We carry out a lot of tree surgery work on garden trees in Haddenham & other villages in South Bucks. Last week our tree team were working on a large Ash tree in a mature garden. The owner had been worried about the tree for a while and took advice from a tree consultancy based in Henley-on-Thames.
Fulford-Dobson Associates Ltd are registered consultants with the Arboricultural Association and we are often called to undertake tree work that they have recommended to their clients. This large Ash tree had been assessed and found to be at risk of structural failure due to a poorly formed union between two main stems. The recommendation was to reduce the height and spread of the tree by several meters to lessen the wind load and end weight acting on the stem union at a height of around 5 meters where the main stem divided.
There was no access for our cherry picker to reach this tree so one of our expert tree surgeons climbed the tree using rope and harness techniques. Sections of the crown were carefully pruned back using a small chainsaw to suitable growth points. Care is taken to ensure that the pruning cuts are made correctly to minimise unnecessary damage to the tree and importantly to leave the tree with a natural and balanced appearance on completion. We always aim to leave a flowing branch line without any abruptly truncated branches.
The photo above gives a better indication of how it is possible to achieve this. Ash trees, in fact can be quite challenging when it comes to crown reduction due to the angular form of the crown structure and architecture.
A vast tree like this often takes a couple of days climbing work, depending on what is present below the tree. Sometimes almost every piece that is removed needs to be carefully lowered into a safe drop zone.
This job was completed over two days and our client was very pleased with the result and the skill and care that had gone into the work. These are the type of jobs that provide a lot of satisfaction for the team and we take great pride in the quality of all our pruning work, especially as the results are often visible to the wider public as well as the tree owner.
