About Us - CNJ Tree Services | Professional Tree Surgeons and Arborists
If you’re looking into who actually turns up when you book a tree surgeon in Glasgow, here’s the honest version. CNJ Tree Services was founded in 2019 by Callum Jackson, who grew up around chainsaws rather than coming to them later in life - his father and grandfather both worked in Scottish forestry, and after a spell in healthcare he came back to the trade he knew best. He’s now been using a chainsaw professionally for around 18 years, and holds the NPTC Professional Tree Inspector qualification (gained 2023), which is the standard that lets him carry out planning-grade BS5837 tree surveys and risk assessments rather than just the felling and pruning side of the job.
What’s changed since 2019 is the scale of the operation, not the standards behind it. What started as one person climbing trees with a rope and saddle has grown into a team that owns its entire plant fleet outright - a tracked spider lift cherry picker, forwarder trailers, line skidders, 360 excavators, timber cranes and heavy-duty woodchippers - rather than hiring machinery in or subcontracting the mechanical side of a job to someone else. That matters more than it might sound: if a storm brings down a large tree over a fence line at short notice, you’re not waiting for a plant hire company to have a cherry picker free, and a dangerous lean can often be dismantled by machine rather than sending a climber up a tree that’s already compromised.
At a Glance
- £5 million public liability insurance and all work carried out to British Standards BS3998 and BS5837
- Own the entire plant fleet outright, so there’s no waiting on hired-in machinery for storm or large-tree work
- NPTC Professional Tree Inspector qualified in-house for planning-grade tree surveys and risk assessments
The four people who actually turn up
- Callum Jackson - Founder, Owner and NPTC Professional Tree Inspector (qualified 2023). Leads safety audits, risk assessments and BS5837 planning surveys, and still climbs and runs the machinery on the harder felling jobs; core expertise in large and windblown tree felling, technical dismantling and multi-terrain heavy machinery.
- Ron Bowes-Taylor - Team Lead, Climber and Machine Operator, more than 15 years in the industry since starting an NVQ Level 2 Forestry & Arboriculture apprenticeship at 17; core expertise in advanced climbing, complex rigging and dismantling, and IPAF-certified cherry-picker operation.
- Neill Tannahill BA Hons, MSc - Climber, Machine Operator and Chief Fleet Engineer, the person who keeps every piece of plant road- and site-ready between jobs; core expertise in large tree felling, 360 excavator operation, flail cutting and telehandler work.
- Ryan Spark - Second Climber, Groundsman and Rigger, a former outdoor instructor bringing wilderness and swift-water rescue training onto site; handles large-diameter felling over 380mm alongside general rigging and ground work.
Not Included / Costed Separately
- An invented job count or a wall of quotes with no name attached - if it’s not a number we actually track, it doesn’t appear here dressed up as one.
- Claims to sit inside a professional body we don’t actually belong to - what’s listed on this page is the individual, checkable qualifications each person holds, not a single collective badge.
- A repeat of the service scope or pricing detail that belongs on our other pages - this page exists to say who’s behind the name, not to double as a rate card.
- Any claim to being the “biggest” or “best” tree surgeon in Glasgow - that’s not language any of the four people above use about their own work, so it isn’t language we’ll put in front of them.
From a rope and saddle to a fleet: 2019 to now
- 2019 - one climber, a rope and a saddle: Callum Jackson had already spent years using a chainsaw professionally, coming from a family where his father and grandfather both worked in Scottish forestry, before a spell in healthcare and a return to the trade he knew. CNJ started as a single-person climbing operation - no fleet, no named team, just a founder with the trade already in his hands.
- Buying the first piece of plant: Rather than keep hiring machinery in for the jobs that needed it, Callum chose to buy a tracked spider lift cherry picker outright. It was a bigger outlay than most one-person outfits take on at that stage, and it set the pattern the business has followed since - own the equipment rather than rent it by the day.
- 2023 - the NPTC Professional Tree Inspector qualification: Callum added the NPTC Professional Tree Inspector qualification, the standard that allows planning-grade BS5837 tree surveys and risk assessments to be carried out in-house rather than handed to an outside consultant every time a planning application needed one.
- Building a named team rather than a rotating crew: Ron Bowes-Taylor, Neill Tannahill and Ryan Spark joined as the workload grew, each bringing a different specialism - climbing and rigging, fleet engineering and excavator work, and large-diameter felling with a rescue background - rather than the business filling gaps with whichever subcontractor was free that week.
- The fleet as it stands today: Forwarder trailers, line skidders, 360 excavators, timber cranes and heavy-duty woodchippers have joined the original cherry picker, all owned outright. FMO licensing covers the forwarders and skidders, and IPAF and NPORS certification cover the cherry picker and excavator operators, so nothing on site is running without the paperwork behind it.
