Tree and Planting Protection Questions Checklist

Walk the boundary and list every tree, large shrub and hedge on it or immediately beyond it, including anything in a neighbouring garden that leans over.

Trees just outside the boundary are the ones most often left off a plan and most often affected by access and scaffolding.

Photograph each tree from two positions with something familiar in the frame for scale, and date the images before any work is arranged.

Dated images taken beforehand are what make a later change demonstrable, and they take very little effort to produce.

Sketch the rough spread of each canopy onto a plan of the property, since the ground under the branches is usually what matters most.

Owners tend to mark the trunk and forget the canopy, which is the area where storage, standing and digging cause the real problems.

Write down what you do not know about each tree, including what type it is, roughly how old it is and who owns it, rather than guessing on the plan.

An honest gap is more useful to a professional than a confident guess, which they then have to unpick.

Note anything already visible, such as a lean, a split, dead branches or disturbed ground, and report it rather than interpreting what it means.

Observation is owner-side work and interpretation is not, and the distinction matters a great deal with trees.

Any sign of poor condition belongs with a suitably qualified arboricultural professional. Do not draw your own conclusion about a tree.

Confirm with the relevant local authority whether any tree on or near the property carries a designation, or sits within a designated area, and record what you are told.

Designations are not visible on the ground, and they change what may be done to a tree entirely.

Never treat a tree as unprotected because nothing appears on it. Confirm with the relevant local authority before anything affecting it is arranged.

Ask what applies to a neighbouring tree that overhangs your land, and treat both its ownership and its status as questions to be confirmed rather than assumed.

Overhanging branches are widely misunderstood, and acting on an assumption about them causes disputes that are hard to undo.

Check any permission already granted for wording about trees, planting, hedges and ground works, and list the parts you cannot interpret yourself.

Conditions about trees are commonly attached to permissions and commonly discovered by everyone only after work has started.

Ask the relevant local authority what notice, if any, is expected before work near a tree, and record who you spoke to and when.

Notice arrangements differ between areas, and the person who confirms it to you matters if the point is raised later.

Ask for confirmation in writing rather than relying on a telephone conversation, and keep it with the rest of the project papers.

A written answer is the one that is still available long after the conversation everybody remembers differently.

Mark on your plan the ground that sits under and beyond each canopy, and treat all of it as a question rather than as available space.

Marking it turns an invisible constraint into something a delivery driver or a working team can actually see and respect.

Note any digging, trenching or service run planned near a tree, and raise it while it is still being designed rather than when it is being dug.

The position of a trench is easy to reconsider on paper and effectively impossible to reconsider once it is open.

Excavation near a tree is discussed with a suitably qualified arboricultural professional before it is planned or started.

Ask what happens to the ground under a canopy if material is stacked on it or vehicles stand on it during the work.

Compaction is not visible and shows in the tree long after the project has finished, which is why it is so routinely accepted.

Note any proposed change in ground level near a trunk, including material being spread over the ground or ground being scraped back.

Adding or removing ground around a trunk is rarely thought of as work affecting the tree, but it is among the more significant things done to one.

Ask what is proposed where a new hard surface would sit within the ground under a canopy, and treat it as a question for a qualified professional.

New surfacing changes what reaches the ground beneath it, and the effect appears gradually rather than immediately.

Note where water currently runs and stands near each tree, since altering drainage affects trees in ways that show up long afterwards.

Drainage changes are usually designed without any reference to planting, and the connection is only made once something declines.

Walk the delivery and access route looking upwards rather than at the ground, and note every branch a high vehicle or a long load would meet.

Height restrictions from planting are invisible at eye level and are usually discovered by a driver already committed to the route.

Ask where scaffolding would stand relative to trees and hedges, and whether any branch would have to be moved out of the way to allow it.

Scaffolding is designed against the building and the ground, and the planting in between is dealt with on the day it goes up.

Any cutting back to make room for access or scaffolding is a question for a qualified professional and, where relevant, the local authority.

Note which branches sit over the working area itself, and raise them before anyone is standing under them with equipment.

Branches over a working area affect both the tree and the work, and it is better to have the conversation in advance.

Agree who decides what happens if a branch is in the way, and make clear that nothing is cut without the question being asked first.

Branches are removed casually by people trying to get a job done, and that is where most avoidable tree problems begin.

Note any overhead line running through or near a canopy, and treat it as a matter for the supply provider rather than for anyone on site.

Lines running through planting are easy to miss from the ground and are entirely outside what a working team should deal with.

