My day started before I even got to my new office for the day and when I say office I mean somebody’s garden. Getting up at 6:30am I found myself looking over the instructions given to me by the company I was shadowing for the day. Good strong shoes, heavy bearing jeans and a warm jacket was written on the email. Been a bit of a office body I don’t think I was quite prepared for the day ahead.
Arriving at the address I was given I was confronted by a large garden on the outskirts of the city, large open grass area and bigger trees than I was ever used to. Locking the car door the man in charge came over and laughed in what I felt was a sarcastic way and asked “Are you ready for this?”.
What could be the worst thing to happen? I didn’t even know what was coming or how hard it was going to be.
That day we were going to be pruning a large old oak tree that was situated in the middle of this large garden. The rest of the team all scuttled about as they knew the procedure of the day and obviously something they did every day.Ropes, helmets, body protection, chainsaws and lots of other gardening tools all suddenly appeared close to the large van and the team all having their own jobs quickly got sorted.
I was told that to do a tree of this sort the owner would need permission to do any work. The tree was situated in a conservation area and any work would need to be pre approved by the East Riding Council. I was also informed that a penalty of up to £20,000 can be imposed if prosecuted for cutting down, uprooting or wilfully destroying a tree, or topping, lopping or wilfully damaging a tree in a way that is likely to destroy it. With these kinds of fines I would have thought that all tree surgeons would make sure permission was granted, however to my surprise this isn’t the case.
“Many of the tree surgeons out there aren’t tree surgeons at all. No insurance, no qualifications and no idea what they are doing, they are door knockers. These people risk lives, litter the area, dump rubbish in lay-buys and risk imposing fines on customers”
So armed with this information and looking up at his massive feat of nature I asked what it was we was going to be doing.
A simple job I was told, we would be taking some dead wood off the right side of the tree. Looking up at this tree I wondered how this could be done, but in no time whatsoever the guys had climbed the tree, put ropes in ways I didn’t think would do much good and were down again. For insurance reasons I couldn’t actually help here but I was mesmerised at what everyone was doing, I was starting to understand the surgeon part of the occupation’s name! Everyone of the team was a vital cog of what was about to happen. The cut was made, the branch that was about the thickness of a 36 inch waist, and thinking of darting out of the way as this branch was going to come crashing down to the ground I was amazed at the fact it just sat there. Each person holding a rope worked in harmony to lower the branch down and then once down it was cut up using petrol chainsaws and loaded onto the van.
The day went on like this, each branch came down with ease and I was surprised at just how easy it was made to look. The customer, who was in just as much shock as me, was also impressed and happy this work had been done.
A few hours later the work was complete, the garden was cleared and it looked like no one had even been there.
I for one was shattered and went home to a long hot bath! But one thing is for sure, I won’t be letting anyone other than a professional go anywhere nears my little trees; and I would advise the same!
Local Companies: Evergreen Trees: 01482 801850 Willerby Tree Surgeons: 01482 651185 Ferriby Tree Surgeons: 01482 633777
