Trees and Arboriculture – Page 5
BS 5837 tree surveys, root protection, method statements and Tree Preservation Orders.
Trees and Arboriculture articles – page 5
262 articlesPotential roost features on trees in a survey
Assessing potential roost features answers one question: can this tree be felled without committing an offence. Here is the escalation from ground assessment to licence.
Crown reduction against felling: what councils approve
The amenity test favours keeping the tree. Most reductions are refused for a vague specification rather than a weak argument, and most felling applications fail on causation.
Street trees in highway works: pits, soil volume, services
The usual reason a street tree fails is rooting volume. Work back from the mature crown, find somewhere to put 40 or 90 cubic metres of usable soil, then settle the service corridor and the maintenance.
Evidencing tree canopy cover targets in a scheme
Meeting a canopy cover target on paper is easy. The calculation that survives review states the assessment age, the species crown spread and the soil volume behind every tree.
Identifying a veteran tree and the buffer expected
Ancient and veteran trees are treated as irreplaceable habitat. How surveyors identify them, how the buffer zone is calculated, and when a veteran tree simply defeats a layout.
Trees and archaeology: where the two constraints meet
Root protection says do not dig; archaeology says characterise the deposits. How to resolve the conflict through geophysics, supervised test pits and a single joint strategy.
Tree safety inspections and the landowner's duty
The duty is the ordinary duty of care applied to trees. How zoning by occupancy sets the inspection regime, what the record must contain, and why the closed-out action matters most.
Keeping a protected tree in a new dwelling's garden
The risk to a retained tree in a private garden is not the excavator, it is the householder three years later. How to design and evidence a layout that survives occupation.
Emergency tree works and evidencing an immediate risk
The exemption for urgent tree works is judged after the event, and the burden sits with whoever did the cutting. What to photograph, what to write down and when notice is due.
Routing services through a root protection area
A machine-dug trench across a root protection area is not an option. What BS 5837:2012 expects instead, where trenchless installation stops working, and what the method statement has to say.
When a tree is both in a conservation area and protected
Only one regime applies where both could. Apply for consent under the Order and skip the six week notice, because a notice for a protected tree achieves nothing.
Street trees, highway works and who gives consent
A permission showing a verge tree removed does not authorise its removal. Who owns highway trees, which consents apply, and where section 278 agreements bite.
Designing a housing layout around tree shade
BS 5837 expects shade and future felling pressure to be assessed at layout stage. Shadow plots, garden orientation, window positions and the conditions that hold.
Veteran trees: identification and buffer distances
Ancient and veteran trees are irreplaceable habitat, and the buffer they need exceeds a BS 5837 root protection area. How to identify one and size the buffer.
The dead tree exemption and the five day notice
The 2012 Regulations dropped dead, dying or dangerous. Two narrow exemptions replaced it, each with its own notice requirement and a replanting duty.
Tree replacement notices and how to appeal one
The duty to replace a protected tree arises automatically under section 206, and a section 207 notice makes it enforceable. The appeal must be made before the notice takes effect, which can be 28 days after service.
Canopy cover targets and how they shape a site layout
Where a local plan sets a canopy cover target, the number of trees follows from arithmetic and their positions from rooting volume, drainage and highway geometry. Fix tree positions with the road centreline, not after it.
Responding to an allegation of unauthorised tree felling
Cutting down a protected tree without consent is a criminal offence with an unlimited fine. This sets out the offences, the exceptions that provide a defence, and the order in which to respond.
Tree replacement conditions and how long they bind you
A protected tree removed under consent triggers a statutory replacement duty that runs with the land. The landscape condition on the permission runs separately. Here is how both work and how to vary them.
Tree protection fencing: specification and timing
The fence has to be up before demolition, clearance or the welfare cabin, and strong enough that one person with a wheelbarrow cannot move it.
Root protection area for a multi-stem tree, calculated
Multi-stem trees get one combined stem diameter, found from the sum of the squares. Add the diameters instead and the protected area comes out three times too big.
Trees and drainage: soakaways, sewers and root ingress
Drainage and trees want the same ground. Here is how to site soakaways around root protection areas, install services without trenching, and deal with root ingress claims.
Tree planting conditions: species, stock size and establishment
Planting conditions are easy to discharge and hard to survive. Here is how species, stock size, soil volume and aftercare decide whether the trees are alive at the end of the establishment period.
Ancient woodland buffers on a development site
Ancient woodland is irreplaceable habitat, and the buffer around it usually sets the developable area. Here is where the 15 metre figure comes from and what the buffer has to do.
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