Site clearance and forestry.
Overgrown plots, woodland management and utility line work for landowners and contractors.
Site clearance covers everything from an overgrown garden that has not been touched in a decade to a development plot that needs stripping before groundworks start. Forestry work covers woodland thinning, ride clearance and coppicing on a managed rotation. We have subcontracted on utility line clearance for SSE and on local authority street tree contracts.
Clearance before development
If a site is going to be built on, the vegetation usually has to come off before groundworks. What matters is doing it in the right order: an ecological check first, then any protected species work, then clearance. Clearing first and asking questions afterwards is how projects get stopped.
Bats, badgers, nesting birds and reptiles are all protected and all common on scrubby Hampshire sites. If your ecologist has produced a method statement, we work to it. If you have not had a survey, get one before we start.
Woodland thinning
Thinning removes a proportion of the stems in a stand so the remaining trees have room to put on diameter. Done on a sensible rotation it improves timber quality, gets light to the woodland floor and makes the whole stand more stable.
Anything beyond a small volume needs a felling licence from the Forestry Commission. The current exemption allows up to five cubic metres per calendar quarter, of which no more than two may be sold. Above that, felling without a licence is an offence. We will tell you which side of the line your job falls on.
Commercial and contract work
For managing agents, councils and main contractors we supply method statements, risk assessments and insurance certificates as standard, carry chapter 8 traffic management for anything roadside, and invoice on account rather than on completion.
Distance is negotiable for contract work in a way it is not for domestic jobs. We have worked street trees on the London South Bank.
The short version
Common questions
Do I need a felling licence?
For anything over five cubic metres in a calendar quarter, yes, from the Forestry Commission. Garden trees are generally exempt, as is work on trees under 8cm diameter. We check before quoting.
Can you clear a site with a bat roost on it?
Not without a licence and an ecologist. Bats and their roosts are protected whether or not the bats are present. If a survey has identified a roost, the work needs a Natural England licence and we work under the ecologist’s method statement.
Do you take on subcontract work?
Yes. We have subcontracted on utility line clearance for SSE and on local authority street tree programmes, and we are set up for the paperwork that comes with it.
Not sure if this is what you need?
Describe the tree and what is worrying you about it. We will tell you what the options are and roughly what each one costs, including the option of doing nothing.