What is mechanised arboriculture?

Mechanised Arboriculture or “Mech Arb” is working on trees using machinery fitted with grapple saws opposed climbing using rope and harness or working from a MEWP etc. Although there is some overlap, generally speaking the work is carried out from ground level often with the machine operator sitting in a machine cab thus limiting if not avoiding the whole work at height scenario.

There is a wide range of machinery available often adapted but some purpose built.

I’ll cover machine selection in another article but the types of machine available are:

Excavators generally larger than 14t

Tracked material handlers

Wheeled material handlers

Rotating Telehandlers

Lorry mounted folding cranes

Track mounted folding cranes

Adapted mobile cranes

Whichever machine is chosen it needs to be capable of removing sections of tree safely and within the capacity of the carrier along with having the ability to access close enough to the tree to enable this.

From experience the first three machines on the list cross over into site clearance / forestry. Whenever I speak to clients about the pros and cons of each machine type we discuss the balance of high work / production rates of excavator or material handler based equipment against the longer reach, slower pace of cranes or roto-telehandlers.

So, is my site suitable for mechanised arb?

My first answer is “yes of course” I take great pride in being able to come up innovative solutions for clients. Unfortunately it does also come down to economics.

There are very few trees that will take any longer than a day to remove with our Roto-telehandler. But, with rates starting at around £1400 plus transport for a days hire is it really economical ? The answer depends on the stability of the tree, target risks around the tree and access.

The arisings will still need to be removed and if the main stem needs sectioning down a certain amount of work at height will be required. However, a good example is a job we carried out for a tree company a couple of weeks ago. They had a large dead tree with many high value targets beneath it. The tree was completed by lunchtime leaving time to remove another 4 smaller trees for the same cost.

In a nutshell:

Good for Mechanised Arboriculture

Multiple trees

Ash trees infected with Ash Dieback

Trees with high target risks around them

Trees with significant structural defects

Maybe not so good

Single small - medium trees

Small back gardens

Light reductions or other pruning works

Well that's the basics. Next up is machine selection.

Thanks for reading.