#South Brisbane Storm Tree Assessment

[dynamictreesolutions-au]

Dangerous Tree Experts North Brisbane | Dynamic Tree Solutions

Dynamic Tree Solutions, we provide a comprehensive suite of tree removal services, specializing in dangerous Dangerous Tree Experts North Brisbane , the Scenic Rim, and Northern NSW regions, our proficient team is equipped with industry-leading knowledge and state-of-the-art machinery to handle all aspects of dead tree removal, large complex tree removal, and arborist tree removal. Visit us now:- https://dynamictreesolutions.com.au/dangerous-tree-removal/

[edentreesarboriculture]

A Step by Step Guide to Hiring an Arborist

  If your trees need attention, you aren’t sure how to go about it, you don’t know what your legal obligations are or you’re unsure who you should hire - then this is the article for you.  

1. What is the real issue with your trees?

  Though sometimes it is obvious what the issues are, often there is more to it. Trees are large living structures that are complex and require a trained eye to see best what is going on. Trees are assets when adequately cared for. Sometimes what appears to be the problem isn’t always the issue. Identifying what the REAL concern is paramount. With the right information at the start, you can save yourself time, heartache and ultimately money by getting to the source of the issue and the subsequent options to solve it. An expert arborist takes into consideration many aspects while assessing the REAL issues. Whether it is identifying the type of tree, the common traits (roots, growth, potential size when mature, health and structural integrity), the position on the property in relation to your house, soil conditions, whether the tree will block gutters and pipes, even views; or if your trees are exposed or protected from strong winds and storms.

2. Tree Lopper vs Qualified Arborist, What is the difference?

  Many people may not know this, but your standard “Tree Lopper” is not required to hold any formal qualifications to carry out tree services in Queensland... Yep, this is certainly something you should be aware of as pretty much anyone with a chainsaw could legally provide you tree services. Needless to say, a Tree Lopper can do a lot of lasting damage to your valuable trees within a short space of time. So what is the difference between a Qualified Arborist and a regular Tree Lopper? Tree Lopper The “tree lopper” has probably worked as a labourer on a crew in the past, for several years. They have picked up enough knowledge to tackle small to medium size projects with a low degree of confidence. In many cases, they will not have the funding to purchase or maintain modern equipment, will not be able to present you with current public liability insurance, will not have workers comp, will not have his vehicles and equipment insured and will most likely (but not always) have a cheaper quote. This is because they have no formal education on tree management, this could lead to INCORRECT advice relating to your tree situation and the solutions and practice they offer. Qualified Arborist A fully qualified arborist holds a minimum AQF Cert 3 Arboriculture (National Course Code: AHC30816) where he has not only had the experience of spending many years on a tree service team but also holds formal training in all aspects of dismantling trees safely and arboricultural knowledge relating to species and condition of your trees. The Cert 3 Arborist can provide you with extensive expertise with accurate advice about your needs An Arborist should be able to present the following on request: • Current Public Liability Insurance Certificate • Workers Comp documents • Vehicles and equipment insurance papers • QF Cert 3 Arboriculture You should also look for the following: • Condition of the worker’s equipment • Online reviews, Facebook, google my business, yelp. • Check their website and social page for proof of previous works, testimonials etc.

3. Seek Council Approval ..  it pays to Check

  Once the real issue has been identified. Council approval is the next step - In South East QLD the Council’s there have differing regulations on what the property owners can and can’t do with their trees. Information can be found by calling your local council or clicking the appropriate link below. Here you will find what trees are exempt from vegetation protection orders and do not require approval. For all protected vegetation (trees) you will need to submit an application to your local council before any work takes place. Brisbane Council Logan City Council Redland City Council Gold Coast City Council Moreton Bay Council Ipswich City Council Scenic Rim Regional Council Here are some examples of reasons for removing trees on private property: • Dead trees • Dangerous / Hazardous trees • Branches falling • Diseased Trees • Weed Trees (some councils have a list of these trees that can be removed) • Significant damage to propertyDA Approved • building plans The reasons below are generally unfit for tree removal: • Tree(s) reaching over the house, powerlines, pool • or children’s play area • Trees blocking a view • Falling debris, leaves, dead branches and leaves. • Shade issues made by trees • Trees planted by you • Exotic trees Development Application: If the tree(s) are being removed to support a development you would need to specify this on your application and usually submit supporting evidence that there is no other way for the development to proceed without removing the trees. This would be done using a AQF Cert 5 Consulting Arborist who will provide you with an Arborist Report.  

