A client of The Tree Company, to the west of London, recently had a problem. They had several dead, standing veteran trees along side a busy road on their estate and they were beginning to become unstable and liable to collapse in to the road.

Something had to be done. Due to the nature of the trees they could not just be removed, so after consultation with English Nature, the governments advisory body on the environment, a plan was made. The trees would be dismantled in as big a bits as possible using a crane and the large stumps dug up and the whole lot transported to an out of the way area to be half buried in the ground.

This sounds a bit mad but the reasoning is sound. Old dead trees support a great deal of wildlife from bugs and beetles to mosses, lichens and fungus to bats and birds and small mammals (we found several Stag beetle lava).

Some of this wildlife are rare species and some only live in dead trees and stumps. By carefully dismantling the trees and digging out as much as possible this valuable habitat could be saved and the flora and fauna disturbed as little as possible.

The Tree Company is proud to be involved in this project, it is the sort of creative tree surgery that really excites and it is nice to have a change from the regular every day felling and reduction work. We will be keeping an eye on the results and progress of the move. Look out for updates in the future.

A client set up a time lapse of our operatives, Rob and Barry, dismantling this large Leylandii over the course of 2 days. In London space is a premium and Leylandii are a fast growing large tree. In an ideal world Leylandii trees would only be grown in wide open spaces or regularly maintained (trimmed at least once a year) as a screening hedge.

This tree was allowed to grow and was overbearing in the small London garden. Due to the tight space the tree had to be dismantled carefully in small pieces to avoid damage to the fence and surrounding structures.

Recently, we at The Tree Company (London) Ltd were visited by a film crew from the new local London TV station; London Live. They were doing a feature on Autumn and wanted to talk to some tree surgeons about the season and how it impacts our work.

This time last year, many trees were blown over in London and the region during 4 major storm events, which carried on into the new year. Lets hope we are not so severly battered this time around.

Come what may, we will be ready to pick up the pieces.

At the end of last year and beginning of this we had some strong storms in London and the rest of the UK. Not since 1987 have the tree surgeons of the country been so busy. In October, December and January Great Britain was battered by strong winds peaking at around one hundred miles an hour.

Thousands of trees fell across the country, a dozen people were killed and communications were severely disrupted.

One of the contributory factors to the many trees that fell was the amount of rain we had over the autumn and winter; as the ground was saturated the soil became loose and trees were more easily uprooted.

Here at The Tree Company we were inundated with calls for help from the local community in west and southwest London. On Christmas eve we had 4 men in Richmond Park clearing fallen limbs and trees, and 2 months later we were still tidying up damaged trees and branches caught in the crowns of trees.

One particularly special tree that was another victim of the storms was a great tree of London (see: Time Out book Great Trees of London). The copper beech at Asgill house in Richmond was damaged beyond repair. We removed all the remaining limbs and it is now a standing monolith which is great habitat for fungus, invertebrates and birds.

Trees may need to be removed for many reasons. The tree may be dead, dangerous or diseased. It may be in an inappropriate location or perhaps it is just not wanted any more.

There are various way to fell a tree. Straight felling is cutting the tree at the base with a directional felling cut (it looks like a wedge of cake or chese removed in the direction you want the tree to fall). If there is not enough room to straight fell a tree, as in most London gardens, then the tree needs to be dismantled in small pieces. This can be difficult to control so lowering ropes and friction devices would be used to lower large bits of wood to the ground in a safe and controlled manor.

In most London back gardens the wood needs to be cut into small bits and carried out by hand or in a wheelbarrow. Sometimes for very large or very dangerous akward trees, and where access will allow a crane can be used.

Unfortunately the wood from felled trees, especially in London, is cut up so small it cannot be used for anything except fire wood. However, if the right tree species and circumstances occur sometimes bowls can be turned or planks milled from the timber.

Wherever possible we advise to replace a felled tree by replanting with the same species or a more appropriate species for the location.