Tree Surveying

Wednesday 28th July 2021

Back to JORIC today to take a LANTRA certification in Basic Tree Survey and Inspection. Really interesting course and also a great instructor. We practiced tree identification - I did pretty well on that - better than I expected! . We learnt how to measure the height of a tree (to work out what would happen if it fell down!) Can you estimate the height of a tree? | National Trust for Scotland (nts.org.uk) I didnt try it but really must give it a go this weekend!

Mostly we focused on hazardous trees, how to identify them and what should be done about them. We walked around the grounds and found lots to discuss - I think they leave some of them there just for the course! There are lots of signs to watch out for and we found examples of most of them. Crown die back, lack of leaves, cavities, weak forks, oozing, damaged roots and lots of fungus!

We also found this tree and couldn't work out what was wrong with it. Bit difficult to see in the phot but there was a split in the bark from about 3m to the ground - both on the main trunk and on a branch close by. It had weakened the tree which looked generally unhealthy. Lightening strike apparently - learnt something new today! There were healthy beech trees very close by so the recommendation to take it out and give the healthy beech trees more light and space.

Great course - I went back home and dragged Robin out for a walk to look at trees!!