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UPM Tilhill survey Edinburgh City’s street and parkland trees

A survey of over 28,000 trees which line the streets and adorn the parks of Edinburgh is being carried out by the UK’s leading forestry and landscaping company, UPM Tilhill.

UPM Tilhill’s Central Scotland district is on target to complete the arboricultural audit of the city’s tree stock by mid-July. Awarded by the City of Edinburgh Council, completion of the 23 week contract will equip the Council’s ‘Services for Communities’ Department with a fully mapped, bespoke database containing comprehensive details on the location, species, health and condition of the city’s street and parkland trees.

City Environment Leader, Robert Aldridge said: "Edinburgh has some of the best green spaces of any city in the country due in no small measure to the hard work of our dedicated Parks team. We have a responsibility to ensure these areas are safe and that they flourish and we are using expert tree surveyors to develop a record that will become central to the management of our valuable tree heritage.

"This important piece of work will allow us to focus our efforts and resources in the most effective way and help to ensure a healthy future for Edinburgh\'s trees and green spaces."

Since February 2008, UPM Tilhill’s surveyors have mapped, reviewed and recorded the location, adjacent site features and condition of the trees – giving targeted information and listing potential target areas for future action by City of Edinburgh Council\'s arboriculture officers. Surveys are carried out using hand-held computers which utilise software to plot the exact location of trees onto a GIS map, making for efficient data capture and analysis.

“This is one of the larger tree survey operations that UPM Tilhill has undertaken in Central Scotland,” said Steve Farnworth, District Manager, UPM Tilhill. “We have really broken new ground here – working closely with the client to fine-tune objectives and target information and then working in partnership with the software designers to refine the mapping and database system that would cater to Edinburgh council’s specific needs. With the right software in place, we have focussed on inputting consistent data on each tree and, through regular checks and monitoring, have maintained high standards across the operation thanks to a diligent six-man team led by two contract managers who are Lantra qualified in professional tree surveying.”

“With this continued experience of tree condition survey data collection and presentation, we are now in an excellent position to fine tune future, large-scale survey programmes directly to the specific needs of the client, and are actively discussing this with other local authorities who are also seeking to improve risk management for their trees,” added Steve.

UPM Tilhill launched its tree surveying service in 2007 to enable a greater diversity of people, businesses and organisations to gain direct access to professional, arboricultural advice. To talk to UPM Tilhill about tree survey and inspection services, call 0800 328 2128 or visit www.upm-tilhill.com||

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Ruth Roy
01892 861008/07771 940494
ruth.roy@upm-kymmene.com