- What the growth funds now: The same model that paid for the fleet now funds Modern Apprenticeships and support for woodland regeneration and conservation work across Central Scotland - money that goes back into the trade rather than only into the next piece of machinery.
Why there’s no price list on this page
This is the about page, not the pricing page, and that’s a deliberate separation rather than an oversight. A hedge trim, a stump grind and a large windblown tree needing sectional dismantling with a crane cost different amounts for reasons that have nothing to do with which company turns up - species, height, access, how close the tree is to a driveway or overhead cable, and what the ground needs once the job’s done. Putting a number on this page would mean guessing at all of that in advance, which is exactly the kind of quote-dressed-up-as-a-guess we’d rather not put our name to.
What belongs here instead is the part of the cost structure that comes from how CNJ is built rather than from any specific tree: because the plant fleet is owned outright rather than hired in job by job, there’s no third-party day rate for a cherry picker or excavator sitting on top of what a customer pays - the cost reflects the team’s time and the disposal of the material, not a hire company’s margin passed straight through. A site visit costs nothing and doesn’t commit anyone to anything, and it’s the only honest way to turn the general information on this page into an actual figure for a specific tree.
How CNJ compares with a typical local tree surgeon
| What matters on the day | CNJ Tree Services | Typical smaller local outfit |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy machinery (cherry picker, excavator, crane) | Owned outright - no waiting on hired-in plant | Often hired in per job, subject to availability |
| Planning-grade tree surveys (BS5837) | Carried out in-house by an NPTC-qualified Professional Tree Inspector | Frequently outsourced to a separate consultant |
| Storm and emergency response | 24/7, average under 2 hours within 50 miles | Usually office-hours booking only |
| Green waste from the job | Seasoned for the company’s own woodfuel or chipped for landscaping/biomass | Commonly skipped or sent to landfill/tip |
| Team you’re dealing with | Named, individually qualified climbers and machine operators | Often unnamed subcontracted crews |
| Public liability cover | £5 million | Varies, not always disclosed upfront |
What the fleet doesn’t explain on its own
Owning a tracked spider lift, two sets of forwarder trailers and skidders, excavators, cranes and woodchippers explains how CNJ gets a dangerous tree down quickly. It doesn’t explain why the business also pays into Modern Apprenticeships or backs woodland regeneration and conservation work across Central Scotland, neither of which shows up on an invoice or speeds up a Tuesday felling job.
That side of the business traces back to the same place the chainsaw skills did - a father and grandfather who worked in Scottish forestry before Callum did, and a trade that doesn’t survive if nobody trains the next person to run a saw or a 360 excavator properly. Bringing apprentices in and supporting regeneration work isn’t separate from the felling and surveying work the company gets paid for; it’s the same trade being kept going rather than run down for the sake of a leaner set of accounts.
The safety side of the business runs on the same logic. First Aid +F training - built specifically around catastrophic bleed control and chainsaw-specific emergencies - isn’t something the team holds because a client asked to see a certificate; it’s there because climbing, rigging and running heavy machinery around Glasgow’s Victorian-era tree stock carries real risk, and the £5 million public liability cover behind every job is the financial backstop for when a plan doesn’t survive contact with a real tree on a real site. None of the four people named on this page are subcontracted in for the day - they’re the same names on the risk assessment, the same names running the machine, and the same names still here next year.
Two addresses, and what each one is for
CNJ’s registered base is Office 1, Technology House on Newton Place, in Glasgow’s Sandyford/Charing Cross area - close enough to the M8 to reach most of the city quickly, which matters when a storm-response promise depends on it. A second office operates from Fintry; it isn’t a second front door for Glasgow bookings, and this page won’t pretend otherwise - the day-to-day domestic side of the business runs from Newton Place, and Fintry’s role sits apart from that Glasgow radius.
The domestic side of CNJ is kept to a strict ten miles out from Newton Place, not because the team couldn’t drive further, but because a 24/7 storm response with an average arrival under two hours only means something if the radius behind it stays honest rather than stretching thinner the further a call comes from. That’s the same reasoning that sits behind most of the detail on our coverage, FAQ and survey pages - which streets, which councils and which conservation areas sit inside that ten miles is covered there in full, rather than repeated again on a page that’s meant to be about the people and the plant, not the postcode list.
What is worth saying here is the shape of the split: commercial contracts - site clearance, utility corridor pruning, estate management - aren’t held to that ten-mile line and are taken on across the whole of Scotland, which is a large part of why the business runs two offices rather than one. It lets the Glasgow side keep its response times honest for the gardens and driveways nearby, without turning away the larger, further-flung jobs that come with owning a fleet capable of doing them.
Gallery of Previous Work Done
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has CNJ Tree Services been operating?
Since 2019, when Callum Jackson founded the company. He’d already been using a chainsaw professionally for years before that, coming from a multi-generational Scottish forestry family, so the business started with real trade experience behind it rather than as a first venture into tree work.