4. Provide a Written and Detailed Quote

  Obtaining a detailed written quote may seem the obvious outcome with most trades people, but very often the unprofessional “tree lopper” will give you a verbal quote based from a brief discussion, that may have left out some important details. Furthermore, they may say half-way through the job that certain things were not included (Green waste removal for example) and try to charge you extra halfway through the job. Or not carry out the work to your intended desire. The reality is it takes effort and understanding to provide a detailed written quote so everyone is on the same page.  

5. Modern Maintained Machinery & Equipment

  Professional tree service companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire the right equipment to safely and efficiently work with your trees. This machinery requires very high ongoing maintenance costs. This critically important part of the service as all machinery and tools work hard and needs to be maintained at the highest level. From ropes, slings and pulleys right up to large wood chippers, mini loaders, stump grinders and trucks, every component play a vital role in safely and professionally pruning and removing trees. A poorly maintained harness could see a worker fall from a tree, likewise poorly maintained ropes and slings could see a large branch smash through a roof, a car or damage other structures below. When you get your tree work quotes, be sure to know that a suspect tree lopper with an unusually low quote is probably skimping on maintenance costs somewhere along the line and this is just another element of risk you should take into consideration before choosing your tree service provider. Check your providers’ recent social posts and other web media to try to get a feel if they are using modern, well-maintained equipment or if it is dated and looks dangerous.

6. Safety & Insurance

As you can imagine, the tree service industry is considered dangerous when you think of all the things that could go wrong. Branches and tree trunks are extremely heavy, often weighing many tons and only experienced arborists know how to bring them to the ground safely. Often there is more than one technique that could be used to bring down a tree, and you will find the arborist with the much cheaper quote may be sacrificing the safer method for the faster way to save time and money. Usually, the more reliable process will take a little more time or require the use of heavy equipment such as cranes, cherry pickers etc. All of which add money to a quote. On the flip side, paying a little extra to have the job done the right way may avoid more considerable costs such as getting a branch through a roof, damage to your driveway or even worse personal injury resulting from negligence. The sad reality is people have died from having tree work carried out at their properties, both the property owners and tree workers. This should never happen. The industry standards and training are in place, so it does not. Professional arborists are passionate about keeping their crews and the public safe and the Urban Forest healthy and flourishing. Safety is paramount in our industry as the risks are high. Crew supervisors are trained and required to go through a detailed safety audit process upon arrival to a job, then having all staff briefed and made aware of any potential risks, as well as having all staff sign off before commencing any physical work. Weekly safety meetings that all staff are required to attend is common practice, where discussions on any potential risks that may have presented through the week and how they can be mitigated in future. The massive contrast between the professional Tree Service Company and the untrained Tree Lopper is ever increasing.

7. Testimonials & References

In this day and age Testimonials and references are a normal part of life. Like checking out a movie on Rotten Tomatoes before watching it or reading through some Google My Business reviews before choosing a Restaurant. Well, the tree industry is no different. A reputable Tree company will have plenty of positive reviews and testimonies on both their website and online platforms, like, GMB (Google My Business), Facebook and Yelp. Social proof is a great way to help build trust. Check out the Company’s Website. Company Website: Here you should find certificates of currency, qualifications, insurance documents etc. You should also see plenty of images showing previous jobs, and previous customer tesitominals. Google Reviews: This is a wonderful source of reviews as customers must be personally logged into their google accounts independently to leave a review. This means the result cannot be manipulated easily by the tree company giving you a less biased result. People are usually pretty lazy or find it difficult to leave google reviews, so many times you will not see a great deal of reviews on a tree company, but if people get bad service they become more motivated to leave a bad review. Knowing this, if you see a google tree business page with plenty reviews and very high ratings, you have a good chance that they are a reputable provider. Facebook page: A great palce to see images of the company at work doing similar work and see other customer reviews. ABN Look Up: Check out there ABN to verify the company has not liquidated by using the ABN online Yelp Reviews: These reviews work similar to google my business reviews but on a different platform. Users must have an account and be logged in to leave a review. The only downside with yelp is you may see minimal reviews as it is not as popular as google my business. Some other places you could look for verification if available are Word of Mouth Twitter, Instagram, are they a member of 3rd party certifier organisations such as Arborculture Australia, Google search “xxTreecompany + Reviews”. lookup.Learn More here: A Step by Step Guide to Hiring an Arborist. as seen on https://edentrees.com.au

