Tree Appraisals

canadiantreeman

TreeHouser
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
1,744
Location
Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
I'm about to go and look at a young Plane Tree in Summerland which a strata is hoping to get an appraisal on before the tree is removed and was wondering if any folks here who have given appraisals on trees in the past might have some advice to offer me. I may have to step aside on this one due to lack of experience, but I would love to add this to our list of services.

Any tips?
 
the 9th guide to tree appraisal is a useful book along with the regional species rating from the ISA PNW chapter. Without those and experience in grading tree condition and quality, its a crapshoot.
 
The Burnley method is good IF you aren't doing it very often.
 
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  • #6
the 9th guide to tree appraisal is a useful book along with the regional species rating from the ISA PNW chapter. Without those and experience in grading tree condition and quality, its a crapshoot.

I went to the meeting and came out saying that I am neither certified nor experienced enough to give an appraisal which would stand up in a court of law. However, I gave them the number of an appraiser in Kelowna and printed off the summary of the Guide for Plant Appraisals, Ninth Edition. I've got some pics uploading as we speak and I'll try to get em up soon. From my very limited experience it seems like this tree would be fairly valuable, I told them potentially in the tens of thousands. I was cursing as I was trying to find my diameter tape when I was getting saddled up to go out there, so I have no measurements as yet. But my treeman's eye says the tree was around 30" or .762m DBH and about 65' or roughly 20m tall. Canopy was in great shape...a few defects but nothing major. It was probably 40-50 years old. You'll see when I get the pics up...its a beauty.
 
What are they doing that they need to remove the tree? I saw the painted dashes (orange) on the ground close to the trunk. Looks like maybe underground infrastructure, or possibly road widening.

You know you can bore under the CRZ ya know!
 
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  • #9
Widening the road and perhaps putting a bus stop underneath. As a first step, the tree would have to have a canopy raise to accomodate clearance. I believe that they are planning on dropping the grade of the road some 15" from the current height of the aggregate you see there. This would imply that the roots are in an area which will suffer excavation, I don't think there is any way around that part. The city has also purchased the land up to the stake by the base of the tree, so it seems likely they will either do significant damage by excavation or they will remove it.

Looking at the pictures, it seems the road is plenty wide there and it is. It is a dang shame if this tree goes, I'd like to fight for it...
 
I doubt tens of thousands in reality although some could certainly drum those numbers up. Part of appraising is commoon sence. A good rule of thumb is in most cases, a tree shouldn't exceed 10% of property value. The more trees on the property, the lower the value/impact
 
Nope, been studying it alot and learning from a guy that has. It's a difficult thing to do fairly i'm learning.
 
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