Ecological Tree Consulting

If a council, a builder or a solicitor has asked you for something in writing about a tree, that is the sort of work we do. Ecological Tree Consulting is a consulting arborist practice based in Adelaide, South Australia. We assess trees and write the reports. We are not the crew who turns up with a chipper afterwards, so the advice you get is not shaped by who is selling the removal.

Behind that work sits an AHC50516 Diploma of Arboriculture, membership of Arboriculture Australia and registration as a Quantified Tree Risk Assessor. Every consultation is done by an arborist qualified to at least AQF Level 5. Our recommendations are written to the Australian Standards, AS 4373-2007 for pruning of amenity trees and AS 4970-2009 for protection of trees on development sites, which is what a planning officer will be checking them against.

The arboricultural reports cover a fair spread of situations. Arboricultural impact assessments and pre-development tree assessments for a job going through planning, tree protection plans and specifications for a site already under way, tree management reports and tree audits for anyone looking after a lot of trees at once, and expert witness reports when a matter has gone past the point of a conversation. We also write tree valuations, tree damage assessments and tree pruning specifications, so whoever ends up doing the pruning has a brief to work to.

Where the question is simply whether a tree is safe to keep, we start with a visual tree assessment. That is a consultation on site, and it gives you options that go beyond remove or prune. When the risk needs a number put on it we use quantified tree risk assessment. Sometimes the assessment is the whole job and you have your answer on the day. Sometimes it points to the next step, whether that is root mapping, a tree survey or CAD drawings to sit alongside a set of plans. On development work we also take on the project arborist role and stay involved while the build happens.

Trees that are struggling rather than dangerous are a different line of work again. We diagnose and treat pests and diseases, including elm leaf beetle, psyllids, gall wasps, scale insects, borer and cypress tip miner, along with cypress canker, powdery mildew, sooty mould and other fungi. Treatment might be chemical, biological or an integrated pest management strategy, depending on what we find in front of us. With elm leaf beetle we usually recommend biennial vascular injections, correctly administered by a consulting arborist, run alongside an IPM plan.

We work across Adelaide and further out into South Australia. Give us a ring or send an email to arrange a consultation, and tell us what has actually been asked of you. That is usually what decides which report you need.