Statistically speaking, the risk of being injured or killed by a falling tree or branch is very low, however it can and does happen. Recent incidents include a falling tree on the A287 in Hampshire which killed a 48 year-old man. Not only can it kill, but it can cause severe delays on our transport system, such as a large fallen tree blocking A30 London Road in Camberley and an Arriva Train in Wales which struck a fallen tree on the line, injuring four people, significantly damaging the train and causing long delays.

(ref left to right: British Transport Police / wales online.co.uk / Robert Dorian Barbero)

As our climate changes, high winds are becoming ever more prevalent, causing widespread damage and disruption throughout the UK. Where a tree is hazardous due to decay or structural weakness, and shows signs of such, the occupier of the land on which it stands is normally liable under UK law for any personal injury or damage that it causes. Occupiers and land-owners have a liability of risk which needs to be managed.

Budget constraints can be a real issue for land owners and managers of large, widespread estates. Sites are often spread across the country and carrying out ground surveys requires an army of tree surveyors. This often means that tree management becomes a “reactive” affair, with defects often reported by site engineers, other site visitors and neighbours, after a tree has fallen and damaged assets.  This leaves occupiers and land owners vulnerable from a liability and brand perspective.   How can you effectively manage hundreds of thousands and even millions of trees as some Utility companies may have?

Typically, from our experience of surveying millions of trees worldwide, only around 2.38% of trees surveyed require immediate remediation work. This is where we can help find the “needle in a haystack”. Utilising specialist cameras mounted to a small airplane or helicopter, we can survey large areas of trees and vegetation very quickly, in order to pinpoint any dead/dying trees or trees that are showing signs of stress. We can then direct ground surveyors directly to these problem trees.

Not only can we pinpoint potential problem trees, we also provide other key data such as:

• Tree Count
• Tree GPS position
• Tree Height
• Tree Canopy
• Tree Cover/Obstruction modelling

And all this information can be interrogated within our web based GIS tree management software, to enable you to proactively manage your tree stock.

Are you responsible for 100,000 trees or more? Would you like to find out how you can more efficiently manage your tree stock and keep compliant? Contact us now 020 3818 5998 or email us at info@arborflight.co.uk .