Who is "leading Australian arborist"

Eric Frei

Who was the person that consulted for this mutilation?

Lets find the person.

Have a read of the spin on this.

It would also be nice to know who did the work.

Before picture.



After picture.



Full story. Trees mutilated, left to die | Mackay News | Local News in Mackay | Mackay Daily Mercury

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Jeff Darby

This leading australian hack needs to be found! lopped and topped is what we have here, no strategy, pure hackery.

A living war shrine desicrated...shame ...shame. I hope they were not paid!

Name and shame..name and shame.....name and shame.

Our fallen war heroes would roll over in their graves..(R.I.P)

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Member: Australian Tree Association

Join the Australian Tree Association...Have your voice heard !

Arboriculture, A life long study for some, a passing phase for others

© Jeffrey J Darby 2011

Eric Frei

I wonder which organisation is going to hide the person too!

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Drouin Tree Service

name and shame!!!

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Apocalypsse

Thats just fubar... Too many retards claiming to be professionals, getting sick of these stories.

TrevMcRev

I wonder if was also the person who did the actual work???

Did the "leading australian arborist" write the specification only, or also perform the deed???

I am bamboozeled that this can happen to public trees in this day & age.
Arboriculture exists, it's real and the information is obtainable. Why is it ignored by people that shoud know better?

Imagine getting a contract to make a road, build a bridge, lay a house slab, wire a house, provide medical treatment etc and then doing some kind of bodge job based on Pre-Scientific practices in each of those fields

dov

Maybe they just got in the oldest line-clearers they could find!

stirmantrees

they would have been better off lion tailed. and thats bad.
no comment except

gawd

im just a tree surgeon (fancy name 4 somebody who can cut a tree down without damage )how ever I refuse to lop -they may as well have gone another 15 feet ? --- crown thin - uplift over rd would have done it ?

stjawa

I recently sat down with an old client and helped her go through the six state vegitation planning overlays on a property she had just aquired .
So she could do some general maintanance on her trees and garden within the laws set down in the overlays.We had to notify our local council and two state departments on what we were doing.

In our shire we often have to work with multiple overlays and laws for vegitation as probably many of you out there also do.I am not complaining we have alot of significant trees and plants that need protecting in our area.


What really gives me the sh.ts is why do these same goverment bodies often ignore there own laws and regulations.Looks like they do the same in Queensland .

stirmantrees

just looked at it again. my goodness. i would hoppppppppe that it was sheer ignorance or lack of knowledge and not some sort of malicious pruning to get back at the council from the inside or something.
its bad...

so bad it prob. could be considered vandalism if they knew better.............
i just gave me an idea.....

shaun05

Here is a picture of a fig in a council park that was "reduced" by an arborist in Sydney under the advice of our best known arborist and under the direct instruction and supervision of a very well known arborist at an inner city council.

Apparently according to the well known arborist in Sydney lopping was the only way that this tree could be effectively "reduced"

As if by some form of great enlightenment the Port Jackson Fig is adjacent to the lopped tree and it was also "reduced". Hard to imagine that they are using the same word.

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kieren

wow its amazing how 60+ years of heathy growth can be f@#%ed up in only a few hours. The shithead that did this should be hung from one of the trees braches and left to be food for the ravens!

Eric Frei

I'm offering $100 cash to any information that enlightens us as to who was involved and how something like this can come about .... of course you post your own information and do not forward it to me or ring me.

Here's some comments off the news page.

I do believe as it's a govt project so the FOI rules apply.

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sueann

I can't believe they did that to those beautiful trees.

I feel so shocked!

Garry Brockley

You know im not shocked at all, there are still (arborists)i use this word loosely, in gov't bodies that still decide that this is a good practice of arboriculture even when all around are telling them that we have moved on from outdated vandalism of nature eg lopping, topping and hacking.
you can guarantee that these people will have read this website or even this thread and i hope they cringed when they read the comments about thier work, not just shrugged them off as mad ramblings, instead of being rhetorical comments that should encourage further thought.

