Tree and Vegetation History Record Checklist

Start a single dated record, on paper or as a document, and put the date of every entry against it rather than dating the file as a whole.

Entries added over months are only useful if each carries its own date, and a single file date hides when each observation was actually made.

Draw a rough plan showing the building, the boundaries and the position of each tree and hedge, and number every item on it.

Numbers on a plan are what let a written note and a photograph refer to the same tree without ambiguity months later.

Give each tree, hedge and group of planting a short name or number and use that same label in every note, photograph filename and message.

Descriptions such as the big one at the back stop working the moment a second person joins the conversation.

Photograph each item with something of known everyday size in the frame, such as a door or a fence panel, and record the date the photograph was taken.

A photograph with a familiar object in it lets a reader judge scale without you attempting any measurement you are not equipped to take.

Note the time of year and the recent weather when you make each entry, because the same garden looks materially different in different seasons.

A canopy photographed in winter and one photographed in summer describe the same tree very differently, and the reader needs to know which they have.

Add new entries to the record rather than rewriting earlier ones, so the sequence of observations remains visible as a sequence.

A rewritten record loses the thing that made it valuable, which is the order and timing of what was noticed.

For each tree, note roughly how far it stands from the building in terms of its position on your plan, and which part of the building it is nearest to.

Position relative to the building is the first thing anyone will want, and putting it on the plan avoids a description that has to be re-asked.

Describe each tree's height by comparison with the building — below the gutter, level with the ridge, well above the roof — rather than attempting a measurement.

A comparison with something visible in the same photograph is honest and checkable, whereas an estimated figure invents a precision you do not have.

Note the species only where you actually know it, and write unknown where you do not, rather than guessing from an identification you are unsure of.

A wrong species name is worse than no species name, because it will be taken as information rather than as the guess it was.

Note whether each item is a single tree, a group, a multi-stemmed specimen or a hedge, and photograph the base of each where you can reach it.

What looks like one tree from a window is frequently several, and the difference is visible only at the base.

Note whether any canopy currently overhangs the roof, the gutters or a paved area, and photograph the overlap from the ground.

Overhang affects gutters, surfaces and light as well as being a fact about the tree, and it changes noticeably from year to year.

Note whose land each item appears to stand on, marking anything you are unsure about as unclear rather than deciding it from where the fence runs.

Ownership of boundary vegetation is frequently not what the fence suggests, and an owner's assumption about it should stay labelled as one.

List every tree or hedge you know has been removed from the property or its boundaries, with roughly when it happened and who told you.

A removal that nobody has written down is invisible to every professional who looks at the site afterwards, however significant it may be.

Walk the garden looking for stumps, depressions, a change in the lawn or a circle of different growth, and photograph each with its position on the plan.

Physical evidence on the ground is checkable in a way that recollection is not, and it is often still visible years afterwards.

Describe how big each removed item was using the same comparison approach as for standing trees, and note what you are basing that description on.

Whether the description comes from your own memory, a photograph or somebody else's account genuinely changes how it should be read.

Record heavy reductions and cutting back as well as complete removals, with the date and who carried the work out if you know.

A substantially reduced tree is a change to the site even though the tree is still there, and it is rarely mentioned unless prompted.

Look through old photographs of the garden, including family pictures taken for other reasons, and note any vegetation visible in them that no longer exists.

Casual photographs are frequently the only surviving evidence of what a garden used to contain, and nobody thinks to look at them.

Write each removal down as a dated fact about the site, and do not add any note about what you think it may have caused or affected.

The record's usefulness depends on it being observation, and an owner's interpretation attached to it reduces how seriously it can be taken.

Nothing in this record establishes any link between vegetation and movement in a building; that is a matter for qualified professionals.

Note any tree on adjoining land that stands close to your building or your boundary, marking its approximate position on your plan.

Proximity is a fact about your site regardless of whose land the tree stands on, and it belongs in the same record.

Record hedges running along boundaries, including their rough height and whether they appear to be maintained from one side or from both.

