Climbing, trimming, lopping, and felling trees is a very specialist skill that, for safety reasons alone, should be left to the professionals!

Local arborist and tree expert, Joe Atwell, emphasised that it’s definitely not an activity suitable for all and any round-the-house handymen and jack-of-all-trades.

Always preferring outdoor work, his Wedgie Trees & Landscaping – featuring a striking wedge-tailed eagle graphic – is now one of the leading property maintenance contractors in the region, with removing trees definitely a speciality.

“I’ve been in this industry three years and, honestly, I just sort of fell into it and fell in love with it,” Joe recalled.

“I first did landscape gardening, working for another firm for three years, and then trained as an arborist; and here we are!” he added.

Fully-insured and reliable, he and his hardworking blokes, can do anything from tree removal, pruning, stump grinding; to hedging, lawn mowing, landscaping, and general gardening.

However, he believes that it is with anything to do with large flora, that “the precautionary principle” should prevail.

“There’s so many safety concerns and specialist equipment, there’s direction of the felling, there’s controlled rigging, EWP (cherry-picker) access, even climbing a tree in itself is dangerous.

“If you’re not trained or insured, you simply shouldn’t be doing it, leave that to the professionals,” Joe explained.

When it comes to the giants of the forest, he says, every individual trunk and foliage, are separate challenges that shouldn’t be taken for granted, with chopping down trees, not always the right solution.

“The fact is that every tree is different, and we have a team of three guys that do an assessment and provide advice, we’ll quite happily tell people if we think that their tree doesn’t need to come down,” Joe said.

“But every tree has its risks, no tree is absolutely safe, but we let them know how safe their tree is, in our assessment, that’s the very best we can do.”

With spring now well in hand, this is often the time when people start to look at the individual trees on their property and their likely future.

“There’s no real seasonal slow-down as such, but we are busier through spring and summer.

“We can also handle all species and types of trees, even many that are not from Australia as well.”

He said that while emergency services are still the first port-of-call for dangerous falling limbs and trunks during storms, he can also lend a hand for less-extreme situations.

“Definitely give the SES a call if a tree has fallen on your house or powerlines but, if it’s just some branches on your driveway, or a tree that has fallen in your yard, we can help,” Joe said.

“Absolutely call us after hours, we might be able to assist, just give us a ring,” he concluded. For more information, call 0447 532 723.