When specifying works to trees I always have one word in the back of my mind: ‘justification’.

For me this has its origin from when I was at horticultural college learning to prune fruit trees. The lecturer would pass down the row of neglected apple trees where students were busily working. He would ask ‘why are you removing that?’ and you would need to be able to say why. Some students couldn’t justify their choice and were suitably reprimanded.

Given that I can always support my pruning specification, you can understand that I was more than a little annoyed when I had an application to prune a Weeping Willow that was refused because of the way it had been specified. I was particularly cross because the Tree Officer had not contacted me to discuss it. I immediately re-submitted the Application, but in the interim the tree suffered wind damage – which would have been avoided if the works originally applied for had been carried out.