Ashburton District Tree Inventory
Xyst collected tree data on all of Ashburton District Council’s (ADC) street and park trees including GPS location, species, maturity, condition and potential risk features. We used a data collection tool developed by ADC that enabled us to upload tree data directly into the Council’s GIS system. Data collection took place over several visits timed […]
Lake Tekapo Wild Fire Mitigation
Consultants from Xyst, engaged by the Mackenzie District Council, received a report from Fire & Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) identifying Lake Tekapo’s vulnerabilities to wildfire. This report identified four key risk areas including two blocks of Mackenzie District Council land, the Tekapo River and the Southern Forestry blocks boarding Murray Place and Hamilton Drive. Seeing […]
Preferred Arboricultural Service Suppliers Panel Procurement
Xyst developed a procurement plan, conducted early market analysis, prepared RFP documents and response forms, put out the tender, evaluated bids received, and assisted ADC in contract award.
Twizel Resource Recovery Park – Planting Plan and Planting
Xyst visited the site and developed a detailed planting plan, then procured plants and engaged contractors to deliver the project.
Ohau Road Reserve Redevelopment
Xyst was engaged by the Mackenzie District Council to revitalise the Ohau Road Reserve in Twizel. The project began with the creation of a concept plan for the reserve. Subsequently, Xyst utilised these plans to engage with the Twizel Community and gather their perspectives, facilitated through partnerships with the Council’s Communications Team. Incorporating community feedback, […]
Lake Alexandrina and Lake McGregor Camp – Revegetation Plan
The Mackenzie District Council engaged Xyst’s consultants to collaborate with Ngāi Tahu, the Department of Conservation (DoC), and the Lakes Alexandrina & McGregor Campground Association to develop a comprehensive revegetation plan to revitalise the Lake Alexandrina outlet creek. The team navigated challenges including the region’s harsh temperatures, the necessity for irrigation, and species with low […]
Service Planning for the future maintenance of parks and trees city wide
Workshop with client to identify strengths and weaknesses of current approach and consider alternative opportunities
Peace Avenue Trees
Xyst undertook a survey of 500 historic trees planted at the turn of the century in and around Fairlie and Kimbell towns. The trees had received little care for many years and some recent failures had alerted Council to issues ahead if no maintenance or inspections were completed. The trees were all inspected, condition and […]
Street Tree Data Collection
Identified each street by botanical name and common name and recored the trees stage of life, condition, issues such as located under power wires and what if any deferred maintenance was required. Each tree was photographed and plotted in to GIS Cloud ready for transfer to the clients GIS system.
Tree Inventory and Maintenance Plan
A team of two travelled the district during 2020 and 2021 using a mobile app to GPS the locations of street and park trees, complete a condition assessment and identify maintenance work required. Hazards were notified immediately to the client where urgent action was required to mitigate risk. A total of 5,555 data points were […]
Parks & Facilities Management
Xyst was brought on board after a thorough risk and performance evaluation of the Mackenzie District Council’s parks and community facilities operations. Xyst was then asked to fill a sudden staff management gap, which quickly evolved into a long-term commitment to manage the District’s public facilities, parks, and community spaces. Throughout this period, Xyst’s team […]
Tree Strategy
Port Pirie wishes to be a region that has pride in, and appreciates the values of its trees within public parks, streets and open spaces. It wishes to provide streets that are attractive and town centres which are visually appealing and inviting, to complement the network of parks and open spaces ranging from urban to […]
Manapouri Foreshore Vegetation Management Plan
Southland District Council (SDC) was undertaking a review of the Manapouri Foreshore Reserve Management Plan (2003) which provided for height management of vegetation on the reserve. Although some work on vegetation had been carried out, there had been little ongoing height management particularly in the areas identified as “retained/managed bush”. An itemised programme of works […]
Contract Performance Auditing
Nelson City Council engaged Xyst to carry out contract performance auditing. Xyst has developed an inspection template using a mobile app that allows performance against a set of performance measures from contract specifications to be scored from 1 to 5 and to produce an overall percentage score for each location. Activities audited include grass maintenance, […]
Waikato Tree Inventory data collection
Using a mobile data collection tool (GIS Cloud) Xyst collected data about the identity, age, condition, location and maintenance requirements of every Council tree in the Waikato District. Data (including images) is collected in the field and uploaded to a cloud-based database from where it can be exported in various formats for import directly into […]
Tree Contract Review Recommendations
Xyst was commissioned by Maroondah City Council to lead a workshop with relevant staff to assist in reviewing the current approach to outsourcing of arboriculture services for the following activities: collection of tree data, risk assessment and monitoring of physical works, street tree pruning and wire clearance works, supply and planting of street trees and […]
Urban Forest Policy
Xyst developed a Urban Forest Policy to provide guidance and direction in relation to the planting of new trees and promote planting, focussed on conserving a greener city. The policy also provided guidance and direction on continued maintenance, management and protection of trees. The policy aims to provide a basis from which to make decisions […]
Taitua Arboretum Development Plan
25 years on from the gifting of the Taitua Arboretum to the people of Hamilton City and 50 years on from the first tree plantings, the Arboretum’s landscape has changed significantly; the trees have matured, infrastructure has been developed and visitation has increased significantly. The intention was to take a fresh look at the Arboretum, […]
Contract Management and Contract Auditing
Xyst was engaged to manage the Amenity Tree Maintenance Contract and Open Space Maintenance contract for the City of Port Phillip from May 2023 through to March 2024. This included providing a dedicated contract manager working within the City of Port Phillip on placement. Particular emphasis was focused on improving contractor performance, systems improvement, reviewing […]
Charlotte Blakey
With over 15 years combined experience in natural resource management and arboriculture, I have been involved in a variety of projects within the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. This includes the development of asset management plans, program management and implementation, development of policies and procedures, provision of technical advice, collection and analysis of field data, […]
Trees
The management of trees and the urban forest is vital to mitigating the effects of climate change and to the health and wellbeing of communities
Alison Rawley
My key responsibility is project management of the Yardstick suite of benchmarking tools. This involves regular updates to the online tools on the Yardstick website, development of new survey and benchmark projects for clients, technical support, data analysis and reporting. It also involves liaison with partner industry organisations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand and […]
Jane Wright
As a consultant with Xyst, I help local government and other agencies plan and deliver parks and recreation benefits for their local communities. This involves supporting clients with a broad range of knowledge and practical skills associated with open spaces and facilities. In any project, I aim to build strong relationships that help to inspire […]
Eric Hamilton
I support councils to develop clear policy and guidelines for managing public activities on public land. I do this by supporting council officers to manage natural and built assets, ensuring they are maintained and managed in a sustainable manner. This support includes helping council staff to grow and broaden their knowledge to manage people, activities, […]
Chris Rutherford
I founded Xyst in 2002 and since then we have grown the company to the scale it is today. Currently I manage the Australian branch from Melbourne, focusing on identifying opportunities for our company to work with like-minded clients and interact with our wonderful team around projects, opportunities, training and challenges. I endeavour to provide […]
Dafydd Pettigrew
As a consultant, I have been involved with a mixture of parks planning, asset management, capital works delivery and programme management projects for councils, charitable trusts and Maori trusts. My role often requires a high degree of consultation and engagement with the public, key stakeholders and mana whenua. In any project, I work with people […]