Trees are Cool

Every report we write has to stand up to a council, a court, or a neighbour. That is the test we set ourselves when we started Trees are Cool in 2017, a small family business with one intention behind it: honest, ethical and practical arboricultural advice. Ben has more than 28 years in arboriculture, a trade qualification and a Level 5 Diploma, and the team that has grown around him now works for local and state government, civil contractors and private clients. We are an Approved Consultant with the Queensland Arboricultural Association and a Registered Consulting Arborist with Arboriculture Australia.

Project arborist work is what a council asks for when construction is happening around protected trees. 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, run hold-point inspections through demolition, earthworks and construction, and issue the pre, during and post construction certification the council needs to sign the job off. We will also sit down with your design team early and work out construction methods the trees can live through.

An arboricultural impact assessment is the report that goes with your development application, and it can be as small as a backyard shed near a protected tree or as large as a staged sub-division. It inventories every affected tree with botanical and common names, records dimensions, health, structure and retention value, calculates TPZ and SRZ to AS 4970-2009, and sets out the encroachment along with the mitigation for it, with a site-specific tree protection plan attached. If you need something earlier than that, a preliminary tree assessment report will shape the design before you lodge.

Tree risk assessment is not a calculation and we will not present it as one. It is the considered judgement of a trained arborist who has stood under the tree: a systematic visual assessment of structure and health, an honest look at the targets beneath it, a risk rating with the basis for that rating named, and mitigation that is proportionate to what we actually found. We do it for schools and public spaces and just as readily for one tree in a backyard. Tree condition reports, tree healthcare packages and independent neighbourhood dispute resolution cover the rest, the last of those for when two households need the tree assessed by someone with no stake in the outcome.

The work is grounded in fieldwork: hands on the tree, measurements taken and observations recorded before a word goes on paper. Where there is uncertainty in what we find, we name it rather than write around it. We serve South East Queensland out of Arana Hills, and further afield when a job calls for it. If you are not sure which report you need, ring 0419 655 563 or email Ben, tell us about the project, and we will recommend the right approach and give you a fixed quote for it.