An overhead line near a tree is a matter for the relevant supply provider. Nobody at the property should work near it without their involvement.

Try to establish who owns each tree and hedge on a boundary, and record it as an open question where the answer is not clear from a document.

Ownership determines who may do what, and it is regularly assumed on the basis of which side the trunk appears to be on.

Ownership of a boundary tree or hedge is established from your documents by a suitably qualified adviser, not from where it appears to stand.

Raise any overhanging branch with the neighbour early, as a conversation rather than as a decision you have already taken.

Almost every dispute about a boundary tree begins with an action taken before a conversation happened.

Note where a hedge is the boundary itself rather than something growing alongside it, since removing or reducing it changes more than the planting.

A hedge acting as a boundary carries questions that ordinary planting does not, and those questions belong with an adviser.

Identify any part of the work that could only be reached across a neighbour's planting, and treat it as a question about access to be agreed.

Access over someone else's garden needs agreement, and finding out late can stop a section of work entirely.

Note that roots from a neighbouring tree may extend under your working area, and raise it as a question rather than assuming they stop at the fence.

Roots take no notice of boundaries, and work on your own land can affect a tree that belongs to someone else.

Write down what was agreed with a neighbour about their planting and send it to them, so both parties hold the same version of it.

Doorstep agreements about trees are honestly remembered in different ways, and a short written summary prevents that becoming a dispute.

List the planting you particularly want to keep, and say so before the work is arranged rather than after the ground has been cleared.

Anything not identified as wanted is treated as part of the site, which is a reasonable assumption for anyone to make.

Ask whether anything can realistically be lifted and held elsewhere at the property, and what determines whether it survives the move.

Lifting is often possible and often not, and the answer depends on things an owner cannot judge from appearance.

Whether a plant can be lifted and held, and when, is a question for a suitably qualified horticultural or arboricultural professional.

Decide where lifted plants would actually be held, and check that the spot is not itself needed for storage, access or standing.

Plants held in the one clear corner of a garden are usually moved a second time, which is when they are lost.

Ask which season suits moving or cutting back the planting you want to keep, and note that this may not suit the work at all.

Where the two do not coincide, it is better to know and decide deliberately than to discover it as a loss afterwards.

Be honest about what is unlikely to survive the work, and record it now rather than treating it as an unexpected loss at the end.

An expected loss can be planned around and replaced deliberately, whereas an unexpected one is simply a disappointment.

Ask a qualified professional, and confirm with the relevant authority, what applies to nesting and wildlife before any hedge, tree or dense planting is cut.

This is a question that has to be asked before the work rather than after it, because the answer can stop the work entirely.

What applies to wildlife and nesting is set locally and varies through the seasons. Confirm it with the relevant authority before anything is cut.

Write down what you have seen using the trees and hedges across the seasons, and pass it on rather than deciding for yourself that it does not matter.

Owners hold observations nobody else has, and those observations are exactly what a qualified professional needs to work from.

Note holes, nests, roosts, dense ivy or hollow sections on a trunk, and raise each one as a question for somebody qualified to look at it.

These features are visible to anyone and interpretable only by someone qualified, which makes them a good owner-side record.

Ask who is responsible for establishing what applies before any cutting begins, and have that person named rather than left as a shared understanding.

Where nobody is named, this is the task that falls between the parties and is noticed only once a hedge has already been opened up.

Note any pond, ditch or water feature near the work, and ask what applies to it and to anything living in it before ground is disturbed.

Water features are usually left off a site plan entirely and are affected by run-off, spoil and changes in drainage.

Ask what physical protection is proposed around each tree that is staying, and where it would stand relative to the spread of the canopy.

Protection placed tight against a trunk protects the bark and not the ground, which is usually the part that matters.

Agree that protection is in place before the first delivery arrives, since the damage usually happens on the first day rather than the last.

The first vehicle onto a site does more ground damage than anything that follows, because nothing has been marked out yet.

Ask who keeps the tree protection where it was put, and what is meant to happen on the occasion it is moved to get something past.

Protection is moved for one delivery and rarely put back, which is how a protected area quietly stops being one.

Photograph the protection once it is up, and again if it is moved, so the record shows what was actually there rather than what was agreed.

Photographs of protection in place tend to be the evidence that survives the project, and they take moments to capture.

Photograph each tree and planted area again when the work finishes, and raise anything that has changed while people are still available.

Changes raised while the working relationship is live are dealt with, whereas the same changes raised later rarely are.