Glasgow's Protected Species Survey Specialists Since 2005
Commercial Protected Species Surveys Glasgow
✓ Trading since 2005✓ BS3998 standard✓ Fully insured✓ Free quotes
Trading Since 2005
BS3998 Standard
Fully Insured
Free, No-Obligation Quotes
Introduction
Glasgow Trees has worked on trees across the city since 2005, carrying out cutting and felling to British Standard BS3998 and holding NPTC Professional Tree Inspection alongside the team's other chainsaw and rigging certificates. That grounding matters on a development site because so much of a protected species check ahead of felling or major surgery comes down to reading a tree properly - a woodpecker hole, a rot pocket that could hold a bat roost, or ivy cover that hides nesting activity - before any cutting starts. Restoration work at Pollok Country Park, home to the city's tallest Sitka spruce at over 33 metres, has meant handling exactly the kind of veteran and specimen trees where these checks matter most.
Key Selling Points
- Trading as Glasgow Trees since 2005
- Free, no-obligation quotes with every enquiry
- The same certified team can carry out any mitigation tree work the survey identifies
What's Covered in the Survey Fee - and What Isn't
- Desktop study and site walkover (Preliminary Ecological Appraisal / Extended Phase 1 habitat survey)
- Species-specific field surveys for bats, badgers, great crested newts, otters, water voles, red squirrels, reptiles and white-clawed crayfish as relevant to the site
- Climb-and-inspect bat roost and nesting bird checks on individual trees earmarked for felling or major surgery, not just whole-site schemes
- A written report suitable for submission alongside a planning application, setting out findings and a mitigation strategy
- A free, no-obligation initial consultation to scope out which surveys a site actually needs before anything is booked
Not Included / Costed Separately
- Submitting the planning application or the mitigation licence application to NatureScot - the report supports these, but the applicant or their agent still lodges them
- Ecological Clerk of Works supervision through the construction phase, which is quoted and arranged separately from the initial survey
- Habitat creation, compensation planting or ongoing monitoring visits beyond the survey report, unless agreed as a separate contract
- Repeat visits caused by missing a seasonal window (for example booking a bat emergence check outside April-October) - these get re-quoted rather than covered under the original fee
- Difficult-access sites (steep banks, gated estates, water crossings) may add a call-out charge, confirmed at the free consultation stage
How a Survey Gets From Enquiry to Report
- Free consultation: A short call or site description establishes what's being proposed - felling, major surgery, or a wider development - and which species and seasonal windows are likely to apply before anything is booked.
- Desktop study: Existing biological records, aerial imagery and any previous ecology reports for the site are checked first, so the field visit is targeted rather than starting from nothing.
- Site walkover and tree-by-tree inspection: A ground-level and climb-and-inspect check of individual trees earmarked for work, looking for cavities, cracks, ivy density, deadwood and other features that indicate roosting or nesting potential, alongside habitat surveys for the species flagged at the desktop stage.
- Seasonal field surveys: Where a species can't be confirmed present or absent from a single visit - bat activity, great crested newt eDNA - further visits are scheduled within that species' recognised survey season.
- Report and mitigation strategy: Findings are written up to a standard suitable for a planning submission, with a mitigation strategy covering timing restrictions, soft-felling methods or licensing needs where relevant.
- Mitigation tree work, if needed: Where the report recommends specific felling or pruning conditions, the same certified team can carry out that work under the agreed restrictions, rather than passing the report to a separate contractor.
What a Survey Typically Costs
Pricing depends on how many species need checking, how many trees or hectares are involved, and whether a single visit will do or the species present require surveys spread across a season - a one-tree bat and bird check is a different job from a multi-species Preliminary Ecological Appraisal across a housing site. A full, fixed quote needs a site visit or at least a detailed site description, since access, tree numbers and habitat type all move the price. The free consultation is where that scoping happens, so there's no cost in finding out what a particular site actually needs before committing to anything.