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The Tree Whisperer

This is exactly why planning laws are so important,
HOW THE ? DID THIS HAPPEN WHEN A STANDARD FOR PRUNING HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN THIS COUNTRY SINCE 1996------ NO ONE CAN POSSIBLY SAY THAT THEY ARE A TREE PROFESSIONAL/SURGEON/ARBORIST WHATEVER AND NOT KNOW THIS EXISTS AND IF YOU CAN WELL GET THE F@# OUT OF THIS PROFESSION. CAUSE YOU ARE NOT WORTHY.

THOSE PHOTOS JUST MAKE MY BLOOD BOIL THAT THIS CAN HAPPEN- WHO WHY HOW WHAT NOW VALUE THE TREES FIND OUT WHO IS RESPONSIBLE AND MAKE THEM PAY!!!!


THIS IS WHY THE ARBORICULTURE PROFESSION NEEDS TO BE REGULATED PEOPLE WOULD STOP THIS IF THEY WERE GONNA LOSE THEIR LICENSE TO PRACTICE AS AN ARBORIST

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Eric Frei

Here's the Google map link for the trees

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=y-Eungella+Road,+Pleystowe,+Queensland&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Mackay-Eungella+Rd,+Pleystowe+Queensland+4741&gl=au&ll=-21.144791,149.042791&spn=0.006214,0.016512&t=k&z=17
Here's a map of the 9 trees you'll need to see.



The first tree is on your left coming up.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=y-Eungella+Road,+Pleystowe,+Queensland&ll=-21.145012,149.040592&spn=0.006364,0.016512&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&gl=au&t=k&z=17&layer=c&cbll=-21.145025,149.040685&panoid=f7Aj-IpWkiSHpcS3yPSmPQ&cbp=12,103.14,,0,-7.13
I have obtained a copy of the report written on these trees via RTI. I have to scan though ..... will do later today and load up. So $100 reward is over, anyone could have done this for $38 and got the report, made an easy $62 profit.

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Jeff Darby

It would be good to see the specifications on these trees what he/she specified and who wrote them. Hopefully the arborist that specified the pruning can come forward and explain his/her reasoning? After all this forum is accessible to both parties. there's always two sides to the story.

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Member: Australian Tree Association

Join the Australian Tree Association...Have your voice heard !

Arboriculture, A life long study for some, a passing phase for others

© Jeffrey J Darby 2011

Eric Frei

I'm having trouble time wise doing this right away.

What my instincts told me about this case upon first setting my eyes upon the newspaper article was this:-

Topping trees correctly and to standard?

Now looking at this picture think about a few things....



What if the requirement was to prune all tree parts off that were within 5m of the centre-line of the road and 7m high like a huge rectangle .... any parts that intrude must be pruned off. Then in addition nothing to intrude 3m below the lowest electrical wire overhead.

That is what the requirements are in the report, plus to make matters worse the farmer in the paddock also wants nothing over the fence-line.

Think long and hard about this all whilst I reiterate, are specifications being written that cannot be adhered to in the real world?

Mark Hartley challenged Dennis Marsden in the Laman street figs because Marsden wrote about this saying heavy reductions would be difficult to comply to as far as AS4373 is concerned as appropriate target points wouldn't be there ..... a type of natural lions tailing typically exhibited by large fig trees.

Evidence from Marsden's report on page 26:-

Hartley implied that good competent arborists could achieve such but there was mention of only reducing limbs 5% not some dramatic 50%. For those of you familiar with the species you would know that reducing a 50' fig limb to 25' would be a lop job and the only target (excluding node BS) would be back to the saddle or trunk (total removal).

When you actually look at the picture it could well be that the minimum clearance pruning has been applied and that in the absence of appropriate targets the tree cutters stopped where they were, leaving if anything maximum material to be further pruned off back to a so called AS4373 target.

