This week Thor’s Trees were commisioned the much trusted task of deadwooding one of Enfield’s highly valued veteran Oak tree’s in St Stephen’s Church grounds on Village Road, EN1.
It was suggested by Enfield council that some of the ‘dead’ limbs were shortened to reduce weight and lever action in order to reduce the risk of public harm from dead branches falling over the highway/pavement below. The tree only required some minor tree work and none of the live growth was to be removed.
Technically this work (removal of deadwood) is exempt from having to submit a formal application for tree works to a TPO’d tree. However, given that this tree is a highly valuable and significant veteran tree it was suggest that we submitted to Enfield’s LPA a detailed specification of works with annotated photos showing the extent of pruning that was to be carried out. We were also instructed to carry out a Bat survey on the tree, as Enfield have a small growing bat population. Following the submission of all required documention, we were given persmission to carry out the proposed works.
All works proposed was to be kept to the the very minimum, which meant that climbing this tree was going to be a little tricky, due to the fragile state the tree was in. It was important that because this is a valuable veteran Oak tree, any pruning works was to not be to the trees detriment of health. Thor’s Trees chose the method of using a Mobile Elevated Work Platorm (MEWP) to carry out the pruning works, removing branches in small pieces and without the use of rigging/lowering equipment to minimise any damages that may be incurred from load bearing tree structure as it currently stands.
It was important that the branch removal works was to be kept to an absolute minimum and live growth was not to be touched as all live growth, should the Oak tree decline further, will eventually form part of a new established crown. All works were to comply with BS3998:2010 tree work recommendations.
The pruning works was completed to a success and the Oak tree, now coming into leaf, is looking great!!..
Technically this work (removal of deadwood) is exempt from having to submit a formal application for tree works to a TPO’d tree. However, given that this tree is a highly valuable and significant veteran tree it was suggest that we submitted to Enfield’s LPA a detailed specification of works with annotated photos showing the extent of pruning that was to be carried out. We were also instructed to carry out a Bat survey on the tree, as Enfield have a small growing bat population. Following the submission of all required documention, we were given persmission to carry out the proposed works.
All works proposed was to be kept to the the very minimum, which meant that climbing this tree was going to be a little tricky, due to the fragile state the tree was in. It was important that because this is a valuable veteran Oak tree, any pruning works was to not be to the trees detriment of health. Thor’s Trees chose the method of using a Mobile Elevated Work Platorm (MEWP) to carry out the pruning works, removing branches in small pieces and without the use of rigging/lowering equipment to minimise any damages that may be incurred from load bearing tree structure as it currently stands.
It was important that the branch removal works was to be kept to an absolute minimum and live growth was not to be touched as all live growth, should the Oak tree decline further, will eventually form part of a new established crown. All works were to comply with BS3998:2010 tree work recommendations.
The pruning works was completed to a success and the Oak tree, now coming into leaf, is looking great!!..
Images