daltontrees

April is optimum, leylandii is best cut in spring just after its spring growth spurt. Cutting it earlier than that will leave it susceptible to drying winds that could turn it brown. The removal of a lot of height would weaken its chances of drawing up water to combat drying. Although frosts at 4 or 5 feet are not as severe as ground frosts, they can do damage to woulds particularly if you want to cut stems and branches in the optimum 'natural target' position to encourage healing over, a hard air frost I think would kill cambium back a centimetre or so on larger cuts and could be enough to cause healing to fail completely. That's what I've observed anyway. A tight leyland hedge is not great for bird nesting, but if you're worried about birds in teh late spring, just watch the hedge for 20 minutes for any comung and going of birds, and be prepared to stop if you find an active nest while cutting, you cna apways come bact to it in early autumn (the next best time for cutting, after the autumn spurt). Have a look here Care - Trimming and Maintenance | Leylandii it suggests spring. Also maybe consider a phased job, 1 1/2 feet this year and the same again next year. Or better still, cut one side this year and the other next year. Or take out every second stem to the final height this year and the rest next year., it cnan be a nightmare extracting parts becuase they all knit together but it's possible and it's only 50' long so not that bad. 8 down to 4 1/2 is a lot, I am involved in a lot of high hedge cases and I see hedges dying from one-off reductions of this scale.

I have to clarify. The forestry range of Latschbacher tags come in at least 3 different patterns of lugs, and the curved ones are only suitable for end-grain, it would be almost criminal to use them on bark of living trees and I agree about Acers, the damage can be phenomenal and I have seen it being so bad on a Norway that it has split the bark from the ground to about 3 metres and will probably kill the tree 10 or 20 years on. But the straight lug tags are ideal for living trees, the slightly barbed lug penetrates only the bark and if you adjust your hitting action you can be almost sure never to break the cambium. The tag gets carried on the bark as the tree grows. Latschbacher also does Arbotags or something like that which are designed purely for living trees, and although a special hammer is needed it looks like an effective system. One of the key benefits of Latschbacher generally is the ability to tag trees at a height of 2.2m with no difficulty at all, perfect for situations where kids are going to try and nick them. And it's a fast fast system, on a cold day with numb fingers you can tag trees in no more than the time it takes to walk (or run) between them, I can tag a tree as I pass it without breaking stride. I did a big survey last year, client specified Latschbacher, and I was also reinspecting trees tagged as far back as 2008. I have just started a big survey and I have taken delivery of 3000 Latschbacher tags which I recommended to the client. They are laser-etched with the client's name, and of a colour chosen not to coincide with the opposing local team colours and the cost of customising them was very little extra. These trees were tagged with aluminium discs in 2008. The evidence is that the survival rate of Latschbacher tags falls about 5% a year whereas the aluminium discs are about 10 a year. And where the discs have lasted and the tree has had to wrap around the tag the wounds are messy and some were getting infected. So, check out the full range of Signumat/Latschbacher tags before condemning them all, there's more to them than the end-grain pattern. They are the best anti-pilfering soulution and by far the fastest system I have ever used. They're only slightly dearer than the aluminium discs, and of course no nails are needed (although one or two can be added if required). And yes you need the hammer, which is dear, but it's very ergonomic and should last forever. I don't use the cassettes myself. I got mine from Landmark Trading, they were significantly more expensive than Richmonds but it was worth it because they called me back, listened and understood what I wanted and kept me informed all the way and couriered them to me when they said they would. 4 weeks on I'm still waiting for Richmonds to call me back.

Yeah, it's free and it's an unchallenging read. Caution though for the beginner, it is just a little too biased towards trees, the inspector should be thoroughly and obsessively objective. And NTSG is mainly directed at landowners and society, not at inspectors. I doubt if it will ever live up to its stated aim of providing a benchmark that the courts can consider as identifiable in negligence cases.

If your difficulty is with recommendations, you really have to get your hands on BS3998 as Kveldssanger suggests. And you've got to understand risk. I am going to send you a private message, have a look out for it

Yeah me too, my first thought was fir. But I may be imagining seeing blisters on the bark.

That fungus is just Stereum, a deadwood feeder that turns up on anything that is wood.

Or the scottish framework... what chance do we have?

I knoiw very little about this, and in Scotland the quaifications framework is different form England, but it occurs to me that you should look into an international qualification through the ISA that will be recognised by a number of countries. Not that I much rate the ISA but they are immersed in the concept of the Arborist and seem to pay little attention to distinctions between tree work and consulting. Unfortunately, being american the ISA uses I for International the way it uses World in World Series Baseball. But there may be some recognition of teh certification in Oz, try the Oz AA Chapter.

A good example of fasciation on Sycamore, going a bit mental this week in Glasgow. After the initial fasciated rapid extension had settled down, the cluster appears to be behaving according to the normal rules of tropism and apical dominance.

Then the spec should say this. e.g. "reduce crown by between 1 and 2 metres, cutting to suitable growth points to accord with BS 3998, to produce an average reduction of 1.5 metres, resulting in a final crown height of X to (X+1) metres and width of Y to (Y+1) metres". Contractor can understand it, Council can check it, and it gives legitimate scope to choose suitable positions for final cut. Time taken to draft wording, 4 minutes, including correcting typos.

