St Andrew’s Square, Edinburgh

Potter Tree Consultancy were approached by Essential Edinburgh in 2016 to start the process of bringing the trees on the site into pro-active inspection and management.

The starting point of this was to undertake an overall tree condition and management plan covering all trees on the site. During this process a number of trees exhibited positive external indicators of decay as such the decision was made to follow-up on the initial visual tree assessments with internal decay testing on a number of trees on the site. This process ran in tandem with the recommended practical tree works by the appointed Arboricultural Contractor who also started the process of improving and managing the soil conditions on the site. This was achieved using a combination of soil de-compaction techniques and application of wood chip mulch, utilising the arisings created from the tree works on the site.

At time of writing we are now into the second three yearly phase of the tree survey and management cycle. Aside from the positive work done to date, we have been in consultation with the Landscape contractor to advise on the species selection with a view to undertaking new tree planting. Not only will this new planting replace trees previously removed on the site, but creates an opportunity to look at diversification of the tree species. This will help “future-proof” the site against the threats posed by climate change but also against invasive, non-native pest and disease threats, which have increased exponentially since 2002.