Why Choose a Certified Arborist

By Percival Q. Abernathy

St. Louis has nearly as many tree-services as the roadways bear potholes. Plucking a professional treeservice from the hordes on offer might be intimidating, but could also seem rather fruitless? Why hire a professional arborist for a 25-100% greater cost when there are cheaper alternatives? I’ll tell you. In the face of increasing deforestation, the preservation of our urban and suburban forests can no longer revolve around a purely aesthetic or economical ethic. Arborists should now be selected for the merits of how their practice promotes the health of trees and the forests they make up. I contend that professional arborists should be hired for any tree work, full stop. This is typically the most expensive option. However, the unprofessional tree cutters can end up costing irretrievable losses. Did you know that one pruning cut made with an infected saw, is enough to kill a mature tree within 1-3 years? Therefore, if you have a specimen oak (white, post, red, bur) in your yard the benefits of which could be valued in the tens of thousands of dollars, you should entrust its care to an arborist. By hiring a non-professional who wields an infected saw against the vascular cambium of your specimen oak, the lifespan your tree could have had has just been cut short. Decisions governed solely by the practice of saving immediate dollars-andcents can be consequentially short-sighted. Around eighteen months ago we removed a red oak (Quercus rubra) in Kirkwood. Standing directly adjacent to the client’s newly constructed house, a low lateral limb was previously removed to accommodate the structure. A single [infected] cut was made on the mature tree by a non-professional. Due to the way trees translocate water and nutrients, this tree had pumped all its remaining resources into an awkward limb shooting off the back, away from the infected cut. The oak was no longer an economic asset, and in short order would be a large over-hanging hazard. Hypoxylon Canker from the infected cut had ravaged this red oak, cutting short what easily could have been 10-50 years more of economic value and environmental service. The pruning of the non-professional was cheap, in terms of price, but ended up costing in areas where recompense became impossible. Pruning is one operation that distinguishes professional practitioners. From fine, Felco-sized snips to large 36” diameter cuts with rigging, pruning is a specialist’s operation. A tree that has been properly pruned retains the natural form and appearance of a tree. Proper pruning regimens never include topping or removing more than 25-33% of a tree’s living crown. Additionally, the professional ensures that trees are pruned within their appropriate

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seasonal window using disinfected tools. Professional arborists are the knowledgeable sector of tree care practitioners, having the unique skillset to preserve the health of our urban forest. Proficiency in the discipline of tree-climbing is another primary divider between the professional and non-professional tree service. Tree-climbing is a rope access discipline and a unique skill, which permits arborists to access all parts of a tree - if deemed safe to climb - without injuring the tree. To prune a tree of any age in a fitting, structural manner, access must be gained to all parts of a tree, including the branch tips. Professional arborists use modern climbing systems, which save the climber’s energy, and permit suitable work-positioning, allowing a climber to maneuver into a suitable spot to make cuts that will heal properly and quickly. Less efficient climbers will only go so high in a tree and make up the difference between their bodies and the branch tips with pole pruners/saws. This method of tree-climbing saps energy faster and leaves improper cuts which do not heal uniformly. By working more efficiently, professional tree-services are simply able to do more work in less time, decreasing the disruption at your home, and increasing the reach of your dollar. Your trees are part of a larger urban forest. Forests are subject to naturally occurring, chaotic forces that render different effects on each individual tree. This is a systems-based style of thinking longimbued upon arborists in theory and practice. Consulting with an arborist is the surest method of reducing risk and promoting vigor within your trees. Professional arborists practice a more perfect type of tree care. From a professional’s point-of-view, I have here attempted to define subtle, but concrete differences between tree-service providers, and the invisible stratification of technical proficiency between them. These dissimilarities fail to make it into the commercial advertisements, remaining absent from the awareness of consumers. Whether or not an arborist is enlisted for your project, it is still our privilege to be serving the manifold boughs of the urban canopy under which we all draw common breath and rest.

Percival Q. Abernathy, the author under pseudonym, is a climbing, T.R.A.Q.(Tree Risk Assessment Qualified) and ISA Certified Arborist for Timberline Professional Tree Care, holding a BA in Environmental Studies from Saint Louis University. He began in the industry as a woody ornamental consultant at Greenscape Gardens.

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