{"id":3194,"date":"2017-06-15T11:16:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T11:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/?page_id=3194"},"modified":"2023-09-26T17:14:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T17:14:04","slug":"tree-safety-inspections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/trails\/tree-safety-inspections\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree Safety Inspections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In many cases, the responsibility for tree safety resides with the various owners of the land rather than the National Trail charity\/trust. The landowners have the legal \u2018duty of care\u2019 to take \u2018<em>reasonable steps<\/em>\u2018 to ensure that the trees on their land are in a safe condition &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/estate\/you-and-the-law\/\">read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may wish to simply monitor the trees along the trails\/footpaths and report issues to the appropriate owners. Or you may need to take responsibility for regular tree inspections for some parts of the trail\/footpath network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tree Safety Inspections<figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2982\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/android-surveying.jpg?resize=200%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/android-surveying.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/android-surveying.jpg?w=402&amp;ssl=1 402w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Planning and carrying out regular Tree Safey inspections and work programmes form the core of tree management systems. OTISS supports all stages of the Tree Management process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For risk management purposes, it is considered best practice to group trees into<strong> risk zones<\/strong>; where each zones is assigned a risk category (e.g. high, medium or low). For<strong> high risk zones,<\/strong> an annual inspection cycle is recommended. The inspection cycle for the for lower risk zones typically ranges between 2 and 5 years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Many landowners get an independent<strong> Arboricultural Consultant<\/strong> to carry out a complete survey every few years &#8211; typically every 3 or 5 years. The consultant will inspect each tree, will make a series of recommendations of work to be carried out and will assign a priority or time scale to each one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An effective rolling programme of<strong> inspection cycles and maintenance work <\/strong>should result in a healthier tree stock and more predictable budgets.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The land managers (and consultants) will then create a <strong>multi-year work programme<\/strong>. This plan will be driven by the consultant&#8217;s recommendations, but will also be influenced by a range of other factors including; budget constraints, development plans for the property; the opinions\/concerns of neighbours, etc. These plans are essential when managing external contractors and also your own staffs time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"133\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/treesurvey-survey-data.png?resize=300%2C133&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1068\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/treesurvey-survey-data.png?resize=300%2C133&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/treesurvey-survey-data.png?w=445&amp;ssl=1 445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Using your own staff&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Between these inspection cycles<\/strong>, the trees may suffer from storm damage, collisions, fallen branches, disease. Your staff (rangers, wardens, etc.) may require further maintenance work or inspections to be carried out on individual trees &#8211; calling upon Arboricultural Consultants or contractors as required.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em><strong>Path Survey<\/strong><\/em> Android\u2122 application makes it very convenient for staff and volunteers to use their mobile phone to create new inspection records and work items &#8211; especially when they are on-site and notice something that needs attending to.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tree Surveys and Inspections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>An OTISS &#8216;<strong>survey&#8217;<\/strong> is created to plan and carry out an inspection cycle on a selected section of the trail\/network. If outside consultants are being used, then they can be assigned to have online access to the required maps and inspection history. This &#8216;<strong>survey<\/strong>&#8216; record contains general information about aims, restrictions, weather on the day, overall findings, etc. Within a survey, an &#8216;<strong>inspection<\/strong>&#8216; record is stored for each tree; see the full listing of <a title=\"Tree Safety Survey\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/support\/help\/tree-safety-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tree survey data<\/a> stored by OTISS for each tree.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ts_screenshot_3.png?resize=200%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1074\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ts_screenshot_3.png?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ts_screenshot_3.png?w=320&amp;ssl=1 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Inspections are carried out using your <strong>mobile phone<\/strong> or tablet (only Android at present). With the <em><strong>Path Survey <\/strong><\/em>Android application, you can view, update and create new tree inspections. The maps and data are synchronised between OTISS and your phone\/tablet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All new tree inspections are linked to the current active survey for that site\/risk-zone. When this survey is set to the &#8216;closed&#8217; state. then these records are effectively frozen. Over the years, the survey records provide an audit trail that will help fulfil your legal<em> &#8216;duty-of-care&#8217;<\/em> obligations. A new survey is then created for the next inspection cycle, or as a basis for any ad-hoc inspections\/work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Risk Assessment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>OTISS now supports various tree safety risk assessment methodologies (e.g. <strong>ISA TRAQ, QTRA, THREATS, Matheny and Clark 1994<\/strong>). As part of each tree inspection, suitably trained users fill in the risk factors that are used to automatically calculate a resulting risk category. OTISS supports many standard methodologies, and we provide <strong>two configurable algorithms<\/strong> to setup your own method. <a title=\"Tree Risk Assessment\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/support\/help\/tree-risk-assessment\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tree Works Programmes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Part of each survey will be recommendations for maintenance or safety work. Sometimes they will recommend that a more detailed inspection be carried out by an Arboricultural Consultant using specialist equipment. All these recommendations appear on the <strong>Recommendation Reports<\/strong>. These are invaluable for planning work programmes and getting competitive quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/TreeSafety_recommendations_photos.