Tree surgeon from above.

National Tree Safety Group launches 'Common Sense Risk Management of Trees'

The National Tree Safety Group (NTSG) Drafting Group has worked for over three years in consultation with sector experts, refining and amending the document to provide the most up-to-date advice to landowners who are responsible for the management of trees under their control.

The National Tree Safety Group was formed in 2007 to bring together a cross-section of stakeholders with a shared interest in tree safety to assist those who own and have responsibility for trees, including householders with gardens, rural landowners and farmers, large charities,  public and private sector organisations, and local and national government.

The first edition of its guidance was published in December 2011 and has been widely accepted as a sector standard on how trees should be managed in the context of safety and how a landowner can fulfil their duty of care to staff, visitors and the general public. This 2nd edition builds on that work.

The drafting group comprised members of the following organisations who represent a wide cross section of the sectors at which the guidance is aimed: Arboricultural Association; Simon Richmond, Treework Environmental Practice; Nev Fay, The London Tree Officers Association; Andy Tipping, Forest Research; Elaine Dick, Forestry Commission; Hilary Allison, NTSG Chair and Jim Smith.

Changes come with time

The first edition of this guidance supported a growing awareness among those duty holders of the need to check their trees and provided guidance on a widely accepted approach to managing risks from trees, based on sector-wide consultation. More than a decade on, the NTSG has taken stock of what has changed, such as the emergence of widespread tree disease, growing public activism and advocacy around the benefits of trees now reflected in government policy, and a number of new legal cases. There are reasons why trees require a specific and unique approach to safety management: as natural organisms they organically change from year to year. While tree diseases are not new, emerging pests and diseases have moved from being isolated problems to impacting a large percentage of the nation’s stock of trees.     

This 2nd edition, comprising a Full Guidance Publication and a Summary document, is about an overall approach and lays out the principles behind tree risk management. Its scope is not prescriptive in dealing with tree pathology and failure. The Full Guidance Publication includes Scenarios providing examples of how trees can be managed in practice in different types of ownership and use. Safety and human health are paramount.     

The Full Guidance Publication and the Summary are available to purchase as hard copy through the Arboricultural Association’s online bookshop and digital copies can be downloaded from the NTSG website.       

Arboricultural Association chief executive officer John Parker said: “We’re really pleased to be strongly engaged with The National Tree Safety Group and assisting it to deliver its messages about better care for trees in the context of safety issues. It has never been more important for all those concerned with tree care to understand that the risks they pose must be balanced with all the benefits they provide.”     

Ross Murray, the incoming NTSG chair and forestry commissioner, said: “I am indebted to all the members of the drafting group who worked so hard for so long on this 2nd edition. Their contribution has been instrumental in achieving a valuable tool for landowners who also own trees. I must especially mention Hilary Allison, Forestry Commissioner and Outgoing Chair of the NTSG who has championed the NTSG generally and steered the drafting group by providing high level support, encouragement and advice”.

“The Forestry Commission has been a supporter of the NTSG since its inception and it continues to be so. I look forward to continuing the excellent work of Hilary and previous Chairs so the NTSG’s mission and guidance becomes second nature to all those whose land has trees growing on it”.     You can download the new NTSG Guidance for free here or buy hard copies here.

ARB Approved Contractors

Congratulations to Boward Tree Surgery (Oxford) Ltd for achieving the significant milestone of 40 years as an ARB Approved Contractor, the longest-serving company on the Scheme and the first to reach this anniversary. The Association has sent the team a certificate to mark the occasion, and we asked them to write about the company and its four decades as an ArbAC. 

Like most medium-sized tree firms, the work we do at Boward Tree Surgery is incredibly varied. We have built a solid reputation over the years and enjoy established working relationships with many clients both domestic and commercial. Being based just outside Oxford, we work closely with the universities as well as the city council, schools and construction companies etc. Here at Boward Tree Surgery we pride ourselves on our heritage and long-standing history in the industry. We have a base of experience in our upper management gained through combined decades in arboriculture. Company founder and director Michael Boys set the company up in 1978 and we have been an Arb Approved Contractor since 1983. Having started out as a pioneering climber in the late ’60s when the industry was in its infancy, Mike has now (reluctantly!) stepped back from the tools and concentrates on consultancy. 

Sam McCree became a director in 2014 and runs the company, having first worked for Boward on Saturdays when he was still at school. He then worked from the ground up, becoming lead climber before taking over the reins as managing director. Sam said, ‘When I got involved the foundations of a good company were there, largely due to Mike’s unparalleled work ethic over many years. It just needed modernising and adjusting as the company grew along with the arb industry as a whole. Mike is a bit of a local legend in “the tree world” and many people in the area have a story or two about his exploits in tree surgery. I will leave it at that!

“Things are very different now, even since I started less than 20 years ago. There has been massive progression and development of best practice and methodology, not to mention the obvious health and safety aspects of what is an inherently dangerous profession. There is now an emphasis on mechanisation and risk assessment which may not have always been so prominent.

“Being an ARB Approved Contactor has many benefits to us, not least of all because of the work that is available exclusively to approved contractors. The Arb Association are also a constant source of information and resource to improve the company across all facets. 

“Whilst we are always striving to make our work environment a safer place, I think it is important not to forget why most of us got into the industry in the first place, and why we suffer through the rain, the cold, the broken fences, the sawdust, the blunt chains, the late finishes and the broken-down chippers! We spend such a large proportion of our lives at work, it seems obvious to look for something that you enjoy and this job can offer so much. There are a million ways to earn money that are easier than tree surgery, but, like most arbs will agree, it is a hell of a job."

ARB Approved Contractor is the only comprehensive accreditation scheme for professional tree surgery businesses in the United Kingdom.

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