Scenario 7: Large private estate with public access
Scenario 7 could relate to a wide range of large landholdings where public access is the norm. This could include country estates, amenity woodlands, waterways and heritage land. In this instance, we have used a private estate open to and widely visited by the public. The estate has been in the family for generations.
It is predominantly arable but with some grassland and 600 ha of woodland. There is a historic house, ornamental gardens, plus woods and parkland that contain many important veteran trees.
5000 ha 
Approximately 450 000General information
Approximately 2000 ha are farmed in hand with the remainder tenanted; all the woodland and all the trees are retained and managed by the estate. The main house and its garden are open to the public throughout the year. Three car parks serve the main house, ornamental gardens, restaurant and the farm shop. During the summer, several events take place in the grounds, including a craft fair, a caravan rally, a carnival, a jazz festival and a balloon fiesta. For the past three years, a television gardening programme has followed the seasonal cycle in the ornamental grounds through the eyes of the head gardener.
The park and some of the woodland is open seasonally some of the year. The estate employs a general manager, who has overall responsibility for implementing policy and strategic and operational decisions. Departmental heads are responsible for the house, the estate, the gardens, visitor facilities and catering. The estate’s general manager is responsible for day-to-day tree safety. The estate also employs two gardeners, a farm manager, three members of farm staff, a head gamekeeper, two underkeepers and a woodman.
An external forestry agent is employed to assist with management of the woods. The estate is divided by several public roads, notably a busy A road that runs through it from north to south.
Ownership/control of management
Responsibility: The estate owner has overall responsibility for managing its affairs. The general manager reports to him and the department heads have day-to-day responsibility for managing their respective responsibilities. The strategic responsibility for the safety of all trees on the estate is held by the estate’s general manager. As a reasonable and prudent landowner responsible for trees, he also recognises he is the duty holder, employing experienced staff who are able to understand the significance of obvious defects in trees, in the context of their location. They have received basic training to carry out visual checks and, where necessary, obtain further advice.
Arboricultural competence: The farm manager is experienced in a wide range of agricultural activities, and the woodman, one of the gamekeepers and the two gardeners have certificates to use a chainsaw. The woodman and the head gardener can identify the most common trees and can recognise the obvious signs that a tree may be hazardous.
The external forestry agent advises on most tree-related issues and decides if tree safety work is required; if he feels the issue is beyond his level of competence then he will recommend a suitably qualified arboriculturist.
Access
The estate is divided by several public roads, notably the busy A road. The estate is criss-crossed by footpaths, some of which run alongside or through the woodland. The house and garden are open all year round and the park and woodlands are open for part of the year. During the summer months, the park is used for public events.
Benefits of trees
The owner has known the estate all his life and has lived there for much of it; he values his trees and woodlands. The trees and woods are very important to him, they enhance the landscape where he lives and provide valuable habitat for game birds and wildlife. As such, he sees investment in their maintenance as a good use of funds. In the winter, he and his friends see shooting as an important leisure activity, but he also enjoys seeing the other wildlife during the rest of the year.
Some of the veteran trees also give him a link with his family’s heritage and presence in the area. Most of the work that his trees and woodlands require costs him money and he is prepared to invest a reasonable amount in his trees.
Natural living organisms
Having lived on the estate for most of his life, the owner is well aware of how the trees and woods have changed over the years. He has experienced trees being felled and replanted, many of which are now of significant size. He observed that during the great storm of 1987, many younger trees blew over, while some of the older veteran trees stood firm despite losing branches.
The scars and cavities resulting from this can still be seen on some of the larger trees. Recently, a mature beech lost a huge branch; fortunately, no one was underneath it at the time. These events help the owner to understand that trees are living things and that as they grow it is part of their nature to lose branches, develop cavities and eventually enter a long period of slow decline.
He also recognises that trees can frequently recover from quite severe damage and live for many years with those features without being a danger to anyone.
Strategy
Management
Until recently, the estate had no formal tree safety management plan, relying on staff and others to report problems, then dealing with them as they arose. Although no one had been killed or injured by a falling tree or branch on the estate, two years ago the owner decided that it would be prudent to adopt a proactive approach.
In a meeting with the estate’s general manager, head gardener, farm manager and woodman, an estate map was used to identify the areas that they believed merited more formal inspection. For the first formal inspection they decided to include the A road, all the public roads, the garden, the visitors’ car park and the park. They decided to continue with the existing informal system on the rest of the estate.
The owner also wrote a letter to all staff informing them that he had asked the general manager to lead on the estate’s tree safety plan and instructed them to report any trees that they were concerned about directly to him.
The general manager and the woodman carried out the first formal tree checks. They checked the trees alongside the roads and in the park. This was mostly a drive-by visual check, stopping for a closer look at some of the bigger, older trees that were more likely to have problems, walking where the trees were closer together or where a wood grew alongside the road. The head gardener and the undergardener checked the trees in the garden and the car park.
The roadside tree survey found three trees requiring attention and, as they were not considered to be important for landscape or environmental reasons, one was felled and the other two had limbs removed. No trees in the park needed attention. However, they decided some of the park’s veteran trees needed protection, and that in future, event organisers would be instructed not to park or place marquees or other structures underneath or close to these trees. Two of the trees were specifically selected for protection with fencing.
In the garden, in addition to the ‘secret’ hollow oak in a corner not used by the public, they found an old lime tree with a large cavity in it. The owner was very keen to keep the tree, so, following discussion with the forestry agent, the general manager employed an arboriculturist to inspect it. The arboriculturist reported that the cavity was not affecting the tree’s structural integrity and he recommended carrying out no work just now and undertaking another inspection in three years’ time.
Following the initial checks and remedial work, the owner decided that, unless there was a change in circumstances, the trees alongside the A road and the lime tree in the garden would be formally checked again in three years’ time and those in the other areas in five years. Until that time, the trees in these areas would be subject to the same informal regime as the other trees on the estate.
Competence
Employees are able to recognise features that might signify a serious structural defect. However, following guidance from the forestry agent, the estate’s manager arranged for key members of staff to receive training in basic tree survey and inspection. When a greater level of expertise is required, the forestry agent recommends a qualified arboriculturist and in the case of ancient and veteran trees, a qualified VETcert specialist.
Records
The results of the formal checks are kept in a file in the estate office along with the results of the arboriculturist’s report and a note of any remedial work carried out. The general manager also keeps records of related training and any trees reported to him, and the action(s) that he took.
Evaluation
The estate owner believes that, in the unlikely event of an accident involving one of his trees, the system he has put in place is sufficient to demonstrate ‘the conduct to be expected from a reasonable and prudent landowner’.