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Recommendations Report<\/a> provides a detailed listing of the trees that require action. The report layout can be tailored to to suit your own working practices. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you carry out the recommended works, you use the set of <strong>Work Done<\/strong>  fields to record the date the work was done, by whom and some work notes.  These could be filled in by the work team or by a followup visit to check the work. These work dates and notes allow for a complete record and audit trail of all survey and subsequent maintenance work on each tree.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Building Reports<figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1514\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/TreeSafety-excel-chart-4.png?resize=295%2C265&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"TreeSafety excel chart 4\" width=\"295\" height=\"265\"><\/figure><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>OTISS provides a set of pre-defined <strong>PDF reports<\/strong> and <strong>Excel spreadsheets<\/strong> to provide summary charts and detailed information about the surveyed trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, you can create a set of <strong>Excel Report Templates<\/strong> to layout your own style, fonts, colours, column widths, border, formatting, etc. Select which data columns to include and which summary tables to provide some key statistics: e.g. condition, species, etc. Upload your prepared template to OTISS and the spreadsheet is immediately returned to you with the requested data and photos. <a title=\"Excel Template Reports\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/support\/help\/excel-template-reports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">More about Excel Report Templates..<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reports can be created for individual sites or for the entire estate. You can also select what to include in a report, you can search and sort your data using multiple criteria. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;include those trees on a particular site that need work doing on them this year&#8221;,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;include all trees that are due for inspection within the next 6 months&#8221;,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Summary reports are ideal for management committees, boards of directors and governors. The detailed reports are better for day-to-day management. Here are some of the pre-defined PDF reports as examples of what you could achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3411\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/TreeSafety-excel-7.png?resize=300%2C190&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\"><\/figure><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/TreeSafety_plan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Tree Survey Map<\/a> provides a map\/plan of &#8211; with logo, legend and notes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/treesafety_summary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Tree Survey Summary Report<\/a> provides a summary of the survey results &#8211; with charts and tables.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/TreeSafety_report_photos.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Tree Survey Detailed Report<\/a> provides a detailed set of tree inspections carried out.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/TreeSafety_recommendations_photos.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Survey Recommendations<\/a> provides a detailed listing of the trees that require action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The audit trail, photos and history of each tree can be viewed. This provides a complete audit trail of all the inspections (including dates, surveyor&#8217;s name, etc.) and all management work carried out on the tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/TreeSafety_history.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TreeSafety History Report<\/a> provides a detailed listing of a tree&#8217;s inspections. Or you can customise your own history reports with our <a title=\"Excel Template Reports\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/support\/help\/excel-template-reports\/\" target=\"_blank\">Excel Report Templates.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"259\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/TreeSafety-excel-chart-1.png?resize=300%2C259&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"TreeSafety excel chart 1\" class=\"wp-image-1509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/TreeSafety-excel-chart-1.png?resize=300%2C259&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/TreeSafety-excel-chart-1.png?w=363&amp;ssl=1 363w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In many cases, the responsibility for tree safety resides with the various owners of the land rather than the National Trail charity\/trust. The landowners have the legal \u2018duty of care\u2019 to take \u2018reasonable steps\u2018 to ensure that the trees on their land are in a safe condition &#8211; read more. You may wish to simply [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":3116,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3194","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1VFWW-Pw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3194"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4815,"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3194\/revisions\/4815"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otiss.co.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}