Tree Management, Consents and Controls
The care and conservation of trees within a wide range of historic environments from ancient monuments, castles and stately homes to designed and cultural landscapes is an important responsibility.
Many trees have survived for hundreds of years, some possibly over a thousand years, and can be considered living monuments, important in their own right. Other individuals are of importance as rare specimens or are magnificent champions for their height or girth.
Like people, they can be both predictable and unpredictable in their behaviour and their health can fluctuate. This page looks at owners' tree management responsibilities.
Duty of care
All tree owners have a duty of care to all visitors and staff working on their property. The best way to fulfil this duty is by regular visual inspections of all trees on the site undertaken by a qualified and experienced tree professional. This expert can give an opinion on the health and safety of the trees and make recommendations for any necessary work.
The professional body, the Arboricultural Association maintains a directory of Registered Consultants.
The National Tree Safety Group's Common sense risk management of trees provides more advice.
Tree inspection systems
Tree inspection systems should be set up to ensure all aspects of tree management, including dates of inspections, recommendations, related factors and works undertaken are fully recorded.
Inspections should be managed separately from the procurement of services for the recommended works. This separation ensures that there can be no question of work being recommended for any reason other than genuine need. It also allows for the addition of planned management work which does not result from health and safety reports but is necessary for the smooth running of the site. This could include work such as crown lifting and/or reduction to clear pathways, roads, buildings or similar; tree or scrub removal for landscape reasons such as opening up views; stump removal; coppicing on a regular cycle; or thinning earlier plantings.
Frequency of tree inspections
There is no agreed industry standard advice on how frequently you should carry out inspections. Owners and managers may opt for a range of frequencies for different trees or different parts of the site depending on use. For example, old trees in areas of high public usage may need to be inspected more than once a year. Healthy young trees in areas of low usage may only warrant inspection every five years.
Ideally the inspecting tree professional should be retained on a long-term basis (either as a member of staff or a consultant).
Programming inspections at 15-month intervals ensures that trees are inspected at different times of the year. Potential problems which may only be apparent in certain seasons, such as the appearance of fungal fruiting bodies or broken and fallen branches, can then be identified.
Tree works and felling
Recommendations from the inspecting tree professional must be acted on but the owner/manager should also consider the wider implications of landscape, cultural and ecological factors.
There should be a general presumption to retain trees, especially veteran (ancient) trees, wherever possible. There are a number of techniques which might be considered to reduce or mitigate the risk and avoid felling. These include making the tree inaccessible, crown reduction or thinning, pollarding, cable bracing or even propping. All or none of these options might be appropriate. It is sometimes impossible to avoid having to remove trees.
The Arboricultural Association's Approved professionals and contractors directory provides lists of consultants and tree surgeons. Specialists with VETcert accreditation should be sought for works on old trees.
However, no expert can guarantee that a tree is 100% safe. Trees can be quite seriously decayed with no visible signs. Otherwise healthy trees can collapse in severe weather conditions. It is even possible that perfectly healthy trees can suddenly shed branches in windless conditions in a well-documented (but poorly understood) phenomenon known as 'Summer Branch Drop'.
Managing felling works
Felling of trees, and in some cases even maintenance, can be distressing for local people and visitors. If works are potentially controversial, we advise owners/managers to brief community groups, and display information on site prior to works starting.
Significant works, such as the removal of mature specimens or clearance of large sections of earthworks may call for more extensive explanation or publicity. The local authority should be briefed too, and in a Conservation Area or where trees are protected by Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) owners/managers must consult them about planned works. Good planning and programming, execution of the felling work and re-planting can help ease concerns.
If the expert tree professional has advised that a tree is an immediate source of danger which cannot be mitigated, felling should be carried out without delay and the appropriate people notified afterwards.
Replanting
Many sites have large numbers of mature trees and newer plantings. However, there are often gaps in the generations of trees or age classes which have major implications for the treescape of a historic landscape.
Conservation management plans are strongly recommended for historic parks and gardens and these should include detailed sections on specimen trees, parkland trees, veteran and ancient trees, shelterbelts and woodlands, and their role in the designed landscapes and character of the estates. Wherever possible, historically appropriate succession planting should be established to ensure continuity of tree cover for the future.
The climate change challenge is identifying new tree species that perpetuate the historic design and its structure. The key is a thorough understanding of the landscape and the climate change impacts, risks and opportunities. New climate matching tools for trees and woodland mixes are coming on stream such as The Right Trees for Changing Climate Database. However these may be designed for urban tree planting or afforestation and they need to be used judicially in different contexts such as historic parks and gardens.
Opportunities to open up lost views of the landscape or reinstate features should be considered. Back in 1987, damage caused by the Great Storm allowed owners to reappraise lost views. Equally screening eyesores, intrusions that lead in some cases to a loss of character.
New trees need to be looked after. Good establishment will be even more important as climate change intensifies. Advice is available from the Forestry Commission's Tree Care Guide. Well-designed tree guards can add to the aesthetics of parkland as well as protect the trees from animals.
Woodland management
Woodlands, shelterbelts and coppices are important features in historic parks and gardens, and other landscapes. They should be included in the conservation management plan and specific woodland management plans prepared. The plans need to be long term. Twenty years is a minimum. The Forestry Commission provides guidance on Creating a woodland management plan.
Natural England provides guidance on the vulnerability of different types of woodland habitats to climate change and potential adaptation options in their Climate Change Adaptation Manual (NE751) (April 2020 edition):
- Beech and yew woodland
- Lowland mixed deciduous woodland
- Traditional orchards
- Upland mixed ash woodland
- Wood pasture and parkland
Forest Research's UK Forestry Standard Practice Guide Adapting forest and woodland management to the changing climate provides further management advice.
Protecting trees on development and event sites
Tree surveys should be part of the design process for any development on a site or in planning for an event. This ensures that retained trees will be adequately protected and will not subsequently have to be removed due to concerns over safety.
Trees' root-zones need to be protected. The root zone will extend beyond the canopy of the tree, a minimum of 12x the diameter of the girth of the tree (see British Standards BS 2837:2012 Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction– recommendations). The root zone is easily damaged by plant, machinery or materials stored during building works, the laying of services and other works, and also by vehicles, heavy footfall and other compaction. The Ancient Tree Forum's two downloadable guides Trees and development and Trees and events provide further advice.
Tree controls and consents
Tree Preservation Orders and tree protection in Conservation Areas
Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) are made by local planning authorities to protect the individual trees, groups of trees, or woodlands of amenity value. A TPO prohibits the cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage or destruction of trees without written consent. In conservation areas, you need to consult your local planning authority on trees works even if there is no TPO.
The Department of Levelling Up, Communities and Housing's guidance explains the legislation governing Tree Preservation Orders and tree protection in conservation areas and your responsibilities as the tree owner.
Felling licences
The Forestry Commission controls tree felling through licences. Their Tree Felling licence web page explains when you need to apply for a licence.
Trees in registered parks and gardens
Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens is intended to raise awareness of the national interest of individual parks and gardens. The designation is a material consideration in determining planning applications affecting sites, but the designation does not confer any additional statutory controls including trees. However, trees and woodlands within registered sites may be protected through tree preservation orders or conservation area status.
Trees on scheduled monuments
Work to trees on a scheduled monument may require scheduled monument consent.
