A Day in the Life of a Tree Surgeon
There is much more to being a Tree Surgeon than simply cutting down trees. Also known as Arborists, these specialist tradespeople are focused on keeping trees healthy and ensuring they don't pose any risk to people or property. Why is this so important? Simple – trees are paramount to our existence on this planet. Providing us with oxygen is just one of their jobs.
To help you get a better understanding of what is involved in being a qualified Tree Surgeon, here’s a typical day in the life of an Arborist…
Getting Set
As we’ve already established, there is a lot more to the job of a tree surgeon than meets the eye. Typically, the start of a day will consist of paperwork and necessary research – with a focus on ensuring the job is well planned and can be done safely. Specifically, this involves checking the weather, drawing up the relevant risk assessments and putting a plan in place for the day ahead.
Health & Safety
Whatever work needs doing, the first job upon arrival at the respective site is putting in place important health and safety measures. First and foremost this includes setting up safe working at height equipment to keep workers safe, setting up warning signs and felling cordons to keep others safe, and even setting up specific fuelling areas for cutting equipment.
Pruning, Removing, Re-Planting
This is where the exciting work begins. Arborists can be performing a range of jobs on any given day. Sometimes it is as simple as pruning existing trees to tidy them up, for aesthetic reasons, and to ensure the health of the tree. Other times it can involve removing the tree altogether, in order to get it away from things such as power lines and buildings. Then, last but not least, Tree Surgeons can often find themselves re-planting trees into better and safer places.
Crown Lifting Reduction and Thinning
Whilst some trees may require nothing more than a little regular maintenance pruning to keep them healthy and looking good, others may need special attention paid to their crown in order to resolve specific issues. A day in the life of a tree surgeon may often include spending a fair amount of time on the following important tasks:
Crown Lifting – Although there is no way to actually lift the crown of a mature tree, this pruning procedure gets its name from the fact that the crown appears to have been lifted once it has been completed. The procedure involves the removal of lower branches and is normally carried out on trees that pose access issues, i.e. trees whose lower branches may be interfering with vehicles, buildings, people or other plants in the vicinity. Carefully planned crown lifting jobs are performed by qualified arborists on a regular basis and you will be taught how to approach them during your training.
Crown Reduction – This type of pruning is focused on reducing the overall size and/or the height at which the crown reaches its maximum spread. In some cases, it is carried out in order to prevent a tree from outgrowing the space it occupies and causing a nuisance; in others, it is performed on trees that are at risk of becoming unstable due to irregular or excessive crown growth and spread. All comprehensive tree surgery training courses cover crown reduction techniques in some detail.
Crown Thinning – There are a couple of reasons why crown thinning may be indicated in certain specimens. In some cases, the presence of dead or diseased branches in a thickly growing crown may indicate the need to thin it out. In others, a poorly growing understory may benefit from the additional light that the plants receive after a tree’s crown has been thinned by fully trained professionals.
Although these advanced pruning techniques may sound difficult to put into practice, please rest assured that you will be more than capable of tackling them all after completing your training with us.
Researching Tree Protection Orders (TPO)
Not everything a tree surgeon does requires them to scale trees with a chainsaw. There is also a fair amount of research and paperwork involved. For instance, tree surgeons are often called upon to research Tree Protection Orders or TPOs. TPOs are produced by the local council in order to protect trees that have been determined to be of historical significance, or that are important to the character of a neighbourhood or for some other reason.
Home and business owners often contact tree surgeons and ask them to find out if a tree on their property that they want to cut back, remove or relocate has an outstanding TPO. If it does, the property owner may ask the tree surgeon to liaise with the local council in an attempt to find some sort of accommodation between the two parties. Since tree surgeons are frequently in touch with local councils as part of their job they are an ideal choice to handle such delicate negotiations.
Conducting Tree Risk Assessments: Tree risk assessments are performed to evaluate trees for potential risks they may pose. Tree surgeons typically perform risk assessments in order to identify damage or disease that may threaten people, property or neighbouring trees. There are several types of tree risk assessments. They are:
The Limited Visual Assessment: This is a broad, overall evaluation of the tree used to identify high-risk trees. These can be conducted from the ground or even from a moving vehicle. The thinking is that trees which pose extreme risks should be easy for a trained professional to identify.
The Basic Assessment: This is the next level up from a Limited Visual Assessment and is typically conducted from the ground right around the tree in question. The arborist looks for defects, signs of damage or indications of disease or infestation. They may also probe open cavities.
The Advanced Assessment: As the name implies the Advanced Assessment is a detailed examination of the tree from roots to crown. Assessment methods may include photos, videos and the performance of various tests to determine the exact health of the tree.
Contact Us
Interested in the life of a qualified Tree Surgeon? Here at the DTE Academy, we offer a range of City & Guilds qualifications in areas such as chainsaw maintenance, cutting and felling and even climbing and rescue. Contact us today to begin what could be an exciting and rewarding new career. Call us on 01959 524623 or email us on enquiries@dtetrees.co.uk.