf and seeing nests would have been easy. During dismantling the last tree, a couple came and had a go at the client for destroying habitat. I was up the tree, it was very windy and I didn't hear a word. No TPO's, no Conservation Area, no birds nesting in trees to be felled. No Felling licence as in a garden, and probably not enough volume anyway. Later when home, I received a message from YDNPA employee who I knew and he said somebody had reported us. He told them everything would be ok, as I had a good reputation with them, but he had to investigate anyway. Later that evening, I had a phone caller from a concerned village resident, who said that the whole village was upset, as woodpeckers were nesting somewhere near. She wanted to remain anonymous. I was very courteous with her and explained everything in full to her. She claimed the police had been called. Now the clients, have never seen any nesting there, and nobody seems to know where the nest is. But it certainly was not in any of the trees I climbed and felled. The anonymous called was asking if I did a pre-survey to identify birds nests. Well, I didn't go round every individual tree in the garden looking for nests, but observed non in any of the trees. She implied that I had disturbed the woodpeckers. As none of the other trees were touched during the works, the only way I could have disturbed them was by making noise with the chainsaws. No chipper on site. The site is right next to a busy A road, with passing noise all the time. Now, at home I have a leylandii hedge full of birds nests. I mow my lawn every week, which is adjacent to the hedge. If I broke any laws felling the trees, then me and most of the country are also guilty of disturbing nesting birds. What about bell ringers, they must disturb birds nesting in church steeples etc. Farmers driving in and out of farm buildings would disturb nesting birds. I have birds nesting at the rear of the house guttering (bungalow) Just walking by the nest would disturb them. The point I'm trying to make is that the whole country would come to a standstill, and everyone somehow must certainly disturb nesting birds somehow. One other thing I should mention is that a friend of my daughters is doing a degree in photography, and asked if he could come and take some photo's of us at work, as part of a project. He arrived and stayed all day, taking photo's of us and the works being undertaken.At the end of the day he had over 1200 photo's. These included hundred's of the trees taken before, during and after the felling. I can get access to all the photo's, if needed I feel rather dejected, that the credibility of a company that I have run for 24 years is called in to question. Have I done anything wrong???

Keep it for spares for the other saw. That's what I tend to do

A bit of both really. Standing up for the Falkland islanders was a plus point, which did her chances of re-election the world of good. Standing up to The EU was another plus point. I thought the selling of council houses was a great mistake. Great if you were in a position to buy one cheap, but short term gain, long term pain.

Jan-Michael Vincent dies age 74. RIP. Remember him from the 1980's in Airwolf and also from a small appearance in The Undefeated with John Wayne.

Was well worth watching. Only took him a morning to do it. Then went back to his camper van and did the "chinups".

Oscar winning documentary: Free climbing attempt on El Capitan by Alex Honnold. 8pm tonight. Have watched him on Youtube a few times. An amazing man

Done

Works for me too

When you can't do with noisy pubs, and head for the quieter one so you can hear your mates and have a conversation about how well (or in my case, how badly) the golf's going.

If it's a CH25, it should have a 25hp Kohler engine and twin rollers, not 20hp and a single, roller, unless I'm mistaken. At least,that's what mine has.

I'm stockpiling Vitamin D. So much scaremongering going on, I'm not sure the sun's going to rise, the moment we leave.

Don't mess with a one-armed stranger!

Personally, I thought The Searchers was John Wayne's best performance. Rio Bravo (Walter Brennan is brilliant as usual) She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Chisum ( both with the great Ben Johnson) are all in my top Wayne films. Chisum is also one of my favourite's, but never gets more than a couple of stars in film reviews. Red River is also a classic Wayne film, again with 3 times Oscar winner, Walter Brennan. Loved John Wayne as a kid in the late 70's.