Wisdom

[dasboot50]

Just looking for some pearls of wisdom and pointers guys.

Been employed in Forestry / Arb since I left school at 17, 50 now. During career I’ve achieved HND forestry and for last 9 years I’ve been a Utility Arb Surveyor (UA5).

My intention is to sit PTI in June and about to attend ITI next week in prep for this. My questions are that I’ve never been a climber, always been on the ground when on the tools but I’ve worked with some amazing climbers and think I held my own as a groundie. Will this be detrimental to obtaining the PTI? Been accumulating the reading material for a couple years now and I don’t think I’ve bitten off too much…hopefully lol.

Anyhoo, any pointers, words of wisdom, nuggets of info gratefully appreciated..

[Puffingbilly413]

Fungi ID (various states - new, old, decayed etc) and the ability to inspect a tree and write (or type) up your notes quickly for the assessment.  Those were what people struggled on when I did mine a few years ago.

A lot of it is (or was - assume it's not changed) open book though so not as bad as you might first think.

If you're doing an intermediate course first then you'll be absolutely fine as everything you need will get covered on that, so it's just a confidence booster really.

 

Good luck with it.

[KateH]

Hi, someone in our office has done this course and says that with your experience on the ground not having climbing will not be detrimental to taking the course; most people taking it have probably not been climbing Arborists so you're not at a disadvantage. There is a lot of emphasis on fungi ID so prioritise this and VTA (visual tree assessment) so the Mattheck Field Guide for VTA is a recommended read.

Hope this helps and good luck! Kate 

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

What 'KateH' says above, and try to go residential for the 2-3 days if possible / feasible so you can spend time reading and digesting the course material and discussions from the day in the evenings.

 

Good luck,

Paul

[JaySmith]

I’ve always maintained that some of the best consultants and tree officers are ex climbers as they have worked trees and potentially understand them in ways that you cannot learn from books or a course such as L4 HND. However as you have a significant amount of industry experience will be of great advantage and also your work as a surveyor will give you a good underlying knowledge base, without you even knowing it.

The PTI is hard, but then it is designed to be that way. Some of the CS tickets are given out like sweeties at Xmas but the PTI is far more demanding and you have to show a far deeper understanding. When I did mine I read up on VTA techniques, P&D, decay fungi and how to input data and different peoples approach to recording the data. In the age of the internet have a look at other peoples methods and examples or reports. Hopefully you will already have a consistent and comprehensive inspection method that you use currently so just practice, practice.

Don’t forget the course is taught and not just an exam so you will have 2/3 days of expert tuition, don’t expect it to be a walk in the park but I think you’ll see you are well equipped with your previous industry experience. Good luck with it, delivered correctly it is a great course and can open many doors.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

All good advice above. 
 

Practically - knowledge, (good) experience and absorbing the delivered sections of theory are critical (the information you will be provided is what is required for the exam - this is not (necessarily) the time / place for in-depth challenge or opinion.)

 

Time management is key for practical assessment!  Make yourself a proforma which captures all the survey information on a single sheet which you can easily complete so that you are led through your ‘inputs’, don’t miss anything and ensure you cover all the bases. 
 

Get this proforma typed / drawn up in advance - finalise it the night before the practical assessment when you have been told all the necessary elements of assessment. 
 

Get a waterproof survey folder and use pencil (which isn’t affected by rain) rather than pen (which is.)

 

Get stuck in!

[dasboot50]

Thanks for all the fantastic advice guys, thoroughly appreciated. Attended the ITI down at Myerscough last month and was fantastic and just what I’d hoped it would be. Jim and Paul were excellent and very patient and understanding so feel a lot better equipped now for June. Looking forward to getting stuck in! [emoji106][emoji4]

[dasboot50]

Still studying away like a man possessed [emoji12]…but things are making sense…just a quick one? 20 mins per Tree assessment?…would you guys concur? Got a pro forma made up so trying to nail down the time aspect [emoji106]