Boundary hedges are easy to overlook because they are read as fencing rather than as vegetation, and they are often substantial.

Photograph anywhere growth from adjoining land overhangs your property, and note the date, without taking any action about it.

The record is the point here; what may or may not be done about overhanging growth is a separate question with its own considerations.

What may be done about vegetation on or from adjoining land involves obligations that vary by location; take that question to your own adviser.

Write down a question about whether any tree on or near the property carries protection, to be confirmed with the relevant local authority.

Protection status is not something to determine from appearance or from what a previous owner said, and it changes what is possible entirely.

Whether a tree is protected must be confirmed with the relevant local authority before any work is planned, considered or discussed with a contractor.

Note what neighbours have told you about vegetation that used to stand on or near the boundary, with their names and the date they told you.

Neighbours are frequently the only source for what a site looked like before the current owners arrived, and the account should be attributed.

Note any planting bed, border or shrub sitting directly against an external wall, and photograph the junction between the planting and the wall.

Planting hard against a wall is an ordinary thing to do and it interacts with the base of the building, so it belongs in the record.

Record anything you or a previous owner has planted near the building, with roughly when it went in and how big it was at the time.

A young tree planted a few years ago is a different fact from a mature one, and only the owner knows which it is.

Note where lawn has been replaced by paving, gravel, decking or artificial surfacing near the building, with roughly when each change happened.

Changes in what covers the ground near a building are part of the same site history, and they are frequently made without anyone recording them.

Note whether anything near the building is regularly watered, including any irrigation arrangement, and when that practice started or stopped.

Watering practice is a genuine part of the site history and it is information nobody other than the household can supply.

Record any change to where water goes near planted areas — a soakaway, a new downpipe position, a redirected gully — with the date it happened.

Changes in where water arrives are part of the picture around a building, and they are usually made for unrelated reasons.

Keep any record you are making of cracks, gaps or movement in the building in a separate document, and do not combine the two files.

Two separate dated records let a professional compare them for themselves, which is not the same as being handed a comparison already made.

Avoid writing anything into this record about what a tree may have done, and keep any such thoughts on a separate sheet of questions.

Questions are welcome; conclusions written into an observational record change what the record is and reduce what can be done with it.

Where somebody has offered you a view about the vegetation, record who said it and when, rather than recording the view as a fact.

Remarks from builders, neighbours and agents harden into accepted fact quickly, and attribution is what keeps them distinguishable.

A remark about a tree from anyone who is not a qualified professional engaged on this property is not an assessment of anything.

Mark clearly which entries you are unsure about, including species, dates and ownership, rather than presenting the whole record at one level of confidence.

A record that distinguishes what is known from what is approximate is far more usable than one that reads uniformly certain.

Decide and write down that you will not remove, reduce or plant anything near the building until you have taken advice, and note the date of that decision.

Changes made while a question is open remove the evidence that the question was about, and a written decision is easier to hold to.

Removing or heavily cutting a tree is itself a change to the site; take that decision to qualified professionals before acting on it.

Put the numbered plan at the front of the record so every written entry and photograph can be located on it immediately.

The plan is the index for everything else, and a reader who has to reconstruct it from your notes will not bother.

Put the list of removals and heavy cutting back on its own page, because it is the part of this record least likely to exist anywhere else.

The absent vegetation is the fact the owner uniquely holds, and it should not be buried among descriptions of what is still standing.

Ask your engineer or designer whether an arboriculturist should also see the record, and note who each professional says is the right person for which question.

Vegetation questions and ground questions are answered by different professionals, and it helps to know which you are talking to.

Continue adding to the record after the conversation, including anything that changes on neighbouring land, and keep it with the property papers.

The record's value grows with its length, and a site history that continues is far more useful than one that stops at a meeting.

Keep the record with the documents that would pass to a future owner, because it will not be reconstructable by anybody else.

Site history is lost at every sale, and a dated vegetation record is one of the few things that can survive a change of ownership.