Do you know what it is yet?

What a great day yesterday, 24 April, at King and Co, The Tree Nursery, in Rayne in Essex, with Paul King and Christine Walkden talking about Dutch Elm Disease for The One Show.

The day gave me a series of fascinating insights into the process of filming (the repetition, the retakes, the soundtrack and so on) and the important role that everyone behind the scenes has as part of the team to bring the story to you.

My contribution was to try to sound knowledgeable about the disease and to help inform the viewer about how the disease was transmitted – perhaps it may make people think about other potential disease or pest problems, such as Phytophthora or Asian Longhorn Beetle.

I tried to explain the structure of the tree, and that trees grow because of the division during the growing season of a single layer of cambium cells just below the bark.   The cells toward the centre become the xylem, transporting water from the soil to the leaves where the magic of photosynthesis can combine that water with atmospheric carbon dioxide to form oxygen to be released into the atmosphere and the carbohydrates (simple and complex) that the tree needs to survive.

I had hoped for a beetle, the vector of the fungal disease, as a visual aid but I was defeated by the postal service bringing the insect from Eastbourne; in the end I reverted to Beaver Leader mode and made a model from different coloured drinking straws, don’t think too badly of me.

Do you know what it is yet?

Green shoots?

After a quiet period toward the end of Q4 of 2011/12 I have recently submitted proposals for arboricultural support and advice for a range of customers, old and new, from Doncaster to Portsmouth.   A couple are much more local; one is tree safety inspection in a churchyard and the other is guidance upon the implications of re-surfacing a private drive flanked by mature limes.   A client visit tomorrow will discuss a tree inspection plan for an academy.

BS 5837:2012 Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction – Recommendations

BS 5837:2012 Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction – Recommendations is all set, according to those in the know, to become a “best seller”.

It is of course a fundamental tool and source of guidance for all parties involved with, believe it or not, trees in relation to design, demolition and construction.  If a private householder is planning a modest extension, or if a major player is looking to develop a substantial site, then the local planning authority will advise from the outset that professional arboricultural advice be sought and be presented in accordance with the standard.

The new standard will come into force on 30 April when the 2005 edition will be withdrawn.

The design and construction process and tree care

The newly published BS 5837:2012 Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction – Recommendations has adopted the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) work stages as their template for putting trees at the heart of the design process: a detailed flow diagram is included as Figure 1 of that new standard (due to come into force on 30 April 2012).

The ideal times to instruct an arboricultural professional to ensure that all tree related constraints are considered at the right time in the process, in order to prevent tree-related delays with an application, can be mapped onto, as follows;

Phase 1 – Feasibility and planning

A - Feasibility study

·         Topographical survey, and soil assessment (Clause 4.2 and 4.3 of  BS 5837:2012)

·         Tree survey (Clause 4.4)

·         Tree categorisation (Clause 4.5)

B - Design brief

·         Identify tree constraints and root protection areas (Clause 4.5, 4.6 and 6)

C - Conceptual design

·         Identify and review potential trees for retention and removal (clause 5)

D - Design development

·         Prepare the tree protection plan (Clause 5.5)

·         Prepare new planting and landscape proposals (Clause 5.6)

At this point in the process scheme design approvals are required, from the client, customer and regulatory bodies.

Phase 2 - Detailed technical design

E - Technical design

·         Resolve the tree protection proposals (Clause 6.2)

·         Agree new utility apparatus locations, routes and arboricultural methodologies (Clause 6.1 and 7)

F - Production information

·         Schedule trees for removal and for pre-construction tree works (including those works required to facilitate access to the scheme) (Clause 5.4 and 8.8)

G - Tender documentation

·         Identify the tree protection measures required (Clause 6.2) and ensure that they are included in all the relevant documents.

Phases 1 and 2 are essential parts of the planning and pre-commencement stages of development.   

Once Phase 3 commences it is essential that the tree issues are fully understood and that the tree-related conditions of the consent are properly implemented to help to ensure the future well-being of the trees that are to be retained as part of the permitted development.

It is recommended that a competent arboriculturist project manage all the tree issues associated with the permitted development, for example pre-construction tree works, tree protection measures and any other tree-related matters that may arise.   The benefits are two-fold:

·         this should prevent unnecessary damage to trees that are to be retained, and

·         where trees are accidentally damaged, the necessary remedial works can be identified, approved and implemented.

Any such incidents should be recorded on the project’s Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 Health and Safety file to provide proof that the appropriate remedial works were undertaken should the tree fail in the future.

Given the above, the following is recommended for the third and final stage of development – Implementation and aftercare.

