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Ness

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  1. Good thread! I think, where you work often makes the biggest impact on profit. As long as there are a lot cheaper guys out there you may struggle to rely on quality over quantity. I think also that on one hand the industry is becoming more aware of legislation and that costs us a lot of money, but the customer is unaware of what they are getting for their money, hence the guys winging it will always have the upper hand. We have is the aa flying our flag and things are changing slowly but the goverment will pussy foot around the black market and not enforce propper laws as this will increase other forms of crime. So our costs keep rising but not in a way most customers can afford, hence smaller market place, increase costs, something has to give and it usually is the bosses wage.
  2. Sometimes when I know that the customer is getting a few quotes I price lower than normal to test the water and still don't get the work! Rare I do this but it never fails to amaze me. Some companies have even resorted to finding TPO applications on the web and cold calling the client when the contractor has already won the work and filled out the forms, low:thumbdown:
  3. I am pretty sure that from living and working in Cumbria for 14 years and from working in other places in the country also, this is the cheapest place to find a tree firm. I am not talking about the gardener with a saw or the farmer with his son and saw but real Arborist outfits. At the mo, the going rate is less than £300.00 per team of two plus VAT. Some would argue but that is what I am finding, all the time especially on the coverted bigger take downs. Is this tha same any where else?
  4. We know individual trees adapt to their environment, ie the stunted tree on a fellside. Oak, Ash, Sycamore, Rowan etc can do this and survive for many years because they are already some what adapted to this climate, but you would not expect to see a Catalpa up there. It would take many more years of adaptation to populate the hillside, if it could propagate at all. A tree pruned in it's formative years every year will create pollard points,at which it is able to regenerate leaf cover without the need for profuse epicormic growth/water shoots. European pollards live for many years like this, without forming the cavity issues you will get from 'topping'. Weakly attached vertical growth which will fail when the next generation of homeowner fails to maintain the tree and finds a thirty foot branch on their car in the morning. This is basic. We have all climbed these trees and had to multi anchor as the limbs are sitting on a nice open cavity unseen from the ground. The only saving grace is that they are usually full of water preventing decay fungi finishing the job earlier than the wind. Coppice works the same way. These trees have been grown for timber to order. Without chainsaws our predecessors harvested the timber at the right size. Not felling a six foot diameter Oak and then making gates with an axe. The regrowth would be constantly managed from the start, always having succession from different age trees. Sorry I did not get back earlier, pesky kids, had to play Ben 10!
  5. The trees that have been pollarded or coppiced have been done from an early age. The tree has adapted. To remove vast amounts of foliage in one growing season after many years of continued growth is not a natural process. We try to retain trees every time. I have walked away from work where we cannot agree on the outcome. We can discuss this to death but the proof is in the future progress of the trees we prune. Time will tell. As for the written word. BS3998, AA guides to pruning amenity trees. I am about to pop to the office to list the books, dates etc...... Apart from this, when has it ever not been a good idea to work with the trees biology instead of against it. Anything else is pure ego! That was a general dig, nothing personal!
  6. Ok, It is generally accepted that to almost defoliate a tree in it's growing season or to remove large amounts of branch wood can and will cause dysfunction leaving the tree open to other problems. I would put some of your pictured reductions at between 30-40%. We only do that if the tree is specifically asked not to be felled by the client and there is a basal decay issue with the tree, and usually they look rubbish after a few years after they have tried to recover leaf cover all over the stem or die back. Your pruning ignores this and as well as the work is carried out, the work is floored because the end result will be no benefit to the tree or the client. It is well structured topping and lopping! There, no personal attacks, on topic and critical. The tone of your last post was a bit aggressive but I will cope Tony:001_tt2:
  7. Tony, Looking back I can't see any personal digs worthy of a moan on this thread. I would only say that you set yourself up for negative replies when you start a thread like this. Your first post said it all. Unless you are really upset about the comments regarding reductions??? It is a good thread and interesting to see what people think about reductions, put if you will stick your neck out over researched, learned and generally accepted ideas on pruning, don't be suprised when some throw comments at you, on topic of course.
  8. I must admit a friend of mine was moderated a few times for what seemed like moderate veiws, but simply disagreeing with the majority. I will dig up an example if I can. This thread does have a few followers and we know Tony has got upset by the odd comment even if they were not aimed at him personally. Perhaps the moderator is trying to avoid handbags!
  9. Tony, After following this thread I find myself wondering if the whole idea of justifying heavy reductions in everyday amenity situations dangerous. Our industry is all over the place in respect of correct pruning work by tree workers, both within the fragmented industry and in the eyes of the public. If we have any hope of being seen as professionals surley we need some common ground, like with BS3998, which most people band around without even reading. This thread is valuable and new ideas and new thinking is priceless but could be taken out of context. The dogma you talk about in respect of correct pruning methods over the last twenty years have not reached the ears of the general public yet. So much of the reduction work you discuss is similar to what the public expect anyway when they ring up and asked for their trees to be 'topped'. I know the difference and you know the difference but should we give our urban trees a chance and go easy with the saw? After all the jury is still out on this and you will not know the results of your labour for a few years yet. In case there needs to be clarification, I think many of the trees I have seen on this thread will die due to over pruning in the next few years, but hey I could be wrong!

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