Preliminary Tree Assessments

tree risk assessments 1

Preliminary Tree Assessment is a Crucial Step

When it comes to planning your development, the preliminary tree assessment is a crucial step. It gives us the essential data and insights needed to layout the development while also identifying ways to preserve existing trees on your site.

Here’s how we do it: First, we go through each tree, numbering and tagging them, and carefully record all their details. Then, we integrate this data with a site survey plan to create a comprehensive report for you.

This report covers everything you need to know about each tree, including its identification, dimensions, condition, significance, and protection zones like the Tree Protection Zone (TPZ) and Structural Root Zone (SRZ).

To make things even clearer, we provide you with a tree location plan created using ArborCAD software. This plan shows you exactly where each tree is located, its protection zone extent, and its retention priority, colour-coded as low, moderate, or high.

This way, you’ll have all the information you need to make informed decisions about your development while ensuring the preservation of valuable trees on your site.

Here's How Our Preliminary Tree Assessment Benefits You

Informed Decisions

You get essential data to shape your project while preserving trees.

Clarity

Detailed reports ensure you understand each tree's characteristics.

Compliance

Our assessment helps you meet regulatory requirements.

Risk Reduction

Early identification of risks minimises delays and damage during construction.

Transparency

Visual tree location plans facilitate communication and collaboration.

In summary, our assessment empowers you to make informed decisions, meet regulations, reduce risks, and preserve trees on your site.

Frequently Asked Questions

If the development site contains numerous trees that need to be considered or integrated into the initial concept plans, a Preliminary Tree Assessment is highly beneficial. By providing detailed information on tree locations, species, Tree Protection Zones (TPZ), and Structural Root Zones (SRZ), the assessment enables architects to make informed decisions during the concept phase. This proactive approach helps avoid the submission of designs that may later be compromised by tree and vegetation restrictions, ensuring that the development plans are both viable and compliant with relevant regulations.

A Preliminary Tree Assessment is most effective when conducted during the earliest stages of development planning, before the development application (DA) is submitted. This assessment provides essential arboricultural data and information that guides the layout of the development, helping to ensure that tree considerations are integrated from the outset. By establishing this foundational data early on, the assessment supports more informed and sustainable design
decisions.

A preliminary tree assessment should be coordinated with the site survey for a development application to maximise cost-effectiveness and efficiency. Ideally, the consulting arborist should tag and assess the trees before the surveyor begins their work. By numbering and tagging the trees first, the arborist provides the surveyor with a clear reference for which trees to include in the site survey plan, ensuring that tree information and site data are seamlessly integrated. If an existing tree numbering system is in place, it should be utilised to maintain consistency and avoid confusion. This coordinated approach enhances the overall efficiency of the process and helps prevent delays in development planning.

A Preliminary Tree Assessment should detail each tree’s number, botanical name, height, canopy spread, age, significance, useful life expectancy, DBH, TPZ, and SRZ. It should also include a tree location plan using CAD or ArcGIS, showing each tree’s position, TPZ, and colour-coded retention priority (low, medium, high).
This information helps planners, architects, and designers integrate tree preservation into their development plans, ensuring that protected trees have adequate space to remain viable and comply with relevant regulations.

Assurance Trees can typically complete most reports within 2 weeks of acceptance. If a quicker turnaround is needed, expedited service is available for an additional fee.