Canopy Tree

Nicholas Ford founded Canopy Tree in 1999, after a National Diploma of Forestry at Holm Lacy Agricultural College in Hereford and a National Certificate in Arboriculture at Houghall College in Durham, and he brings more than 30 years in the industry to the work now. He holds an AQF Certificate 3 and an AQF Certificate 5 Diploma in Arboriculture, and he is a member of Arboriculture Australia and the International Society of Arboriculture. Private, corporate and council clients across Sydney, Greater Sydney, the Southern Highlands, Macarthur, Wollondilly and the Wingecarribee use us, and we travel further into regional NSW when the job is report work.

Level 5 is the level that counts when a document has to stand up in front of somebody. It is what qualifies an arborist to write tree reports, DA reports and tree removal reports, to issue complying certificates, and to give evidence in the Land and Environment Court. On that footing we produce arboricultural impact assessments for development applications, tree health and condition reports, tree surveys with full inventories for subdivisions, commercial projects and infrastructure work, heritage tree assessments for listed and protected trees, expert witness and legal reports, and tree risk and safety assessments for schools, aged care facilities, parks and anywhere else a duty of care applies. All of it is written to AS4373-2007 for pruning and AS4970-2009 for the protection of trees on building sites.

The part of a development that catches people out is below ground. Our root investigations and mapping use non-invasive methods, ground penetrating radar or careful excavation, to establish where a root system actually runs near a proposed build. That is what makes a retention plan realistic rather than aspirational, and it is what stops the structure being damaged three years after the certificate is signed.

Consent is not the end of the job. Project arborist oversight puts somebody qualified on site to confirm the tree protection measures drawn on the approved plan are installed, and are still standing, while the build goes on around them. We hold a National Licence to Perform High Risk Work, a licence to operate a boom over 11m and a C6 slew crane licence, and we carry public liability, workers compensation and professional indemnity insurance, with the certificates available if you need them for a job file.

The climbing work runs alongside all of that. Tree removal, tree pruning and hedge trimming are cut to AS4373-2007 and never by topping, and we work to the current SafeWork code of practice for the amenity tree industry. Sites get left clean, which is the part clients tend to mention afterwards.

Then there is the other thing we build. A tree house is an arborist's question before it is a carpenter's, because what the tree can carry and how it keeps growing around a fixed structure decides the design, so we work that out first and then bring in the riggers, carpenters, electricians and whoever else the build needs. It starts with a call about what you want and what your budget is, then an onsite visit and a rough sketch, an estimate against that budget, and we arrange the development application with your council. Ring the office, Monday to Friday, and tell us what needs looking at.