A Day in the Life of a Senior Arboricultural Consultant

Senior Arboricultural Consultant - Jack Wannell

The question everyone always asks: What is an Arboricultural Consultant? Well, Google AI puts us down as ‘a professional with expert knowledge in trees and woodland management who provides advice on tree health, safety, and preservation’. In principle not the worst definition, but everyone in our Arboricultural Team can be considered half Tree Officer and half Arboricultural Consultant, with our workstreams representing a niche within our industry.

The first matter of the day is an early morning coffee to get the brain functioning for what lies ahead. Then onto my first task, finalising my comments for the Essex County Council response towards a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. This project is full of Veteran trees, Ancient Woodland and high value specimens that will be affected to one degree or another by the scheme. My comments are finalised and sent to my Principal Consultant for a final review.

Next, I hop in the car for a local site visit. A member of the public has been complaining about large Eucalyptus trees near their house that they believe are dangerous and need to be removed. On arrival, I inspect all six trees, noting their structural and physiological condition and plotting them on our tree management system. Whilst I find that two need felling (as they have both died), the others I don’t consider require removal. However, they could benefit from a height and lateral reduction as they have various over-extended limbs that pose a risk to the highway. All this information is recorded ready to generate a report to send to contractors when I’m back in the office.

The next important stop on my journey is Wild Bean Café to make sure I’m fully caffeinated ready for my meeting with a local authority Tree Officer. They’ve been in touch about the removal of a large volume of trees due to a failure during a storm. I meet the Tree Officer on site and we discuss the issues posed, coming to a collaborative agreement that appeases all parties.

Finally, it's off home to complete some proofing for other members of the team to complete my day's work.

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