Business Profile
JPH Forestry is celebrating its 25th anniversary this Christmas having just been awarded ‘Approved Contractor’ status by the industry’s professional body, the Arboriculture Association.
Although trained forester John Handy had three years teaching at St Bartholomews School, Newbury, but in 1984 he decided to go back into forestry. In those days his work was mainly felling, fencing and planting with a little bit of tree surgery. Over the years, with the decline of forestry as an industry, tree surgery, or arboriculture as it is should be called, increased in importance. Nowadays the company has two sections and will undertake almost any job to do with trees.
Mr Handy always aimed to become ‘Arb. Approved’ but, until very recently, the office was in his front hall he rented barn which would never have passed scrutiny. Now JPH has its own premises and, also, said Mr Handy “I have now a particularly able and professional set of staff who made the whole process possible and especially Andy Wakefield, our foreman, without whom I couldn’t have done it. The preparation took us about a year and when the Arb. Association assessors came they went through everything: the office system, the workshop, safety procedures, my arboricultural knowledge and the quality of our work, past and current - everything”.
JPH Forestry is now, proudly, one of only about 150 such assessed and approved companies in the UK out of many thousands of tree surgery companies, and is probably one of the smallest.
The company specialises in giving good advice about trees based on modern research and following the advice up with verified, top quality workmanship. This might involve pruning leylandii hedges, pollarding willows, cable-bracing trees or dismantling big and dangerous specimens. JPH Forestry also provides a stump grinding service. About half of the company’s work is on private land; from tiny town gardens to large formal gardens while the other half includes commercial premises, estates, schools and local authorities. Over the years the company has worked for a number of well known organisations, including the BBC and BUPA. The company last year completed a ten year annual contract to advise and work on trees in the grounds of an Austrian castle near Saltzburg.
As well as managing the contracting side much of Mr Handy’s time is spent inspecting perhaps hundreds of roadside trees to making judgements about hazardous individual specimens, making advisory visits and writing reports.
Likewise, with the woodland management, the firm gives advice, writes reports and carries out the actual work in the woods. It assesses the woodland for the owner, makes proposals and sees them through with the help of Forestry Commission grant-aid. Work might include felling and re-planting, coppicing and general woodland maintenance.
John Handy’s favourite work is planting: “Over the years we have been responsible for planting hundreds of thousands of trees across southern England. We marked our 20th anniversary with a 20,000 tree scheme for a client but I am going to mark the 25th anniversary by planting one tree, raised from an acorn of local veteran oak at our premises.”
To contact J P H Forestry Ltd please telephone (01635) 254800 and look at the company's website for more details of what it offers.
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