Thinking of removing your own tree?

We at Agility Trees urge you to think again. The damage, injury or fatalities caused by tree removal, tree lopping or tree pruning happen far too often by highly skilled arborists, let alone by those untrained. If you have a partner, family member or friend who is considering performing their own tree works or tree removal please continue reading below.

Tree-related injuries

Listed as one of the deadliest occupations in the world, it makes sense that you should leave all forms of tree work to the professionals. Lives are claimed far too often by those performing tree removal and tree lopping every year, let alone tree-related injuries. Although it may appear as a simple process, tree removal requires a high level of knowledge and skill in order to safely fell a tree.

Tree felling and tree removal involve far more than buying or hiring a chainsaw and simply cutting into the side of a tree. Angles of the cut, positioning of the cut on the trunk and consideration of the weight distribution of the foliage and height of the tree are only a few factors that our arborists at Agility Trees have mastered.

Using a chainsaw itself, and inserting the bar into a tree also requires much training to do so in a way that won’t damage the saw, the tree or the operator. No one wants to lose a limb! Especially if you are considering pruning a tree using a ladder, this is a big no go. Your health and wellbeing are far too important to be put on the line when considering how to remove your own tree.

 Property damage

The weight of a tree’s branch can be quite deceiving. You may be able to get yourself up a tree, or maybe you’re using a ladder, but when it comes to actually bring a branch to the ground you may be surprised to consider the skill necessary. Simply cutting through the branch and hoping it lands where you think it will is not enough to ensure it does so.

Branches can have a mind of their own. You may have not cut it correctly, resulting in a snap and the branch swinging back towards yourself, or your house, or your fence. Or maybe the branch hits the ground and bounces back into your car, or into the ladder!

We at Agility Trees, when tree pruning or tree trimming use various techniques to ensure that the branches we are removing reach the ground safely. This most often involves rigging, where we attach ropes and pulleys at various points in the tree in order to lower it down safely. Don’t risk the value of your property to quickly and cheaply remove limbs from your tree. It’s not worth it. Just imagine watching the tree you just placed a cut into slowly falling in the direction of your house!

There are websites and ‘do-it-yourself’ videos out there, but we at Agility Trees recommend that this is something not to be considered. Our arborists undergo regular training to ensure they have the necessary skill, knowledge, tools and experience to conduct safe tree removal as well as tree pruning with ease. Your lives and your property are not worth the risk, and by removing your own tree more problems will likely be caused than resolved. Our estimators and arborists will be able to advise on how the tree or branches will be removed, where they will end up and how long it will take. So keep your limbs, your house, your car in one piece and steer clear of that tempting ladder!

If you have a tree that requires some work, leave the ladder in the shed and give us a call 024058 3149