Following an extensive review and revision process The National Tree Safety Group has launched its revised 2nd edition of Common Sense Risk Management of Trees.
The NTSG Drafting Group has worked for over three years in consultation with sector experts, refining and amending the document to provide the most up to date advice to landowners who are responsible for the management of trees under their control.
The National Tree Safety Group was formed in 2007 to bring together a cross-section of stakeholders with a shared interest in tree safety to assist those who own and have responsibility for trees, including householders with gardens, rural landowners and farmers, large charities, public and private sector organisations, and local and national government.
The first edition of its guidance was published in December 2011 and has been widely accepted as a sector standard on how trees should be managed in the context of safety and how a landowner can fulfil their duty of care to staff, visitors and the general public. This 2nd edition builds on that work.
The drafting group comprised members of the following organisations who represent a wide cross section of the sectors at which the guidance is aimed:
Arboricultural Association; Simon Richmond, Treework Environmental Practice; Nev Fay, The London Tree Officers Association; Andy Tipping, Forest Research; Elaine Dick, Forestry Commission; Hilary Allison, NTSG Chair and Jim Smith.
The first edition of this guidance supported a growing awareness among those duty holders of the need to check their trees and provided guidance on a widely accepted approach to managing risks from trees, based on sector-wide consultation. More than a decade on, the NTSG has taken stock of what has changed, such as the emergence of widespread tree disease, growing public activism and advocacy around the benefits of trees now reflected in Government policy, and a number of new legal cases. There are reasons why trees require a specific and unique approach to safety management: As natural organisms they organically change from year to year. While tree diseases are not new, emerging pests and diseases have moved from being isolated problems to impacting a large percentage of the nation’s stock of trees.
This 2nd edition, comprising a Full Guidance Publication and a Summary document, is about an overall approach and lays out the principles behind tree risk management. Its scope is not prescriptive in dealing with tree pathology and failure. The Full Guidance Publication includes Scenarios providing examples of how trees can be managed in practice in different types of ownership and use. Safety and human health are paramount.
The Full Guidance Publication and the Summary are available to purchase as hard copy through the Arboricultural Association’s online bookshop and digital copies can be downloaded from the
NTSG website