I'm not taking sides at all, but I can see that the original spec posted on here should result in pretty much what the COuncil said here. If some Councils accept specs that are vague that's up to them but they really oughtn't to. And there are reasons for that. By not giving a reason for the tree works the application is invalid at law (Reg 13(1)©(iii) 2012). But the vague extent of the reduction together with the considerable crown lift means thatif it was a 2m reduction the total extent of pruning takes this way over the 30% guidance (Clause 7.5 BS3998) and the crown lift looks to exceed the 15% guidance (Clasue 7.6). Doesn't mean that such drastic measures aren't justified in some cases, but the Council has to have the info to decide on that. Better specs make for quicker decisions and reduced likelihood of refusal, and build trust between Councils and contractors/consultants, which suits everyone. Writing a vague spec takes 2 minutes, writing a good one takes 3 minutes. Delays caused by vague ones can run to weeks or even months. Why take a chance unless you're gambling on getting a vague consent and then abusing the leeway? Not you Mr. OP, I am talking in generalities to encourage a better standing for our industry.

Someone asked this same question on Arbtalk a couple of months ago. If you search you might fnd the thread.

I was on a loop yesterday. I found a bit of fasciated sycamore at the start of the day and I had Keep Feeling Fasciation, almost by Human League [ame] [/ame] , going on and on for 8 hours. Cound be worse, some days the last thing you hear onthe radio os some pop pap that yoyu hate but its so catchy it sticks in your head no matter what you do.

It's the internet age, everyone hopes to be able to get everything for nothing. Your videos, by the way, are the best I've seen. Informative, quirky, fun and entertaining. But do tell, when you strap a camera to a piece and then freefall it 20 metres or so, how many cameras do you wreck? And how did you manage to take 4 tops out simultaneously or was there video trickery involved?

It suggests to me that the only way that most people would be out of buildings in weather likely to cause tree failures is in a car. Cars give people a sense of security, which is all very valid except they are not much protection from falling trees. Plus you can't see what's above you when in a car. Plus in USA a lot of people wouldn't walk the length of themselves before considering taking the car instead. Especially in poor weather. Street trees have less than 50% chance of landing on a street.

Good point.

Not much use to consultants, that. Also AA doesn't cover forestry, arboriculture is predominantly about amenity trees, differentiating it from timber production (silviculture). So, Amenity Tree Contractors and Consultants Association? Or how about Arb Association?

Such cynicism! It was done by the AA in-house and apparntly cost nothing.

I'm so confused now. That 2015 thread is definitely cherry. The bark looks like P. serotina, which I have seen pictured with this kind of horned bud, but not as red as that. But serotina flowers in racemes.

I don't envy you this. Pleasing all of the people all of the time will always be impossible and, having had my whinge, I trust your judgement to get it as near right as it can be.

My guess is Sorbus americana.

I like Arbtalk a lot and changing it for chaging sake is in my personal view not particularly pressing, unless it's just a catch-up with current technology. But this questions/answers/voting thing, having just looked at Yahoo Answers for the first and almost certainly last time in my life is too trashy for words. Will it encourage witty and eloquent answers? Yes, probably. will it encourage right answers, not necessarily. Will it improve the standing of arboriculture in the minds of the public and encourage best practice within the industry? I know what I think. In the top 10 yahoo answers today Do Christians understand that Allah and God are the same? Is five too young to let my kid watch the walking dead? Would you marry a man who watches porn? Do you like 80's music? and the best one of all - Why would anyone struggle with depression when God can fix it? I got depressed one day and so I prayed and God made it go away? (24 answers!) Just what Arbtalk needs (not!) Tread lightly, Steve. Coincidentally i heard that the AA is going to put a forum on its revamped website. Maybe worth an enquiry as to overlaps?

I chucked a desk job and took up tree work in my 40s, best thing I ever did. Lost 1 12/ stone, was fitter than when I was 25, and I don't remember ever thinking I wish I hadn't done that. I love being up a tree at 8.30 and watching all the suckers commuting to some battery-hen office while I get ready to be paid for climbing trees, having crack with the guys, messing about with machinery, getting loads of fresh air, loads of exercise and being engaged with nature. Downside is it beats the hell out of you on the wrong side of 50, but plan C (consultancy) is pannig out beautifully.

Please remember I was responding to a specific question namely "So, if the neighbour wants to keep the tree, the development proposal can't be approved?". The thread was started by someone asking about plotting RPAs but as these things go it has drifted in to a general discussion about whether the development should proceed. I was just saying to Kevin that development needn't be prohibited just because a neighbur wants to keep a tree. What would a developer do then? If the tree is not already protected, he could sever the roots to the boundary. Then apply for consent. But say he didn't and the Council refused consent because it valued the tree and thought it would be lost if development was authorised. So What would a developer do then? Sever the roots to the boundary, and then re-apply? This was part of the rationale for me saying "Council'd probably have to TPO the trees." Back to that survey, then. If the OP reported that the volume of soil required for the ongoing vitality of the trees on the embankment had no significant element under and beyond the retaining wall, would a Council question that? Would they prod, scan or airspade the site to disprove the surveyor? Rhetorical questions, but for what it's worth personally based on the photographs I'd be suggesting to the developer that the subsurface constraints on the car park side are minimal. But you've raised an interesting point about off-site conditions (an age-old issue in Planning) but when I think about it trees don't quite behave like other structures and in view of the position on abatement of encroachment I can't see how they can be protected by off-site conditions alone. The consent could be granted with conditions to protect the trees then their owner could just chop them down because the conditions are not binding on him.

I mean can it be used across a strong break in slope like that surely at some point it will not be scanning directly perpendicular to the ground, it will be covering a wedge of ground. See attached. Area A is OK and so is B, but what information can you get for area C, D and E?