Ok Ekka I'll grant you that is pretty darn bad, do you think they are undertaking some weird experiment that will form the basis of a journal article? No?.. me neither! What a shower Brisbane Tree Services are
, you could just about write a book based on the bad and harmful practices exhibited in those pics alone. What a joke tree services disservices more like
It is disappointing mate but to be honest not surprising, up here they would have dozed the trees to make more room to dump.
The key problem in all this as I see it is that QBuild have failed to meet their own standards of quality control. This is a
very large and productive organisation that is envolved in building construction and maintenance throughout Queensland, in many different state government run and funded organisations, schools hospitals etc..
Unfortunately they have as an organisation not yet realised that there is a profession called Arboriculture and that Arborists can assist them in saving time and money in the management of all their tree related issues. They still have to overcome the anacronism of labelling all they tree works lopping, we as a profession need to be more active in raising awareness of correct work practices, basic (very basic) levels of service with minimum standards and measurable performance indicators.
The idea or attitude that simply lopping back problem trees is an acceptable practice is well and truely outdated, no successful high profile business would engage in the waste management practices of 50yrs ago, nor the work methods from that era, and there is no discussion or debate, everyone agrees that works even dirty and menial works have to be undertaken in accordance with the state and federal minimum standards yet this is still not the case when it comes to trees.
Why does an organisation with the profile of QBuild allow such substandard work to be undertaken by their subcontractor, simply because the information required for better decision making is not getting through to the appropriate decision makers.
How many of you have to explain in great detail what you mean by Arborist when asked what you do? Most of you I would quess, it is no different at higher levels of management in organisations like QBuild, sure some of the upper managers would have heard of Arborists, and tree surgeons.....but they are only needed for very expensive big projects with very valuable trees.....this day to day work has always been done by company X, and we're very happy with them, why rock the boat?
It doesn't take much to explain how the recurrent damaging work undertaken by loppers is fiscal madness for any buisness...let alone one as large as QBuild I can't even begin to imagine how many millions of $$'s are wasted each and every day across this state on unnecessary, inappropriate, damaging tree work for an organisation that big.
QBuild does understand risk management, and does take it
very seriously not long back a child was injured swinging on a basketball hoop,as a result QBuild completed an audit of every single basketball structure in every state school in Queensland, literally thousands and thousands of static drop tests, each failure was removed and a fully engineered hoop structure put in place cost well make a quess and triple it!
Within every large corporation, business, organisation there is a level of management that fully understand what best management practice means and why it has to be the minimum standard, they understand risk management and prioritisation of works, these are the people that we need to communicate with, these are the people who
want and need our expertise with trees.
Unfortunately there will always be others who do not understand or do not want to understand how to properly manage their trees, for them OH&S is not taken seriously, getting it done quick and cheap is the prime motivation, these people occupy positions in every business, and when they obstruct improvements and advances even very basic ones like stopping pointless wastefull damaging lopping it literally can drive you nuts
Slowly as more managers/decision makers are exposed to how Arboriculture can benefit them their business and the environment around them we will make progress...somedays its seems slower than others
