Spruce Pirate

No all the info seems to stop at the border. DEFRA is England (and wales?, not sure). Up here it would be SERAD, or whatever they're calling themselves now, SEARS possibly. They seem to change it that often that I've lost track. Regardless, the DEFRA Magic Map seems really good.

I once knew a forester named Hazel Groves. I'm pretty sure I've heard of a boy named Ewan Kerr in the past.

The FC website has a lot of good info on it, but is probably not that easy to use if you're not familiar with the grants system. I think the info will be in there, you might just have to dig a bit. It is a public register, so it should be accessible to the public. I think the formal language stems from it being a legal requirement for consultation to take place, so they must define the terms by which comments can be made. The DEFRA site does look very good , I couldn't find a Scottish equivalent, does anyone know of one?

Where would the fun in that be??? The idea isn't really so that I can breath test myself and then go out driving provided I'm 0.0000001 ml under the limit. If I feel rough as a dog I'm not going out driving. It's more for the times when you feel alright, but think to yourself, "hang on, I did have a few last night", just as a check. As often as not it'll probably be used as toy during the drinking process, juvenile, I know, but true. The Alcosense elite does seem to get good reviews.

I think so. I'm pretty sure I've used other types of refill in tapes, be it Spencer, Oregon Stihl, Husky, I think most of them fit each other fine, but there might be one that you have to drill a hole for the screw as the factory fitting is too big. Can't remember which one though.

Lateral thinking - I like it!

They are. Check the public register on the FC website, it should give you details of applications for a felling licence and details of active felling licences. You should also have the opportunity to comment, object to or endorse, on felling licence applications.

Thanks, any idea what one it is? Again, thanks, but I was looking for something slightly more scientific.

After a good night last night, I went to check my breath on the home breathalyser before going out today, only to discover it's not working. It was only a wee cheapie, not totally surprised it's packed in (yes - I've checked the battery) . Can anyone recommend a decent home breathalyser? Christmas coming, don't want to get caught out the morning after. Cheers

Love having the reversing camera. Fitted to the Land-Rover and wouldn't be without it now. Makes reversing out of places, hitching trailers, turning in tight spaces surrounded by trees/ditches much easier. I think Americam is the model I've got, following a review in one of the magazines. Easy to fit, quality of picture is good. There are certainly cheaper models out there, don't know how good they are. Get one, you won't regret it.

I remember firewood merchants taking down trees in fields for the wood at least 15 years ago. Doesn't seem to happen so much these days (good ), but if there's enough wood in the tree and access is good then it could be a viable option.

It would be really interesting to find out. I suspect if you total up on a pro rata basis of hours of saw use that the part-time user without training and PPE have many, many more accidents than professionals. Just my guess.

Just to be pedantic - it doesn't matter what you're working with, you still need the insurance. If you only work with a silky just make sure your insurance company knows that's all your working with.

I did a job by a road with a bus stop about a year ago. I had a Traffic Management company in to do the lights, told them there was a bus stop in the work area so that they could plan for it. All they did on the day was put a bag over the Bus Stop sign and cone it off, effectively removing the bus stop for the day. I asked them about it, as I presumed it would have to be kept open, but they just said that was the easiest way of dealing with it. Not sure if that's any help to you, but it worked for me.

I've done rhoddies, sycamore and exotic conifers in the past on arb tickets (even once did a bit of fencing), but I do think the days of this may be numbered. I think the aerial rescue thing should be alright if you're working with ground below you where you could lower a climber too. The issue would be if you're working in a gully with a river at the bottom, for instance, where a casualty would have to be rescued upwards.

The last time I asked that question the answer was that so long as you're tied to a tree you're OK with arb tickets (NPTC's). Aerial rescue techniques as applied to tree climbing don't exactly work in this situation though, so you might have to watch on that when doing the risk assessment. When I asked the question (to FC) I got the impression that no-one had really thought about it that much, they were just used to tree cutters having NPTC's and assumed that an arb climbing NPTC ticket would suffice. I think its only a very short step before a health and safety manager somewhere decides that IRATA tickets will be needed. I presume its Rhoddies you're doing?

Agreed, its even worse than the A9! Its unbelievable how long its taking to dual the A9! Don't see how spending money on average speed cameras is going to be a bigger improvement than spending it on on actual road improvements.

I'd steer clear of mesh guards if you've got the choice. Not only a pain to put on, also a pain to take off once all the branches have grown through, and don't pack up as easily as tubex type when you take them off. Also don't offer protection to the tree if you're spraying.

I think it would depend on the size of the tree and the progression of the infection. As I understand it, the infection takes hold in a leaf set and works its way back down through the twig, to branch to stem. The fungus then spreads from the leaf litter of dropped infected leaves. Therefore if its the first infection the tree would not necessarily wilt and die straight away (but branches could), but if its the second year of infection it would have greater effect. Please correct me if I'm wrong....

I believe there are many other diseases which can affect ash as well as chalara. If it is chalara you should be able to identify a clear point below which the infection hasn't taken hold. The diamond shaped lesions mentioned before are also a good give away, but I don't have experience of identifying them on larger bits of wood, only small stems/branches.

Haven't used a Solo saw for years. Used to use one, was about 45cc, and a semi-pro saw. Frankly it was a bit of a dog, under-power and unreliable, but it was what I was supplied with at the time. Got my hands on a Jonsered as soon as I could. Perhaps a bit unfair to judge a small semi-pro saw in a professional environment, but I don't have good memories of them. What is its intended use? Once a month for cutting logs it might be a lot better than 5 days a week felling and processing trees.

Oakwood, Buchlyvie?

Agree with both the above comments. Nothing wrong with having more than one string to your bow. Three different sites all coming back to the same source might even be seen as being dodgy by some.

I do not consider tree cutting to be a "profession". I do, however, consider myself to be a professional tree cutter. :confused1:

Production cutters on the ground use the chain brake less than climbing arbs. I think climbers have good reason for using the brake more often. I agree, to an extent, it is lazy not to put the brake on when on the ground, but if you're an experienced full time user, the saw is tuned right and the chain is tensioned correctly the risk of injury is low. For freshly certified cutters and those cutting their own firewood I'd always recommend putting the brake on. I also think threatening to dock someone's wages is a good way of backing this recommendation up. Full time production cutters need to live up to their name and produce - constantly applying the brake hinders this process - I don't think climbers should judge them to be not applying the brake enough, just as I don't think production cutters should judge climbers as applying the brake too much. The two jobs both involve chainsaws, but are very different. Please note, I'm talking about production cutters in the wood, not a groundy in someone's garden, again these two situations are very different. It should also be remembered that switching the saw off is a very effective way of preventing the chain turning - far too many saws sit idling on the ground for long periods for no good reason. Going back to the OP: I don't think NPTC should be teaching the full revs chain brake test any more. I think they have to teach testing the brake to the manufacturer's recommendation. In the case of Stihl I think this is apply the brake and blip the throttle twice? Husky might still be a full revs test, not sure. I think you should also be doing an inertia test by dropping the bar tip (saw switched off) onto a log/stump? I'll wait to be corrected.....