Surveying, consultancy & training for the care and maintenance of trees
I’m always happy when I get to survey trees on a site. I will be out next week (February 6th) and working on a large redevelopment site, surveying existing trees for retention and moving. Can’t say more, but do contact me if you have a project I can help on!
On this last day of the year, it’s wet and dull outside here in the UK, so I thought I’d look back at some of the amazing trees I’ve had the privilege to encounter this year whilst visiting and working in the UAE. Some of these I have worked directly with, surveying them as part of a project or site improvement, some I have merely observed and been taken in by their beauty and form.
I’m going to let the pictures and captions speak for themselves, and I look forward to more encounters with trees in 2023.
It’s been a strange two years for all of us, with travel being difficult or impossible, for all the obvious reasons. Whilst Covid has not gone away and we keep a wary eye on the Omicron variant, the world is more open now.
Good news, and it means I can travel again! I am once again available to consult on trees and landscapes. It requires a larger project with a fair number of trees (usually) for a visit to be viable. Smaller projects or individual trees can then be consulted on when I have a visit booked.
So, hoping to visit in the early months of 2022… do contact me if you have a project to discuss!
If you need help or advice with your trees, I will be visiting Dubai for the week of February 23rd, advising on trees for private and commercial clients. If you have a tree you need help with, or a developments project with trees involved, I have a few appointments available.
I can advise on:
Please do get in touch!
I recently supervised a major crown reduction on an over-mature Eucalyptus on an historic site in Abu Dhabi. 
I had surveyed the tree last year and made a recommendation to carry out a substantial crown reduction, due to the declining vigour of the tree and the close proximity to people and buildings.
We used a MEWP (mobile elevating work platform) to access the tree and do works to the lower areas of the crown. The top branches were removed by use of the site crane, which could lift substantial sections of the tree and bring them safely to the ground. I have some great video’s which I may post at a later time.
Needless to say, this type of work needs a skilled arborist and crew to carry out, which we used. If you have complicated tree works that need carrying out, do get in touch…
On my latest visit to the UAE I had a number of tree-related experiences.
In Dubai, I met with James Palmer from WT Burden, to view the Baobab trees they import from Australia. These trees are succulents, so don’t possess the usual vascular system. As such, they are huge water storage tanks and can live uprooted for two years (I believe the biggest weighed 11 tonnes)! The trees in the picture were planted in January and are just now coming into leaf, as the season warms up. I will follow these closely as I’m intrigued about how well they will re-form a good crown shape.
I also got to have a fabulous green tea in the Four Season’s hotel, which was nearby. The landscaping there is sublime, with beautifully terraced stone walls and planters to the roadside boundary and a form of living wall with horizontal planters built into a curved wall.
In Abu Dhabi, I was commissioned to carry out a survey on a large tree, which is located on a site I cannot name. The tree itself is large and in gradual decline, so needs some help. Following a thorough inspection from the ground and also using a MEWP, I will return in the Autumn/Winter to oversee a crown reduction. It’s great to see such care and concern being placed on trees, they are the stuff of life!
I also got a chance to visit Umm Al Emarat Park (formerly Mushrif Central Park), to see it finished and to look for the trees I surveyed and made pruning recommendations on, back in 20 14. It is obviously now completely different, the trees I worked with had all been lifted and containerised for re-use in many different areas of the park. Saw some I could recognise though, like seeing old friends!
This shows a few of the trees in 2014 which had been lifted from the old park and saved for re-use. I surveyed each tree and made recommendations for pruning works, then trained the landscape crew in the correct pruning methods to carry out the works.
One of those trees (Ficus nitida) in its new home and looking happy.
I would like to have had more time there, and will visit again. I note an on-going need for aboricultural advice there to maintain the trees in the best of conditions…