As the owner of an ISA certified arborist business in the Inland Northwest, I operate in a community surrounded by rich forests and lush greenery. It’s an area where tree cutting and maintenance services like ours is invaluable, but when I ring the doorbell at a customer’s house, I’ll often hear someone inside declare to others “the tree guy is here.” That title works just fine for me. I like it. It’s familiar and friendly but one thing I always like to make clear to my clients is that there is a lot more to being a certified arborist than just being a “tree guy.”
Some of the terms besides “tree guy” you may be familiar with are tree care specialist, forester or tree surgeon, many of these terms are used synonymously with my actual professional title as an “arborist.” With this term seemingly a little harder to understand by many people, I thought it might help to take some time to take a deeper dive into what an arborist is and maybe provide some answers to those who might be asking themselves “Do I need an arborist or a tree guy?”
The easiest way to begin is to simply say that the Latin word “arbor” literally means tree. Following that line of thought, you may have already figured out that anything related to the word arbor will revolve around trees. I’m sure a lot of you reading this just thought of “Arbor Day”. Yup, that’s exactly right; which means that the study of arboriculture is to study proper care and cultivation of trees.
When you add the “-ist” to a word, like scientist, you are referring to someone who works in the sciences. So it stands to reason that an arborist is someone who has made the study of cultivating, caring for, and maintaining healthy trees their career. Pretty straightforward, right? Yet as unambiguous as this may seem at first, it is a broad field and one in which specialized and individual studies can be made.
Broadly speaking, an arborist must know how to properly identify tree species as well as know their healthy and normal form, structure, and characteristics. They must also understand the environments that different trees prefer including soil types, how much water the tree needs, and whether or not the tree grows better in partial shade or full sun. An arborist must know the major insects and diseases of individual tree species and how to properly care for them through pruning, fertilization and different treatment forms should they develop these issues.
An arborist may specialize in one specific area such as planting and cultivating trees. Some specialize in pruning trees while other arborist become experts in technical climbing and rigging to contend with tree removals in tight locations. Some arborists are skilled in meeting with customers and able to provide very detailed and specific instructions for pruning or removing trees that in turn will be performed by a separate crew of working arborists. There are also consulting arborists who specialize in the risk assessment of trees, long term management plans, gathering tree inventories in large quantities or even preparing reports and serving as an expert witnesses in court proceedings. Many municipalities and local governments employ arborists to be in charge of all city tree inventories. Similar to the city arborist, you may find some that are tasked with vegetation management for gas and electric utility companies or in areas like the west where wildfire is a concern, there are arborists who specialize in fire preparedness.
Where there are trees, there are arborists. Just think, in the book of Genesis, God created trees on the third day and then three days later created man to take care of them. Just sayin!
With so many different disciplines and specialties involved in selecting an arborist, many people find themselves wondering what to look for in an arborist. Selecting the right one can be difficult when you aren’t sure what services you need but a good arborist will help you through that process. What much of this information boils down to is when you are searching for a someone in your area who can provide top notch tree service while maintaining safety standards and providing ethical tree care, don’t just settle for any old tree guy.
Whether you are looking for someone who can help you decide if your tree needs to be removed or not, or someone who can help you plant the right shade trees for your property, there is an easy way to make certain you get someone qualified and trustworthy. Make sure your “tree guy” is, in fact, an arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture.
In our next blog, we will take a look at what it takes to be an arborist as well as some of the designations and certifications are; and what the average day can look like for a few different types of arborist.