UKTC Archive

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Lonsdale 
  To: UK Tree Care 
  Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 4:42 PM
  Subject: RE: The act of Tree Inspection, a safe activity or pain in the neck


  For one of my projects, I used to assess up to 3600 (mostly young) beech 
trees in a period of about eight days each year (for about 18 years).  This 
involved looking up and down each stem, while also measuring the dbh.  The up 
and down movements didn't give me neckache but I insisted on having someone 
else to write down the data (a line of about 30 digits per tree). I would 
have taken much than twice as long to do the assistants' job as well as my 
own and so I think that his or her wages were a good investment (probably 
cheaper than a masseur / masseuse, as well!).  In other situations, payment 
of an assistant would be unaffordable but I think that the job of recording 
the data (whether on paper or data-logger, tablet computer etc.) can be a 
serious distraction from inspecting the trees and their surroundings 
(neckache or otherwise). 

  SC I think there is often an efficiency factor in two person data 
collection (one observing, one recording) and even more so if there's tagging 
involved.  And that's if they are equally paid.  Cost effectiveness improves 
even more if one is a lower cost assistant.  Trick is knowing which jobs to 
set up that way.


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