Phase 3 - Implementation and aftercare

H - Tender action

·         Tender documents to be reviewed by the competent arboriculturist prior to publication

J – Mobilization

·         Pre-commencement meeting with Project/Site Manager, local planning authority Tree Officer and arboricultural consultant

·         Preparation and approval of site monitoring and intervention protocols (Clause 6.3)

·         physical barriers erected (Claue 6.3)

·         site clearance and demolition works (Clause 7)

·         acces storage and working areas defined (Caluse 6)

·         construction works (Clause 7)

·         new planting (Clause 8)

K - Construction to practical completion

·         Implementation of approved site monitoring protocols (Caluse 6.3)

L – Post-practical completion

·         Final inspection of trees and final arboricultural monitoring programme report (Clause 8.8)

·         recommendations for post-completion management (Clause 8.8)

·         remedial tree work if required

If the arboricultural elements of any prospective development are undertaken as detailed above, it will, without doubt, enhance the chances of success and prevent any tree-related delays to the planning process, thereby saving the customer both time and money.

Define, design and then deliver

Define
It is imperative for both the client and the consultant, and all the other professional or neighbours that may come to rely upon the consultant’s work, to know exactly what it is that the consultant has been asked to do, in other words to carefully define the actual problem that needs addressing, the absolute need.
 
This absolute need may not always be the same as simply trying to resolve the presenting problem.
 
For example, the absolute need may be to secure planning consent from the local planning authority; the presenting need may simply be for the applicant to submit “a tree report” with the application for planning consent.
 
Design

Once the definition of the client’s absolute need has been defined, to the satisfaction of both the client and the consultant, and agreed in writing, the consultant can then begin to invest time in researching how best to design the most appropriate consultancy service that will best answer the client’s absolute need.
 
Continuing the example from above, if the need is to secure planning consent then the consultant’s report will, as an absolute minimum,  have to follow the guidance within BS 5837:2012 Tress in relation to design, demolition and construction – Recommendations – anything less will not meet the local planning authority’s needs and so will not serve the client’s best interests.
 
If the client needs more, or if the consultant offers more, then that will need to be agreed prior to this stage of the consultancy service.   Additional work, after the client’s instruction has been accepted, may result in considerably more work for the consultant and may well be the subject of an additional consultancy fee.
 
Deliver

The deliverables need to be agreed, just as much as the fundamental question that requires to be answered.

At the simplest level, what format should the consultant’s report take?   Should it be an un-locked Word file or a secure PDF, should the site plan be on the back of a fag packet or presented as an AutoCAD or SHP file?

Another key concern will be the consultant’s timeline – if the client’s need is urgent, can the preferred consultant deliver within that time, or will another consultant be invited to submit a proposal?

An appropriate consultancy solution

Once the 3Ds have been agreed then the consultant and the client may both be content that the best quality of instruction has been prepared to deliver the most appropriate consultancy solution.

An independent consultant

A successful first couple of quarters?

Since becoming an independent consultant last October I have enjoyed a quietly successful first half year’s trading, with some generous contacts made in my former lives inviting me to help them do what they needed to do to make their own grown-ups happy.

I have helped with winning tenders, carried out tree surveys on development sites, I have undertaken a hedgerow survey, I have objected to the making of a TPO, I have inspected hazard trees, I have helped draft management strategies, and I have been active as the Industrial Advisor to an arboricultural HE provider – quite a good mixed bag stretching me as I help others.

However, perhaps as a consequence of the more generalised economic downturn, things have quietened down for me as we move toward the end of Q1 of 2012.

In-bound marketing

One consequence of not being able to trade my time for money is that I can look at ways that others have used to seek to direct traffic to their door, and so I have developed my Linkedin profile and used my Twitter account to seek out those who might be able to benefit from the services that I can offer.   I sent my cv to Klout to score and they were scathing and so I have re-worked it, whether it will make a difference I can not say – I don’t suppose it’s the reason that things have gone quiet, do you?   Following an exchange of comments on Linkedin with Steve Scaysbrook of Konstrukshon Ltd (steve.scaysbrook@konstrukshon.co.uk) I am about to embark on a similar exercise with Google+

A couple of firsts

A career path?

During the past couple of weeks I have closed out my small involvement with one project that may have significant consequences for future arboricultural students and those in the industry.   The exercise that I undertook was to look at the range of qualifications that are available to the “learner” for want of a better word, and to put them into a number of pots – for example what QCF Level might they be at, who might they suit?

High hedges

Another first for me was to become involved in the analysis of a boundary hedge that might fall under the definition of a ‘high hedge’ as given in Part 8 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, i.e.

‘so much of a barrier to light or access as:

(a)    is formed wholly or predominantly by a line of two or more evergreens; and

(b)   rises to a height of more than two metres above ground level.’

I was using the DCLG’s guidance in Hedge height and light loss template and came to the conclusion that consideration ought to be given to reducing the hedge’s height to avert the possibility of blocking too much daylight and sunlight to adjoining properties.   The guidance applies to the neighbour’s property in its entirety, not simply the house but the garden too, and does not make a general provision for a lower hedge near the house and a taller hedge down the garden path.