Tree Surveys & Inspections
Legal liability
Under common law, tree owners have a duty of care to prevent reasonably foreseeable harm being caused by their trees. Sometimes apparently healthy trees fail and no tree can ever be declared 100% safe. However, if the failure of a tree could have been predicted, either because it was dead, diseased or had some other apparent defect, then its owner would be liable for any harm caused by it.
Avoiding tree related damage is best achieved by using a proactive approach so that structural defects, dead branches, harmful fungi and other pests and diseases can be identified early and dealt with before harm occurs. This is best carried out by undertaking regular surveys or inspections. Arborglyph Tree Services offer a range of services to help tree owners manage their risk.
Tree surveys
Typically, surveys will be carried out on behalf of public or private bodies that are responsible for multiple trees , such as councils, estates, holiday parks, schools or larger business premises. As well as identifying defects, basic data on species, dimensions and location are also recorded. In most scenarios the individual trees are tagged with a unique number related to a location map and to a list of trees which contains the recorded data and our recommendations for any remedial work required. the survey is repeated at suitable intervals, usually every 3 years in order to ensure that the information is up to date.
Tree inspections
Where more detailed information is required to assess the health and condition of a tree, an individual tree inspection may be undertaken. Our inspections use a systematic approach called Visual Tree Assessment (VTA) which assesses everything from the visible root plate to the stem, major limbs up to the crown and foliage. In most cases this is carried out from the ground, however, aerial inspection may be required for particularly large trees or where specific questions need to be answered. The results are presented in detailed, illustrated report.
Detailed inspection is more often applied to individual trees or small numbers of trees, especially those that are protected by Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) or those that are ancient or have particular historical, cultural or amenity value.
Detailed inspection may sometimes be required as an outcome of a tree survey where more information is needed to provided suitable recommendations for remedial work. Inspections are often requested by local authority tree officers to provide the information necessary to justify remedial work on TPO trees.
