Jake Andrews

Hi, Yes, everything you are describing is plausible. But, given the species that you’re going to be doing this too, it may require some pruning aswell, depending on its size. Chinese elms are very ‘end heavy’ trees with much of their foliage near the ends giving a long arm lever effect. It may be prudent to end weight reduce some of the heavier limbs to further reduce the stresses on the union you are trying to support. First, install ratchet strap in the tree at the height of where your static brace will be installed and pull the limbs together so that the ratchet strap is slightly taught and supporting the limbs. Then, install your rod brace on the unions (1,2 or 3 depending on the size of the split but do not make the rods parallel with each other) and after that, the static brace before removing the ratchet strap. Chinese elms are notorious for splitting main unions and I did my fair share of bracing them during my time in Melbourne. Beautiful trees though. Do you have any pictures of the onion?

I tend to ‘box cut’ those sort of branches (not sure if that’s a widely used term or not). I start with the under cut, then proceed to cut sideways into both sides of the branches by about an inch but meet up with the under cut. You are now left with a rectangle shape of holding wood at the top. Now, cut the top holding wood straight down to meet both side cuts and the under cut so that all cuts meet. This ensures that no cambium or new woood remains uncut and doesn’t tear. What you will find is that the branch ‘pops’ off the branch rather than folds down like willow tends to do when step cut, you get a much better clean break this way. Hope this helps.

10-13mm would be good for knot practice. Just a 2m section would likely suffice. A list of knots we would predominantly use would be: Figure of 8 Bowline Clove hitch Double barrel (or double fisherman’s) Timber hitch Cow hitch And then…… there’s the hitches which is a minefield tbh because it would depend on what system you use to climb. I’m sure others will include more knots that they use day to day and unfortunately I never used a book so have no recommendations.

Would that not just be juvenile and mature leaves?

Out of interest, how do you qualify to remove OPM?

Another Cinch man. I absolutely love mine and can’t think of any lanyard setup that would beat it. I’m just not looking forward to it going past it’s life expectancy and having to replace with something different.

It’s not the physical hedges that they are likely worried about, it’s probably the remaining 1.5m of soil and the hedges rooting environment that they are taking issue with. They will likely want to see the ground/soil is suitably protected against compaction. This can be in the form of mulch layer and boards on top. Compaction of the soil will impact rooting function and growth and they will likely want to see what mitigation measures you will take to protect against that. In terms of the newly planted birch’s, why not transplant them elsewhere? That removes the trees and the roots from the area entirely then. Just a thought.

I believe it was a pigeon from what was left. A little snack from mum.

Just dehydrated I reckon!

I was lucky enough to do some volunteer climbing this year for the Raptor group. Go up, collect chicks in rope bucket, send down to ecologist to weigh and measure the chicks. Chicks were then sent back up and placed back in the nest. Was a fantastic experience and one I won’t forget in a hurry…………. mainly because the Goshawk appears to like nesting in real crappy trees to climb!

Wonder if you could detect Phytophthera on any given wood sample[emoji848] Or would you have to be very specific in where you get your samples from the right (infected) section of the trunk. I’m thinking cankerous stems sections as opposed to whole trunk death from Canker.

Agreed. You are also admitting a fault by pruning the tree are you not? Don’t understand people’s fear of bracing. I have installed close to hundreds I would imagine (granted not all in this country) and they help protect, support and maintain the tree in its natural form. Pruning then puts the tree in a state of constant cyclical pruning regimes which can be costly for the estate owner. Each practise has its use but I don’t think that one should be used to replace the other. To the OP. experience should be enough to ensure that you can competently inspect braces by others. Check components for wear and replace as necessary. You can go on the manufacturer’s website for guidance on inspections and lifespans etc. Guidance is yearly ground inspections with a 5 yearly climbing inspection and be sure to check the angles of the ropes entering the stem. Also, as stated before NPTC do a bracing qualification which I would assume also covers the inspections. Technically, if you can install, you can inspect I would say.

Yes it could be but depends on the task. In this instance we were removing large deadwood and so not a lot of debris was falling. We don’t have to have it tied up and can leave it dangling which enables pieces to ricochet off if you get what I mean rather than directly hitting. We get customers ask us about the rescue kit. In my mind, we’ve left a job with a more educated client that might expect others to also have a rescue line, this hopefully leaving a good lasting impression. But on the main, it hopefully means we are quicker to react if needed.

No need to apologise. Just letting you know my perspective of the job as we planned it. We all look at photos of others jobs and think............ why the hell are they doing ‘x’ when they could’ve done ‘z’. There are many ways to skin a cat.

So, here’s what we’ve recently been playing with as a company. We had an aerial rescue day to decide on what protocols we would deploy on site for what scenarios. We decided that we will now place rescue lines into every tree we work on or for short duration tasks unless it is unsafe to do so and so written out of the RA (sound familiar!). This is something we felt needed to happen as it takes far to long for a climber to get his gear on and get up the tree free climbing or spiking. Here’s one of the ways we stow our ropes to distinguish between working ropes and rescue/access rope. In the bag, a system is pre installed on the rope ready to go. Also in the bag is everything we need to climb such as chest harness and foot ascenders. This means that in an emergency, we literally only need to put on a harness and race up the tree. The bag is hand made to order and only £40. At the moment, the system is working for us well and again, I think it’s sets out a decent image to the client.