Specialising in all aspects of tree surgery, Mick Lynch & Son Tree Surgery Services is a leading arboriculture firm that has been providing safe, professional solutions to a wide range of customers nationwide for four-and-a-half-decades. We travelled to Mullingar and caught up with director John Lynch to get an insight into this outstanding family operation.

Mick Lynch & Son Tree Surgery Services was established in 1973 by the late Mick Lynch, who had a huge passion for timber and a great understanding of trees and their ways. Mick took his only son, John, under his wing from a very young age and taught him all about trees and the workings of the business. Today, John and his crews continue on the good work that has seen this Mullingar-headquartered business evolve into one of the leading tree-care specialists not just in the midlands but throughout the island.

As a diverse operation, Mick Lynch & Son Tree Surgery Services covers all aspects of tree care, including tree surgery (pruning, thinning, shaping or removing deadwood), tree felling, removal of dangerous trees, tree and stump grinding, green waste recycling / mulching and chipping; tree surveys / planning; 24-hour emergency call-outs; and firewood and woodchip sales.

Their fully-certified, experienced, qualified and highly-skilled crew (comprising six – eight professionals at any given time) conform to the highest safety standards pertaining to the sector, with absolute customer satisfaction guaranteed.

Utilising an excellent, well-maintained range of modern equipment – from heavy-duty machines to everyday tree surgery tools – on a wide variety of jobs, these fully-trained and -ensured tradesmen carry all the necessary certificates and licences including NPTC, Safe Pass, Manual Handling, Stump Grinding, Wood Chipper operation, CSCS, Traffic Management (Sign Lighting & Guarding), chainsaw tickets, First Aid, climbing tickets, etc.

Commenting on the nature of the work carried out, John is quick to point out that no two days are the same: “We do a lot of work with the OPW, Bord na Mona, Coillte and local authorities as well as private work at schools, churches and domestic homes – taking down and removing dangerous trees or the reduction of trees.”

Whatever the situation, John and his team can assess the lie of the land quickly and always know what the best course of action is.

All the waste is chipped up and sold to Bord na Mona for generating energy, while timber is processed as air-dried firewood. “Half of it goes into woodchip and we stockpile the timber at various locations to dry out before processing it as firewood. There’s big demand now as a lot of stoves have been sold around the country in recent years,” John confirms.

The Westmeath man is pleased to report that business is brisk: “We’re busy and we are out every day. We get a lot of repeat business from customers who have been coming back to us regularly for the past ten years and more. We’re also extremely fortunate to have very good, honourable staff, who come in early every day and who often work in difficult circumstances to get roads and laneways clear and to make dangerous trees safe.”

Like his father before him, John relishes the challenges and loves working with trees: “It’s a highly enjoyable job because you are dealing with nature every day and you have to respect her. In this line of work, you also get to meet professionals and people from all walks of life and you can learn from them and accumulate knowledge. There’s a lot of variety.”

Of course, such is the nature of the job that a high volume of work needs to be done during storms and at unsociable hours. “You could get a call any time from the Guards, the Council, a private property owner, a company or school or church and that work will have to be done immediately,” says John. “Safety is paramount and all the lads have been fully trained and use all the necessary safety gear. The ropes and chains have to be checked and certified and all our equipment and machinery is 100% up to date at all times. This takes up a lot of time and requires a lot of input at management level, so you really do have to love the work.”

Meeting all the regulations pertaining to the tree care sector causes legitimate, above-board businesses to incur considerable expenses. While John wouldn’t have it any other way, ‘Fred in the Shed’ is always a factor… “There is the black market and plenty of people with no training or insurance ready to chance their arms, so customers need to check and make sure that the work is going to be done properly by authorised, experienced and insured people. Health & Safety should be monitored more closely in this line of work because it’s a dangerous job and the risks are massive when people don’t know what they are doing or don’t have the right experience or equipment.

“When we take a tree down, there is no waste and that’s something I’m very happy about. It all goes to woodchip and timber now and the land can be reclaimed and reseeded as if there was never a tree there to begin with.”

No pun intended, but the proverbial apple certainly didn’t fall too far from the tree when John Lynch decided what career to pursue. He points out that, as well as his father Mick’s huge input into getting the family business up and running, his maternal grandfather, Patrick Egan, was a forester in County Galway. “So the knowledge and interest were there on both sides of the family.

“I left school at 15 and started early. We took down a lot of dangerous oak trees all over Ireland for Coillte and that timber was processed into boards, planks and beams and used to restore the Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship – a contract which we are very proud to have been associated with.”

Sadly, Mick passed away four years ago but John is keeping his legacy very much alive. “I have three sons and two daughters of my own and they are all very young at the moment, but hopefully the third generation will become involved somewhere down the line,” he notes. “I’m 100% focussed on this and the phone is switched on 24/7. It could ring any time and you have to be ready to act. This is something you can’t just walk away from.

“We also do tree surveys and we prefer if a client can keep the tree if at all possible, with a bit of reduction or whatever. If at all possible, I prefer to leave the tree standing.”

This approach reflects and epitomises John’s genuine love of trees. He cares about trees as well as for them and isn’t involved in this business to make a quick buck. For example, three years ago, as an initiative to raise money for North Westmeath Hospice, he planted 100 hardwood trees in Belvedere House Gardens and persuaded 100 different companies to sponsor a tree apiece. Each sponsor received a certificate of ownership for their tree and a tidy sum of €10,000 was duly raised for a very worthy cause.

Looking to the future, John is confident that Mick Lynch & Son Tree Surgery Services will continue to progress: “I’m very happy with how things are going and there is great potential in the business,” he states. “We have a superb fleet of machinery and equipment including tractors, tippers, lorries, cranes, wood chippers, saws, ropes, chains, etc. We subcontract hauliers to transport the woodchip and timber, with Gerard Lynn in Mullingar handling a lot of the timber haulage for us.

“As well as running a successful business, it’s also nice to be able to generate employment and support the local community. We spend a lot of money locally on diesel and repairs and we buy all of our equipment here in Mullingar. If at all possible, we shop locally to try to generate revenue and keep as much money as possible in the local community,” the amiable Westmeath man concludes.

Mick Lynch & Son Tree Surgery Services,

Ballymahon Road,

Mullingar,

County Westmeath.

Tel: 083 1161474

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.micklynch.ie

Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 4, June 2017

Mick Lynch & Son Tree Surgery Services