Are your tree surgeons qualified and certified, and can you prove it?
Yes. Callum holds the NPTC Professional Tree Inspector qualification (2023), which covers planning-grade BS5837 surveys and risk assessments. The wider team holds NPTC/City & Guilds chainsaw qualifications, First Aid +F training for catastrophic bleed and chainsaw-specific emergencies, IPAF and NPORS certification for cherry-picker and excavator operation, and FMO licensing for forwarder trailers and line skidders. All work follows British Standards BS3998 for tree work and BS5837 for planning surveys.
Are you a member of any professional arboricultural associations?
Rather than resting on association membership alone, the qualifications behind the work are individual and verifiable: NPTC Professional Tree Inspector status, NPTC/City & Guilds chainsaw tickets, IPAF and NPORS certification, and FMO licensing, all supported by £5 million public liability insurance. If a specific membership matters to your decision, ask directly and we’ll tell you straight what we do and don’t hold.
Do you only do residential work, or commercial too?
Both. Domestic garden and driveway trees are the bulk of the work within the 10-mile Glasgow radius, but the team also takes on commercial site clearance, utility corridor pruning and estate management projects, and that side of the business operates across the whole of Scotland rather than being limited to the local radius.
What safety standards does your team follow on site?
Every job runs to BS3998 for tree work and BS5837 where planning surveys are involved, with a site-specific risk assessment before work starts - covering overhead cables, structures, ground conditions and public access. First Aid +F trained crew are on site for chainsaw-specific emergency response, and MEWP or excavator work is only carried out by IPAF or NPORS-certified operators.
Is your team fully insured for all types of tree work?
Yes, £5 million public liability insurance covers the work, including large-tree felling, dismantling with cranes or excavators, and planning-related survey work. Worth asking any tree surgeon for their cover in writing before work starts, whoever you go with.
What equipment does your team actually use?
The full plant fleet is owned outright rather than hired in per job: a tracked spider lift cherry picker, low-ground-pressure forwarder trailers and line skidders, 360 excavators, timber cranes and heavy-duty woodchippers. Owning the fleet means machinery is available for storm response without waiting on a hire company, and low-ground-pressure tracks protect lawns and soft ground from compaction on sensitive sites.
What happens to the branches and timber after a job?
None of it goes to landfill as standard practice. Larger timber is seasoned and goes into the company’s own woodfuel supply; smaller branches are chipped on site for organic landscaping or biomass fuel. It’s a genuine byproduct loop rather than a waste-disposal afterthought.
Do you have a specific number of jobs completed in Glasgow, or reviews from local customers?
We don’t publish an exact job count, and we’d rather not invent a figure just to sound impressive. What we can point to honestly is the business’s growth since 2019 from a one-person climbing operation to a fully mechanised team with its own fleet, and named, individually qualified team members you can check credentials for rather than an anonymous crew.
Get a site visit booked before the next storm hits
If you’ve got a tree that’s been on your mind - a lean that’s got worse after the last bit of wind, a hedge that’s outgrown its welcome, or a survey needed for a planning application - the sooner it’s looked at, the fewer options get taken off the table by weather or by council deadlines. A site visit costs you nothing and gives you an honest answer on what the job actually needs, not a guess made over the phone. Get in touch and we’ll get someone out to look at it properly.
Why Choose CNJ Tree Services?
Scotland's leading comprehensive tree and property service company.
60+ Specialist Tree Services
From basic pruning to de-vegetation and complex ecological assessments
30+ Years of Experience
Core team made up of highly experienced third-generation tree surgeons
24-hour Availability For Emergencies
Average response time under 2 hours
Up to £5M
Insurance Cover
Comprehensive cover for complete peace of mind
Professional Credentials
NPTC, Lantra, FMO and NPORS certified professionals ensuring the highest standards of safety and expertise on every project.
Environmental Expertise
Ecological surveys and compliance specialists
What Our Clients Have Said About Us
Jackie Breen
From the first time getting in touch with Callum, the service was fantastic, he came out gave us a great quote and was able to do the job very quickly. The boys that came to carry out the work were professional, friendly and worked non stop to get the job done, they were so careful with machinery on the property as well and left the garden and paths spotless before they left. I would highly recommend them.
Alan
Callum and his team arrived on the agreed day & time, carried out the tree felling with impeccable professionalism and cleared up after. The work was done at the quoted price and they were very pleasant guys with no bad language. I highly recommend CNJ and I will certainly be using Callum and his 5 star tree fellas again.
Robin Campbell
Callum and his team felled four 40-foot+ trees in our garden, facing particular challenges (2 trees hanging over our LPG tank, one menacing a precious rhododendron). They worked incredibly hard, were great to deal with and we would thoroughly recommend them.