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From the frontline – tree manager Ed Faherty
Ed Faherty is a tree manager at Silva Homes. He talks about the pleasures of watching the trees grow – and the difficulties of explaining that big trees aren’t necessarily dangerous
What does your job involve?
I help look after around 12,500 trees in and around Bracknell. I assess the condition of trees for safety and respond to customer assistance requests.
Each year we get many enquiries relating to trees in and around our customers’ homes. Although we try to accommodate requests, we are often unable to as we typically only prune them when they pose a danger or are causing a significant nuisance. We inspect trees in either one, three or five-year intervals depending on the location and level of risk – a busy highway would be high-risk and a garden, low-risk.
How did you get into housing?
I worked as an arboricultural officer for a county council, which was a similar role and I’ve been with Silva Homes for four years now. The major difference is that much of my inspection work is done on private land as well as on communal land.
What’s the best part of your job?
I love being on my feet all day, walking around and being close to nature. It’s really interesting to see how our trees grow and react to things over time. One year they may lack vitality and then by the next year they have recovered and look strong and healthy.
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What’s the worst part?
Educating customers and changing their perceptions can be very difficult. People often don’t understand that what they are requesting conflicts with what is deemed as good tree management. One example is that customers often believe a tree is dangerous because it’s big. This does not necessarily make the tree dangerous.
What would you change about the housing sector?
I’d like to see housing associations invest more in green spaces, improving the appearance of the environment surrounding where customers live. Planting more greenery also reduces our impact on the climate.
If you could be prime minister for the day, what would you do?
I would focus on climate change, championing the planting of more trees and introducing a system to maintain them. I read that up to 80% of newly planted trees died along HS2 after the drought last summer. I wonder if a maintenance programme was in place.
What’s the most private thing you’d be willing to admit to your colleagues?
I managed to sleep through a fire alarm while I was on a hockey tour in Rotterdam. I woke up to a fireman telling me to leave the hotel room!