I'm considering a career change, becoming a tree surgeon/arborist - help

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

It is a wonderful occupation and very rewarding, but as for supporting a family on it i think your a bit late to be considering the outdoor portion of this trade.

 

It wont match or anywhere near what you got on the trains (40 plus K)

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

As I understand it there is a lot of potential for tree surveyors on the railway lines, maybe you could use your contacts and prior railway experience to move into this area, at your age it would be a very viable route to go into this industry.

 

A downed tree on the line can cost the railways hundreds of thousands so it is financialy viable to have extensive surveying done to avoid those situations, well worth looking into IMO for you at least

[conallb]

From a students point of view you best bet is to go through you local yellow pages/free newsletters/newspapers and ring every tree surgeon in there asking if you can volunteer/shadow them for a few days to see if you like the industry. If you enjoy it you wonna get yourself down to your local land-based collage that does cs tickets and get you cs30(cross cutting and maintenance) cs31( small diameter felling) and your cs38(tree climbing and aerial rescue) this is all the basics you need for ground work. The go through your list again and say you have a small amount of experiance and cs30,31,38 and all your ppe (which you should buy before your cs tickets) and are looking for a way into the industry as a groundsman.

 

hope this helps mate