As contracting arborist’s working throughout the urban environment in south-east Queensland, Brisbane Tree Experts frequently encounter large trees which our clients wish to remove. This often results from a concern with regard to the safety of the trees within their growing environments, and can be driven by a trees propensity to shed or drop large branches.
Trees are dynamic, living organisms, and much like humans follow a natural life cycle, which goes from juvenile and vigorous growth, to maturity, senescence and ultimately death. Trees that have reached senescence are often referred to as veteran trees, and their natural life cycle results in a reduction in the overall mass of the above ground parts of the tree.
This can often occur through the natural failure of individual parts of a trees crown, and this can represent significant risks when trees are growing within the built environment. These veteran trees however, are of great importance to our urban environments. Not only do these old established trees evoke emotions of purpose, wisdom and age to name a few, but they often provide habitat for wildlife that is critical to a vast array of Australian native species.
It is generally considered that natural hollows within trees, that are proven to be of great importance to many native wildlife species, can take between 120 to 150 years to form. In years gone by, these important trees would often be completely removed from their environments, in order to manage the levels of risk associated with the trees increasing potential for failure. This indiscriminate removal resulted in the loss and destruction of these important habitat hollows from throughout the urban environment.
Fortunately, modern arboriculture is changing, and with an understanding of the natural biological cycles of the trees, and given the necessary skills, qualifications and experience, there are now principles and methodologies that can be implemented to successfully facilitate the long term retention of these important urban assets. New methodologies in the field of environmental arboriculture can not only retain valuable habitat in trees growing within the urban environment, but can actually enhance a trees ability to provide this habitat, which has huge benefit to the environment and the community in general.
Brisbane Tree Experts are proud to be strong advocates of this important work in today’s arboriculture industry, and are leading providers in the implementation of these modern and innovative techniques. Make sure you check out our next blog to learn more about how the Brisbane Tree Experts Team implement habitat pruning in high risk trees, and how these principles of habitat creation may be applied to your valuable tree assets.
