A tree surgeon (sometimes referred to as an arborist or arboriculturist) is responsible for the cultivation and management of trees.

Professional tree surgeons in Bristol and across the UK typically focus on the health and safety of trees. For the most part our team of Bristol tree surgeons work with trees in built up areas, ensuring they’re well cared for and safe for individuals who live and work near them.

This can include reducing the height and spread of the foliage bearing portions of a tree, removing small or low hanging branches and also emergency tree surgery work. As you can in some of our blog posts, the emergency work we do often involves looking after trees have come down or been badly damaged in stormy weather.

When it comes to the health and safety of our team we take considerations around working on the ground, working at height and safely operating chainsaws. As you can imagine combining the last two points can cause a potentially very dangerous situation. Not only for the tree surgeon undertaking the work, but also anybody in close vicinity of the tree that’s being worked on.

A tree surgeon working for Bristol Tree Services will always test any equipment they’re going to use before starting each and every job. Every member of our team also wears personal protective equipment (PPE). Our tree surgeons use the following PPE during all tree work: safety helmet, hearing protection, eye protection, gloves, leg and groin protection and chainsaw boots.

The term is wide ranging and is defined as ‘height from which people could fall and injure themselves’. In 2005 the UK saw the introduction of the Work at Height Regulations which is something all employees and contractors must now follow.

The regulations give a set of guidelines to follow to ensure any work that’s completed at height is done as safely as possible.

These include:

1. Making sure any work is considered, planned and organised before being undertaken.
2. Assessing for any potential risks.
3. Safely supervised by members of staff acutely aware of their responsibilities.
4. Carried out using the correct equipment.

At Bristol Tree Services, we carefully consider all of the above. This ensures our team and any individuals close by are safe while we’re working.

Working on certain trees or at particular sites can become an issue for this very reason. However, the Bristol Tree Services team love a challenge, With good team work, helpful customers and the occasional bit of support from a neighbour we usually find a solution that works.

Sometimes working on the tree itself can cause the tree surgeon an issue. This usually happens when a tree is located in a confined space. In this scenario specialist techniques are often needed to remove problematic branches and thin the crown of the tree.

The Bristol Tree Services team have lots of experience working in potentially tricky situations and pride ourselves on our ability to solve problems.

Alongside the obvious safety concerns of scaling a tree with a whirring chainsaw if you haven’t done before, there are other reasons why it’s best to leave tree surgery to a trained tree surgeon.

As well as knowledge of the correct safety procedures there’s also a good chance you won’t have the correct equipment to carry out tree surgery yourself.

Our team of tree surgeons are highly-skilled when it comes to using different pieces of specialised equipment. Alongside chainsaws we also use shredders, wood chippers, strimmers, hedge cutters, ropes and harnesses to complete our work.