What the BS 5837 tree schedule must record, column by column

The tree schedule is the part of a BS 5837 tree survey that decides everything downstream. Get a stem diameter wrong by 60 mm and the root protection area moves by nearly a metre, which can be the difference between a foundation that needs no special detail and one that needs a piled raft. The schedule is a table, one row per tree or group, and BS 5837:2012 sets out what each column has to carry. Most arboricultural reports that come back from validation queries fail on the schedule rather than the narrative.

For an architect reading a survey rather than writing one, the schedule is where you check whether the constraints you have been given are real.

What each column has to carry

The standard expects a reference number, species, height in metres, stem diameter, branch spread, height of crown clearance above adjacent ground level, age class, physiological condition, structural condition, preliminary management recommendations, estimated remaining contribution in years, and a retention category. Good surveyors add the root protection area in square metres and the radius in metres, because that is the figure the designer actually uses.

Reference numbers should match the topographic survey and stay fixed through every later drawing. Renumbering between the survey and the tree protection plan is the single most common source of confusion on site, and it is entirely avoidable.

Groups get a G prefix, hedges an H prefix, woodland a W prefix. A group row describes the group as a whole, which is fine for a boundary of self-seeded sycamore and useless for a line of mature limes where each tree will be assessed separately by the case officer. Push back when individually distinct trees are bundled into a group to save survey time.

Measuring stem diameter and estimating height

Stem diameter is measured at 1.5 m above ground level. Where a tree forks below that point, the standard sets out how to take the measurement: at the narrowest point below the fork, or as a combined figure derived from the individual stems where the tree has several stems from the base. For a multi-stem tree the combined diameter is the square root of the sum of the squared diameters, which gives a smaller figure than simply adding them, and a surveyor who adds them has inflated the root protection area.

The root protection area follows from the diameter: a radius of 12 times the stem diameter, drawn as a circle with an area capped at 707 m². A 600 mm oak therefore carries a 7.2 m radius. That circle is then modified in plan to reflect soil conditions, existing structures and known root distribution, but the area must stay the same. Modified does not mean reduced.

Heights are estimated, usually with a clinometer, and nobody expects them to the centimetre. They matter for shading, for scaffold clearance and for judging whether a crown reduction is plausible. If a schedule gives every tree in a mixed group the same height to the metre, it was written from the pavement.

Crown spread at four points

Branch spread is recorded at the four cardinal points, north, south, east and west, in metres from the stem. Four figures, not one average. The reason is practical: a lime that has been pruned back hard on its highway side has a 2 m spread north and a 9 m spread south, and an average of 5.5 m would hide the fact that the canopy hangs over the proposed terrace.

Crown clearance above adjacent ground level is recorded alongside it, together with the height and direction of the first branch worth noting. That pair of figures tells you whether a car can pass beneath, whether a fire tender can reach a building, and how much of the crown would have to go to achieve either.

Shading is not a column in the schedule, but it is calculated from height and spread, and it is one of the two constraints (the other being the root protection area) that the tree constraints plan puts on the designer's drawing. The same geometry that governs a shadow plot in an Overshadowing Study governs tree shading, though arboricultural practice uses a simpler north-facing arc rather than hourly sun paths.

Physiological and structural condition

These are two separate judgements and a schedule that merges them into one "condition: fair" cell is not following the standard. Physiological condition is about vitality: crown density, extension growth, dieback, foliage colour, fungal fruiting bodies associated with decline. Structural condition is about the tree's ability to stay standing: included bark at unions, cavities, basal decay, lean with recent soil heave, previous failures.

A tree can be physiologically good and structurally poor. An old horse chestnut with a full crown and a hollow butt is the classic case. The distinction matters because remedial work differs, and because a structurally poor tree close to a proposed building will attract a different officer response from one that is simply in slow decline.

The grading language here works much like the condition scales used in a building survey, where the same split between performance and defect runs through the report. If you have read condition grading in a structural survey, the logic will be familiar, though the arboricultural categories are fixed by the standard rather than chosen by the author.

Estimated remaining contribution and category grading

Estimated remaining contribution is given in bands: less than 10 years, at least 10 years, at least 20 years, at least 40 years. It is a judgement about how long the tree can reasonably be expected to contribute in its current context, not a prediction of biological lifespan. A healthy young cherry in the middle of a plot that is due to be built on still gets its band on arboricultural grounds.

The retention categories then follow from condition and contribution.

Each retained category carries a subcategory: 1 for mainly arboricultural qualities, 2 for mainly landscape qualities, 3 for mainly cultural values including conservation. A veteran field maple in a hedge line might be B3 rather than B1, and that subcategory is what a conservation officer will seize on. Categories can be combined, so A1, B2 appears where a tree scores on both counts.

Category U is the one to check hardest. A schedule that finds three category U trees, all of them exactly where the proposed footprint sits, invites a suspicious officer. Sometimes it is true. But it needs photographs, a named defect and a reason, not a one-word note.

Keeping the schedule aligned with the drawings

The schedule feeds the tree constraints plan, which feeds the layout, which feeds the arboricultural impact assessment, which feeds the tree protection plan and the method statement. Every one of those documents repeats numbers from the schedule, and every repetition is a chance to introduce an error.

Three checks before a submission goes out:

1. Every tree number in the schedule appears on the constraints plan, and no plan label lacks a schedule row.
2. Root protection areas on the drawing match the areas in the schedule, in square metres, including any modified shapes.
3. Trees shown as removed in the layout are listed as removed in the impact assessment, with their category, so the officer can see what quality of tree is being lost.

Where a Tree Preservation Order or a conservation area applies, the schedule also needs to make clear which trees are protected, because the consent route changes. Work to a protected tree needs its own application or notice regardless of what the planning permission says. This is general guidance rather than legal advice, so check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

Councils normally expect a tree survey to be carried out by a suitably qualified arboriculturist, and professional review is strongly advised before anything is submitted. PlanScope can draft the narrative sections that sit around the schedule, including the Arboricultural Impact Assessment structure and the policy references, then flag the site data that only a survey can supply. The survey measurements themselves have to come from someone standing under the tree with a tape.

If you are assembling the wider document set for a scheme with trees on it, browse the report types by category and work out which of them your site actually triggers.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.