Trees are Cool

Hands on the tree before pen on paper. Every engagement here runs in that order: we talk through your project, the trees involved and what the council is actually asking for, confirm the scope and a fixed quote, then get on site and collect the attribute data the report will stand on. Only after that does anything get written, and it gets written as observations, what they mean, and recommended actions, in that order. Trees are Cool is a small family business started in 2017, consulting across South East Queensland from Arana Hills and happy to travel further when a project calls for it.

Ben has more than 28 years in arboriculture, a trade qualification and an AQF Level 5 Diploma, and he is an Approved Consultant with the Queensland Arboricultural Association and a Registered Consulting Arborist with Arboriculture Australia. The team that has grown around him works for local and state government, civil contractors and private clients, on jobs running from one tree in a backyard through to a multi stage sub-division. The standard does not move with the size of the job: defensible reasoning, plainly stated.

When construction is happening around protected trees, a council wants a qualified project arborist attached to the works. We establish and inspect the tree protection fencing before anything starts, monitor the Tree Protection Zones and Structural Root Zones, supervise any incursion into a TPZ including non-destructive root investigation, and run hold point inspections through demolition, earthworks and construction. At the end we issue the pre, during and post construction certification the council needs to sign the job off. Our preference is to be sitting with your design team well before that, working out tree-sensitive construction methods, because what gets decided at the design stage determines which trees are still standing at handover.

For a development application we write the arboricultural impact assessment: an inventory of every affected tree with botanical and common names, dimensions, health, structure and retention value, indicative and actual TPZ and SRZ calculations to AS 4970-2009, the encroachment assessed and the mitigation measures set out, with a site specific tree protection plan attached to support the DA. It scales from a backyard shed with a protected tree beside it to a staged sub-division. If you want that thinking before you lodge anything, a preliminary tree assessment report shapes the design first.

Risk assessment is not a calculation, and we will not hand you one dressed up as arithmetic. It is the considered judgement of a trained arborist who has stood under the tree: a systematic visual assessment of structure and health, a proper look at the people, buildings, vehicles and infrastructure underneath it, a risk rating with the basis for that rating named, and mitigation proportionate to what was found. We run tree risk assessments for high use areas like schools and public spaces, and just as readily for one tree in someone's backyard. Tree condition reports, tree healthcare packages and independent neighbourhood dispute resolution fill in around all of it. Where uncertainty exists in what we find, we say so. Ring 0419 655 563 or email Ben, tell us what you are working with, and we will recommend the right report and put a clear, fixed quote on it.