[viralhottopics]

The rise of the urban jungle

(CNN)What do an avenue of grand oaks, a community park and a rooftop vegetable patch have in common?

They can all form part of a city’s “urban forest”, which numerous studies over the past decade have concluded make people happier.

And that’s not their only job: urban forests protect our cities from extreme weather, climate change and water scarcity.

But with more than 70% of people expected to have squeezed into cities by 2050, this green infrastructure is under threat, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

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“The cities of the future are going to have major problems in making sure that people live a decent life,” Simone Borelli, an urban forestry expert and co-author of a recent FAO report on global urban forestry guidelines, tells CNN.

“If you don’t maintain those forests there’s no clean water, and then there’s no food security. It’s a pretty simple equation but not many people think about it.”

Are we about to lose our urban forests?

A broad canopy

You may not associate big cities like Singapore, New York or Pariswith forestry but look closely: each has its own green canopy to varying degrees.

This “urban forest” is defined by the FAO as “the networks or systems comprising all woodlands, groups of trees, and individual trees located in urban and peri-urban areas” — it encompasses everything from grand parks down to a single tree.

And while there are no guidelines on exactly how much forestry a city needs, experts are very clear on its benefits.

“People think trees are dispensable and they’re not,” Stephen Sheppard, a professor in urban forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, tells CNN. “Green space is critical infrastructure.”

He lists their advantages: urban forests can protect a city’s land and water supply, acting as natural infrastructure that protects soil and absorbs rainwater, thereby reducing runoff which causes erosion of soil and sedimentation in local water supplies.

“In Vancouver a few years ago, we had a million people without drinking water for almost a month because they had so much heavy rain and it whipped up the mud and the sediment in the reservoirs and it wasn’t safe to drink,” explains Sheppard.

Green areas also enhance and conserve biodiversity by providing a home for native animals and — when such areas are linked — by creating green corridors for wildlife to move around a city.

Brisbane City Council in Australia, for example, pledged last year to invest $90 million to establish and preserve wildlife corridors across the city to protect the region’s struggling koala population, which had fallen by about 80% between 1996 and 2014, according to a recent study by the University of Queensland.

Tree coverage can also prevent landslides, mitigate the effects of flooding and protect from dust storms, Borelli adds.

And that’s not to mention climate change.

One of the biggest environmental challenges facing the modern world can be mitigated by urban forests: trees store carbon and moderate urban temperatures.

“With climate change, we know we are going to get three, four degrees increased temperatures minimum on average, which means a lot more heat waves,” says Sheppard.

“About the only low-cost way to deal with that is increasing and improving a healthy canopy of trees because they reduce temperatures and the urban heat island effect.”

The winners

So which cities are doing urban forests well?

Singapore is the world leader in terms of canopy cover, according to the TREEPEDIA project, run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the US, which measures the level of trees and shrubs in cities using Google Street View data.

Despite its high population density of 7,797 people per square kilometer, MIT gave Singapore a “Green View Index” rating of 29.3%.

Sydney, in Australia, and Vancouver, in Canada, also do green cities well, both scoring a Green View Index of 25.9% — although with its density of just 400 people per square kilometer, Sydney has a distinct advantage compared to Vancouver’s 5,249 people per square kilometer.

“Singapore was very much like Hong Kong … about half a century ago. It was densely built-up, very cramped and with very few trees — but then they introduced a clear policy to make sure that the city will … become a garden city,” Jim Chi-yung, chair of geography at the University of Hong Kong and one of the world’s leading experts in urban forestry, tells CNN.

Although Hong Kong’s canopy hasn’t yet been ranked by MIT, the city’s residents have less than three meters of public open space per person in the built up areas, which Jim says is “probably the lowest record in world for cities of a comparable size.”

