Tree Loppers and Tree Lopping

[Ekka]

Don't you just cringe when people call you that?

What chance do you stand when the newspaper headlines it's section like that and businesses call themselves that?

If you look carefully at the photo in the first pic you'll even see they butchered that tree and featured it in the ad.

How do change this ridiculous mindset for these advertisers and businesses?

 

[Ax-man]

Ekka,

Is there any way you can redo your scans and remove the names of those tree companies advertising tree lopping, it is in kind of bad taste to do this on a public forum.

I agree with what you are trying to say. It is exremely hard to represent yourself as a professional arborist, when bottom feeders like this are operating and advertising butcher work like this.

As long as the public remains uneducated in the care of it's trees and learns to put a true dollar value on a tree, unprofessional practices like lopping , topping , cropping are not going to go away.

Larry

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Is lopping like topping or something? Here a lopper is a tool used to snip smaller branches. We have hand loppers and pole loppers, but they aren't bad.

 

[Koa Man]

,

Is there any way you can redo your scans and remove the names of those tree companies advertising tree lopping, it is in kind of bad taste to do this on a public forum.

I disagree. He is just showing a copy of their advertising. This is what they want the public to see and he is providing them more free advertising.

 

[darkstar]

yeah and im freaking studying for hours on end .. to pass the test and then ill lose a job to a tree hacker ..cause he was alittle cheaper ..... nawww it aint right ....

 

[Bermie]

Lopping and topping can be interchangable and mean the same thing, and none of it good!
The only mitigating factor I see is in the 'dangerous tree expert' ad is that the title Tree Lopping is obviously the heading chosen by the yellow pages, not by the company, I hope he has complained.
As for the other adds, if that's what they have the audacity to offer, then name and shame I say!
We have a problem here in Bermuda, with rampant growth of Casuarina, they grow really tall and are prone to blow over in hurricanes. The 'accepted' practice by the landscape (read maintenance) companies is to offer topping as a service. The trees are indescriminately hacked, then they watersprout like mad and in two years all that new growth comes crashing down again in the first blow, drives me nuts! Not to mention the idiots take 036's up a ladder with no climbing gear.
I offer reduction and thinning and get all kinds of grief because it's more expensive. But if you do good work, and seek to educate the clients, word gets around.

 

[Ax-man]

I disagree. He is just showing a copy of their advertising. This is what they want the public to see and he is providing them more free advertising.

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The practice of what these companies are promoting is wrong, no doubt. But I don't think it is right for us as a group to be singling out individuals or companies to be publicly burned at the stake. Brisbane Tree Lopping obviously has a whole different view about trees than we do here at AS. Our labelling and name calling may be viewed as harmful to their business if you were to look through their eyes.

Sad as this scenario is, individuals or companies performing shoddy work is not against the law. They have as much right to the free market as we do, attempts to discredit such people publically is not a good image for us, unless that individual or a representative of the company is here on the site to respond.

Larry

 

[Ekka]

Good on you KOA

I sourced these from local newspapers and Yellow Pages, a free to public publication and am not violating any laws. Nothing I'm saying is slander just fact.

Lopping (topping) is rampant here, and on big trees. It is against the Australian Standards of Pruning 1996 and no industry association such as QAA or ISAAC would approve of their members practicing it. The problem is govt enforcement of the AS4373 can only occur when the lopping practice has been performed on protected vegetation. But individuals can sue for damages for inappropriate work or consequences down the track.

I'll take some pics from around my neighbourhood today and show what's going on, it's the norm. And with this style of promotion from both within the industry and media it's a tough battle for the good operators.

I would say less than 20% of tree workers around here are qualified or know what they're doing.

Bermie, casuarina's would have to be one of the worst species for topping, they're regrowth is weak and one of the few that I've found get effected by fungus and develop fruiting bodies (and around here that's rare). Always check the basal area for rot.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

I remember getting real mad at family in brisbane cause they were always calling me a treelopper - in the UK thats like calling a tree guy a ******...

 

[Thor's Hammer]

And I see no problem in displaying someones advert, its in the public domain...

 

[treeseer]

But individuals can sue for damages for inappropriate work or consequences down the track.

7 sugar maples near a house were topped; owner sued and won a sizeable settlement. That company lost its insurance and I hear is now back to mowing lawns. Ekka, can anyone there put a dollar value on a tree that was destroyed by lopping?

Larry I doubtr the image of AS is hurt by showing an advertisement. Is it against the rules?

 

[Ekka]

7 sugar maples near a house were topped; owner sued and won a sizeable settlement. That company lost its insurance and I hear is now back to mowing lawns. Ekka, can anyone there put a dollar value on a tree that was destroyed by lopping?

I'm sure you Americans have a formula, I think that's what we use, do you know of it?

Enclose is some pics I took around the area, it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Some of them are in public places like shops and a school carpark.

 

[Ekka]

Some more a lot closer to home

Just some more "treelopping"

The guys that really get on my goat are the ones that call themselves bla bla bla professional treelopping. A professional wouldn't lop trees, a contradiction in the name alone ... you either prune them or remove them and never ever lop them.

 

[a_lopa]

A guy around here has a utility with "TREE LOPPING"really big on the sides.

i hear he cant even tie knots and uses chains on limbs when his bucket runs outta reach,hes been in the game along and does quite well out of it.plenty of topped BIG eucys around my way its suprising how good some of them come back,ill take a pic of one in particular you can only tell by the trained eye.

local council is removing plenty of them around town,liability issues i suspect.

 

[Bermie]

How do you like this:
This picture is a royal poinciana topped after hurricane damage, it was a beautiful tree that could have been carefully pruned, it is now dead. Just a sample of what goes on. Horrors

 

[Koa Man]

I have noticed that royal poincianas will often have a hole where a medium to large size branch has been removed, even if the cut was properly made at the branch collar. These trees are very sensitive to pruning. They are indeed beautiful trees when flowering, but removing the hundreds of seed pods that develop and then raking them up is a major pain in the behind. Not one of my favorite trees to work on.

 

[treeseer]

I'm sure you Americans have a formula, I think that's what we use, do you know of it?

Ekka, NZ has a formula too, NZIH something I think. It may be asier to sell the application of a more local appraisal method.

Yes it is amazing how they can come back despite abuse, but the fact remains that horizontal internodal cuts lead to more rot and weak sprouts = instability = liability so an attempt at a proper reduction cut should be encouraged.

 

[Ekka]

How do you like this:
This picture is a royal poinciana topped after hurricane damage, it was a beautiful tree that could have been carefully pruned, it is now dead. Just a sample of what goes on. Horrors

That's a shocker, people do that a lot over here without any damage, they think it "bushes" up really nice, but the trees don't tend to die from it. Obviously that one did.

Pity, looked like it was bit a feature in a nice garden & all.

 

[treeseer]

This picture is a royal poinciana topped after hurricane damage, it was a beautiful tree that could have been carefully pruned, it is now dead.

Who would argue that the person with the saw should be held liable legally, morally and financially for the loss of that tree?

 

[Ekka]

Who would argue that the person with the saw should be held liable legally, morally and financially for the loss of that tree?

I'm behind you 100%, that is a crying shame and the least what I would do if I were the owner is put a big sign out the front saying "bla bla blab did this to my tree and killed it". It's about time these idiots with saws get busted for that sort of carnage.

For every one that's pruned properly here there's two that have that done. A lot of times down the track I have to try to restore the crown but that is really hard and we take a few out. who does it the most, doorknocking hacks.