I've found a nest, knotweed or a protected tree halfway through the job: what now?

Written for gardeners and garden maintenance rounds, landscapers, grounds maintenance contractors, tree surgeons and arborists, lawn treatment, fencing and paving firms, including winter hedge, tree and gritting work, in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The short version

1. Stop work on the affected part.Leave the stretch with the nest, the knotweed patch or the tree that may be protected. Carry on with the rest.
2. Tell the client in writing today.Say what you found, which part has stopped and what happens next. Invoice the work already done.
3. Restart only with the check or consent.Wait until a nest is no longer in use, or the check, consent or treatment plan is in hand. Agree the change and price first.

Most of the time a garden job is just a garden job. A few discoveries turn it into something else: an active nest in the hedge, knotweed in the border, a tree under a preservation order or in a conservation area, a bat in a cavity. In each case the law binds the contractor as well as the client, and tree work done without consent cannot be consented afterwards.

An active nest in the hedge

Once you have seen an active nest, cutting it is intentional. Say you are cutting a 20 m beech hedge in May and find an active blackbird nest: stop on that stretch, cut the rest and invoice the work done. Come back once the nest is no longer in use, check again before you cut, and put the return in the diary. Check hedges and trees before you cut, especially from March to August.

The nest offence applies all year, not only in the spring and summer.

Knotweed in the border

If you hit it while digging a border for a new patio, stop digging there, tell the client in writing, price a specialist treatment plan and agree a variation before you carry on. Never strim it, and it never goes to your green waste site.

A tree that might be protected

• Tree preservation order, England: cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage or destruction without consent is an offence, and contractors are bound too. Check the council map or get the tree officer's written answer before you quote.
• Conservation area, England: give the council 6 weeks' written notice (a section 211 notice) before working on a tree. Trees of 7.5 cm stem diameter or less at 1.5 m above ground are exempt, and removing a dead tree needs 5 working days' notice unless it is an urgent danger. As of Oct 2026.
• Felling licence, England: felling growing trees needs a Forestry Commission licence unless an exemption applies. Trees in a garden, orchard, churchyard or public open space are exempt, as is up to 5 m3 a calendar quarter on the property, with no more than 2 m3 sold. As of Oct 2026.
• Bats: damaging or destroying a breeding site or resting place can be an offence even by accident. Cavities, splits or ivy need an ecologist's check, and any required licence, from Natural England in England or NatureScot in Scotland, comes before work that would affect a roost.

For example, 30 field conifers behind a farmhouse, at an assumed 0.4 m3 each, come to 12 m3. That is over the 5 m3 quarterly allowance, so the felling licence comes first. Staged within the allowance, the work would take 3 quarters, which a client rarely wants.

Two safety stops before you carry on

Climbing work needs at least two people on site, one able to carry out an aerial rescue, with a written rescue plan. If your climber is up a tree and the only other person on site has no aerial rescue training, stop and rebook with a competent rescuer.

The climbing and rigging gear needs a thorough examination every 6 months, with records, and anyone using a chainsaw needs adequate training, usually shown by City & Guilds NPTC or Lantra units such as CS30, CS31, CS38 and CS39. As of Oct 2026.

On HSE's points method, points per hour are 2 x the vibration magnitude squared; 100 points a day is the action value and 400 the limit. A brushcutter rated 6 m/s2 run for 6 hours a day is 432 points, over the limit. Keep that operative under 5 hours 33 minutes on it, rotate tasks, switch to a lower-vibration machine and start health surveillance. As of Oct 2026.

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