Tree risk assessment by a TRAQ arborist
You have a tree you are uneasy about. Rather than guess, or take the word of whoever knocks on the door, have somebody trained to assess it actually look at it and tell you what it means.
- Method
- Tree Risk Assessment Qualification framework
- Outcome
- Likelihood, consequence, and what reduces both
Before you book this one
When you need this
- A tree leans toward the house and you do not know if it always did
- There are mushrooms or fungal bodies at the base or on the trunk
- A crack has appeared, or the ground on one side is lifting
- A tree nearby failed and you want to know if yours is the same story
- Somebody has told you it has to come out and you want a second opinion
What we do
- Devin inspects the tree using the Tree Risk Assessment framework he is qualified in
- The tree, the site, the soil, the root zone and the exposure all looked at together
- What the tree would hit if it failed, and how often anybody is actually under it
- A plain answer on likelihood, on consequence and on what would reduce both
- Where a report in writing is what you need, that can be written up
What to know
- Nobody can tell you a tree will not fail. What a qualified assessment gives you is a defensible read on how likely it is and what is at stake
- An assessment is a moment in time. A tree that is sound today can change, particularly after a wet winter or ground work near the roots
- We will not talk you into a removal off the back of an assessment. Often the answer is pruning, or watching it, or nothing at all
The Tree Risk Assessment Qualification is an ISA credential, and what it trains you to do is stop treating risk as a feeling. A tree is not simply safe or dangerous. Risk is how likely the tree is to fail, times how likely something valuable is to be under it when it does, times how bad that would be.
That is why the same tree can be an urgent problem in one yard and a non issue in another. A leaning alder over a shed nobody enters is a different case from an identical alder over a bedroom, and treating them as the same is how homeowners end up paying for removals they never needed.
So an assessment looks at the tree and at what surrounds it. Defects, decay, the root plate, the lean and whether it is recent, the species and how that species tends to fail, and then the target: what is under it, and how much of the time. What you get back is not a verdict shouted from the drive. It is a reasoned answer with the reasons attached, and a set of options that usually includes doing less than you feared.
Questions people ask about this
What does TRAQ mean?
It stands for Tree Risk Assessment Qualification, an International Society of Arboriculture credential held on top of the ISA Certified Arborist certification. It is training in a structured method for judging tree risk, which means looking at the likelihood of failure, the likelihood of something being hit, and the severity of the consequences, and then documenting how you got there. Devin holds it. Most people quoting on your tree do not.
Is the assessment the same as the free estimate?
The free on site estimate is where we walk the property, talk about what you want, and write up what the work would involve. A formal risk assessment is a deeper piece of work on a specific tree, with a documented method behind it, and it is quoted separately. Plenty of situations only ever need the estimate visit, and we will tell you at that visit if we think you need more than that.
If you assess it, will you also do the work?
We can, and most customers want that. But an assessment is not a route into selling you a removal, and if the honest finding is that the tree is fine, that is what you will hear. Devin has been in this trade long enough to know that the fastest way to lose a street's worth of future work is to take out a tree that did not need to come out.
Related work
Have a certified arborist look at it
Tell us what the trees are doing and we will come out, walk the property with you and write it up. The visit is free, it takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and you get an itemized estimate you can hold on to.
Call or text
(360) 842 7433Washington contractor licence WARRIBT777DF. Licensed, bonded and insured. Verify on LNI.wa.gov.ISA Certified Arborist PN 368801AEstimates are scheduled Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm Pacific.