Ash dieback has made the news these past few years, not just amongst the Arborist community, but also headline news. Ash dieback, or Chalara, is of high significance and it is estimated that as many as 80% of the UK’s Ash stock may ultimately be affected, the effects of which will be staggering.
Unfortunately, Buckinghamshire hasn’t escaped the onslaught of this disease with more and more cases being reported. We were recently contracted by a local construction company to remove a large Ash tree that had succumbed to the disease. The tree was beside a driveway and within falling distance of the client’s home as well as the neighbouring site.
Due to the nature of how this disease affects the tree, the structure of the timber can become unpredictable, therefore additional tools are used to supplement some of the more traditional techniques used for cutting trees. A primary piece of equipment in the arsenal is the use of a MEWP, or cherry picker. This allows us to remove the affected tree in small pieces without the necessity of using a trained arborist to physically climb the tree in question.
For this tree removal, we also used a large Bandit wood chipper, Lorry, and Avant loader to speed up the job. This allowed us to get the job done in record time, leaving the client’s driveway clear, and minimising any impact on the construction work in progress next door.