Site Survey Against a Desk-Based Report Alone
| What matters for your application | Desk study only | Full site and tree survey | No survey at all |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirms species are actually present or absent on site | No - relies on existing records only | Yes - field visits check for real evidence | Unknown - risk carried into construction |
| Covers trees earmarked for felling specifically | Rarely | Yes - climb-and-inspect checks on individual trees | No |
| Accepted by planning officers without further requests | Often triggers a request for a full survey anyway | Generally accepted first time if timed to the right season | Application likely to stall or be refused |
| Risk if a protected species turns up mid-build | High - work may need to stop while a survey is arranged | Low - already identified and planned around | Highest - possible offence under wildlife law and a work stoppage |
A Tree-Surgery Team First, With the Site Knowledge to Match
Glasgow Trees has worked on trees across the city since 2005, to British Standard BS3998, with NPTC Professional Tree Inspection sitting alongside the team's chainsaw, rigging and machinery certificates. For a protected species survey, that pairing matters in a specific way: a tree gets checked as a habitat first - decay columns, woodpecker cavities, ivy density, deadwood loading - by someone trained to read what that structure means both for the tree's condition and for what might be roosting or nesting inside it, rather than by an ecologist working from a photograph or a ground-level glance. The same aerial rescue and chainsaw-from-rope-and-harness certificates that let the crew work safely at height on a live felling job also mean a climb-and-inspect check can get close to a cavity or crack several metres up rather than relying on binoculars from the ground, which is often the difference between confirming a roost is active and only guessing at it. Quotes are free and carry no obligation, so finding out whether a site needs a survey at all costs nothing.
From the Clyde to the Campsie Fells: Survey Reach
Site surveys run across Glasgow City and the wider area the tree crew already covers - Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, and reachable parts of South Lanarkshire, Stirling and Falkirk. What changes by area is the species mix a survey needs to plan for. Sites nearer the Campsie Fells - around Strathblane, Killearn, Balfron and Fintry - tend to back onto woodland edge and watercourse habitat rather than urban brownfield ground, so red squirrel evidence and riparian species such as otter and water vole carry more weight in the field survey than the bat and nesting-bird checks that dominate closer to the city centre. That distinction gets built into the survey scope at the free consultation stage rather than assumed from a postcode.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a small residential extension need the same survey as a housing development?
No. This service is built around commercial and development-scale sites - housebuilders, infrastructure work, and regeneration schemes - where several species and stakeholders are usually in play at once. A single house extension or a domestic tree removal is normally a much lighter check, often just a visual bat and nesting bird assessment of the specific tree or building rather than a full Preliminary Ecological Appraisal. Describe the site and the scale of work planned and the right level of survey can be scoped out from there, rather than defaulting to the commercial package.
Can the same company that does the ecological survey also carry out the tree work afterwards?
Yes, where the findings point to tree work rather than building work. The tree crew holds NPTC and Lantra certificates across felling, windblown trees, aerial rescue, chainsaw from rope and harness, and rigging and dismantling, so once a survey has cleared a tree - or set out timing restrictions and soft-felling requirements to protect a roost or nest - the same team can carry out the cutting under those conditions, rather than handing a report to a second contractor who has to interpret someone else's findings from scratch.
Do you submit the report to the council or handle the licence application?
The written report is prepared to a standard suitable for submission with a planning application, but the applicant or their planning agent lodges the actual application. Where a mitigation licence is needed - for a bat roost or badger sett, for example - that application goes to NatureScot separately, and coordinating that process is a distinct piece of work from the initial survey, priced and scoped once the survey findings are known.
How far ahead of a planned start date should a survey be booked?
As early as possible once a site is identified, ideally before a start date is fixed rather than after. Several species have narrow seasonal windows - bat activity surveys mainly run April to October, great crested newt eDNA sampling is best done April to June - so booking late can mean waiting months for the right season rather than the survey itself taking longer. A free consultation early in the planning process flags which windows apply to a given site and works backwards from the intended start date.
We have an old ecology report for this site from a couple of years back - does it need repeating?
Usually, at least in part. Planning authorities generally treat ecological data as current for around one to two years depending on the species and how much the site has changed in that time - a cleared hedge, a new pond nearby, or a change in land use can all shift what's present. It's worth sending an existing report over first rather than commissioning a full repeat automatically; often only the surveys for the more mobile or seasonally variable species need updating.
Does this cover a single mature tree flagged for removal, or only whole development sites?
Both. A good number of enquiries are actually about one or two specific trees - a veteran oak in the way of an access road, or a group flagged by a planning condition - rather than a full site-wide appraisal. Climb-and-inspect checks and ground-level assessment can be scoped for individual trees on their own, which is often quicker and cheaper than a full multi-species site survey where the rest of the plot isn't affected.
Scope the Survey Before the Programme Depends On It
Seasonal survey windows close fast, and a mitigation licence or a re-timed felling condition found late can hold up a whole programme rather than just one task on it. A free, no-obligation consultation now costs nothing and gives a clear read on what a site actually needs, while there's still time to work the survey findings into the schedule rather than around them.
Scope Your Survey Before the Season Closes
Free, no-obligation consultation - find out which surveys your site actually needs before it's booked.
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