Tree Risk Assessment

Trees are significant aspects of life in urban and rural areas, providing many benefits to people and communities. Wherever trees are present, people, property and activities are potentially at risk of injury, damage or disruption. All trees have the potential to become an unacceptable risk at some point, but that doesn’t mean we should automatically condemn them in order “to be on the safe side”. Tree owners, or people acting on their behalf, have a duty of care to ensure that the trees in their care do not create an unreasonable risk. Tree owners and society in general must take a balanced and proportionate approach to managing and accepting risks.

It is not possible to eliminate all risks associated with trees. Therefore, the goal of tree risk management is to provide a systematic and defensible approach by which those risks can be assessed and managed to a reasonable level. As risk assessors, our task is to identify the targets likely to be impacted by a failed tree or tree parts, assess the likelihood of failure and assess the potential consequences if failure and impact occur. In combination, these factors determine the level of risk. The results of tree risk management are passed on to the risk manager or the owner of the tree, along with options for mitigation. The risk manager decides what action to take, if any, to reduce the identified risks to an acceptable level.

It is time to become “pro-active” rather than “reactive” tree managers in order to safeguard life and property around you. Get in touch with our team of qualified and certified experts to identify and assess high risk trees in your area now!