“Whenever Singapore has redevelopment they introduce greenery into that area and have a vigorous program of providing parks and green spaces.”

“(The tagline) the ‘Garden City of Asia’ was made it a part of their marketing strategy in a way to attract investors,” adds Borelli. “If you have a pleasant environment, a green city, then people are more willing to invest.”

Read: Singapore: Concrete jungle or greenest city on Earth?

Singapore is not the only green innovator.

“I think a good case in point is Seoul, in South Korea — they actually took out an entire motorway (in the city center) and put the river in there with trees and plants,” Borelli says, referring to the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project.

“In Manila, they are establishing miniature parks wherever they can — crossroads, along the railway, old industrial areas — there’s a lot of urban space that is wasteland, so there are areas that can be converted.”

And the losers

Elsewhere, however, concrete is winning the battle against canopy coverage.

Despite its reputation as one of the world’s most beautiful cities, Paris — with a Green View Index of 8.8% — has the least canopy cover of the 17 countries assessed by MIT.

Hindered by its high population density — it packs 21,000 people into each of its square kilometers — the French capital faces similar problems to New York, which has the second-lowest Green View Index at 13.5% and 10,831 people living per square kilometer.

According to Sheppard, part of the issue for established cities like these is historical, when Paris and New York were urbanizing climate change, for example, wasn’t an issue.

“There’s been a long, fine history of arboriculture and tree care and tree management in an urban setting, but now we have to deal with a lot of other complexities,” Sheppard tells CNN.

“Some is about managing existing tree stocks but some of it is about planning for the future. The green things shouldn’t be what’s just left over. It’s a vital part of the city and it’s at risk of being lost.”

Borelli says that older cities need to look for new, creative ways to get greener.

“For some cities, in a way, there’s not enough space left, so going vertical might be a solution,” Borelli says

Stefano Boeri’s “vertical forest” Milan, Italy, and rooftop gardens around the world he says are examples of good solutions in established cities.

Read: Gardens in the sky: The rise of green urban architecture

Got a plan?

Failing to plan really is planning to fail when it comes to urban forestry, says Borelli.

“More and more we are trying to discuss a city’s forests with landscape architects and urban planners and one of the critical challenges is to make sure that urban forestry is included in the planning from the beginning, not as an afterthought.”

China, he says, has perhaps understood this better than anywhere.

It has recently invested heavily in green belts to restore the environment and protect water systems in existing towns, while new towns are being built around existing vegetation.

Read: The end of air conditioning? Asia architects use green solutions to cool buildings

“In China, they have a national forest city scheme and they now certify cities as national forest cities,” Borelli says, of the National Forest City program, which involved 170 cities and 12 provinces in 2015, according to the FAO report.

It’s had a remarkable impact, with tree cover in these urban communities increasing to 40 % or more, up from less than 10 % coverage in 1981, according to the FAO.

But while China says it is hoping to grow “green minds” among its citizens, one of its other aims is monetary.

“The reason (China is) are doing that is really to attract business, to attract conferences, to attract tourists, to attract companies to come in,” Borelli says.

Costs may be the key

Forestry experts in general are upbeat about the growing realization among urban planners and governments about the need to increase greenery.

But Sheppard says, if cities don’t manage to achieve their greenery goals the health and environmental costs “are going to be huge”.

“Anything that looks like open space tends to want to be built on because it’s incredibly valuable per square foot or meter,” he says.

“And if you keep building and you don’t claw back some of that green space inside the cites from roads or future development sites then you are denying access to the things that make people happy and healthy.”

Read more: http://cnn.it/2oMrH0N

from The rise of the urban jungle

[dynamictreesolutions-au]

Council Tree Regulations | Dynamic Tree Solutions

Dynamic Tree Solutions’ guide on navigating the Brisbane City Council Tree Regulations. This guide provides vital information on tree protection, Vegetation Protection Orders, and compliance requirements for tree work within the Brisbane region.Compliance with Brisbane City Council’s tree regulations is not only a legal obligation but also a commitment to preserving the city’s natural beauty and ecological health. Understanding these regulations is essential for any tree-related activity, from pruning to removal. visit us:- https://dynamictreesolutions.com.au/brisbane-city-council-tree-regulations/