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Eric Frei

The report is attached, I had to scan it to PDF but it's scanned in as a picture but you can read it. Even on my copy the graphics in the document were not real good (photocopy) but you'll get the jist OK.

Pay particular attention to Page 21.

Now Mark Hartley had a shot at Marsden in the Newcastle fig thread as mentioned in the post above. Marsden covered the issue which we see here very well and from page 26 onward from Marsden's report:-

We know from the Newcastle Fig Tree reports etc that Hartley was referred onto the case by Freeman and Freeman was also referenced by Hartley and the Laman Street Fig's Movement. They know each other and converse.

Incredibly Mark Hartley wrote on 21 April 2010 on American forum:-

I responded to over there on 24 April 2010:-

No-one came forth, Freeman and Humphrey's are members here. If Hartley did not know about this then I'd be deeply surprised, not that I'd personally accept what his version of this event would be anyway.

Attached Files

mackay memorial figs.pdf (5.61 MB, 74 views)

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jmcg.insight.gardens

What a shame that those soldiers ended up with a memorial that will be............well............. essentially.............pom poms.

How sad.

Couldn't they be judicially pruned somehow?

Jeffrey Lovstrom

Is anyone going to be held responsible for that? Or is the person responsible being protected?
Jeff

Eric Frei

Protected by bureaucracy perhaps. It was the requirement of the bureaucracies to achieve the clearance distances (except for the cane farmer I suppose).

The wires could have been bundled and the road clearance of 7m high reduced to something lower. Also not off the cards is moving the trees (large tree transplant).

If every consulting arborist was prepared to either walk away or write like Marsden then perhaps change could have come.

Is this any different to Joe Citizen standing in their yard demanding a large tree be cut in half (lopped/hatracked) and you doing it but saying it was done with a level 5 so it's OK or saying it will be reduced but in accordance with AS4373?

Some trees were smaller and the clearances could be achieved with target cuts in the outer foliage but the larger ones under the wires copped it bad.

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Jeffrey Lovstrom

I don't get it. Why is not someone responsible for that. I could see it the USA, but not down there! You guy's are strict and should have answer's. Mr. Hartley must be Outraged!!!!!! (right mister? I know you are lurking)
Jeff

Eric Frei

Yeah sure he's outraged he offers rewards for pie in the eye stuff but nothing on desecrated memorials.

I've lost count of how many similar situations I have walked away from, no way would I put my name on garbage like that.

The orgs here are not impartial nor unbiased, often founded with bureaucracies and have Presidents employed by them .... they're not going to bite the hand that feeds them either.

Then imagine if the orgs could actually bring in (which they are) that if you are not a member you cannot work for these bureaucracies, they love that, a closed shop for the boys club.

The main thing is that we here at Treeworld discuss the real stories and remain independent from these boys clubs. Fortunately we can get information from govts via RTI to get the facts and see what is going on. These are the stories you wont find in The Australian Arborage.

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Jeffrey Lovstrom

So then, He is protected by mean's of tax-payer's. I wonder how he sleep's at nite? The only way is not to care!
Jeff

jmcg.insight.gardens

More instance of lack of forward planning by the authorities, the trees should have been moved perhaps before they were severely pruned for overhead wires.

Yes, an expensive exercise, but a worthy one.

All I see is lack of forward planning, dealing with the issues with a heavy hand, and some trees that should have been magnificent specimens, but are now doomed to a shortened life.

You reckon that all those branches were within the 7 metre cut-off.

Eric Frei

7m high at 5m off the centre line of the road is a big ask.

You reckon there was a target cut within that vicinity?

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jmcg.insight.gardens

at five metres off the centre line, yikes, the poor trees did'nt stand a chance.

No way I would have done that job. I'm not an arborist, but If I was I'd refuse the work.

Interesting that in Zetland, Sydney, all laws are in to protect the Ficus hillii on Joynton Street, yet these trees that are also Heritage are hacked. Always double standards it seems.