Certified Arborists are tree workers who have completed a course of study or an apprenticeship to become experts in the field of tree care. They’ve tested with the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) to prove their knowledge, and they have signed a code of ethics as well as committed to continuing education. Here’s Trees Are Good’s take on the subject.
Many companies employ Certified Arborists in the main office or as estimators, but their work crews maintain lower levels of knowledge and training. Cypress pledges to have a Certified Arborist on-site working for your trees. The business owner will be the one pruning, and if contract climbers are hired, they will either be ISA certified or in-training to certify. Charlie keeps a very short list of trusted contract Arborists, and carefully specifies the type and quality of work they do with your trees.
Where can I learn more about my trees and their care?
Trees Are Good is a wonderful source of information for tree owners looking to upgrade their knowledge base. There, you can learn what benefits trees can provide, how to select the right tree for a given site, how to plant it, maintain it, prune it, and more!
Without removing the tree, it’s impossible to tell exactly how old it is! Especially in urban environments, water, sunlight, air and soil quality and compaction are highly variable. All these factors and more combine to modify a tree’s growth or lack thereof. We can use such tools as increment borers to get a ring count without cutting down a tree, but borers leave a substantial hole in the stem. Holes are wonderful openings for fungi, insects, and bacteria to enter the tree, so we avoid such measures. With some species we can make a guess based on the history of when and why it was generally planted in the region, but unless you have a picture of the tree as a sapling, it’s only an educated guess!
