Tree Surgeon/Arborist???

[Steve Bullman]

"Arboricultralist" or 'GP for trees"

 

Here's a question though, Do you think there is a difference Between Tree Surgeon/Tree cutter, Arboricultralist?

 

I do, In the same way a great surgeon will have very limited knowledge about issues out side their specialism, a GP has knowledge about a broad range of matters.

 

When I taught at the london school of arb I always defined an arboricultralsit as....

 

" a person who cares for trees, and large woody shrubs from seed through senescence and death where the main aim is one of amenity."

 

Not perfect I know, but i know many grate tree surgeons who are not IMHO arboricultralists as they lack the range of skills....

 

Discuss.........

 

PS one thing is for sure most of us cant spell for toffee

 

Kev

 

Agreed. I personally find the term 'arborist' quite pretentious in most cases, and not many people really know what it means anyway. I always refer to myself as a tree surgeon, or just climber

[Peter]

Agreed, arborist is far too pretentious for moi.

 

I'm not a surgeon either, iv never performed any procedure other than multiple amputation or killing.

 

I'm a cutter, I cut trees, either some off the top or the whole thing at the bottom. End of.

 

 

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[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

Arboricultural Consultant and Tree Surgeon.

As most of my work is consultancy but I still offer tree surgery locally.

 

I never use the term Arborist as it is a term coined by our cousins over the pond generally accepted as a Tree Surgeon in this country. I don't offer my skills to an American market so stick with Tree Surgeon as most people know what a Tree Surgeon is over here.

[10 Bears]

I judge it as appropriate to the audience. So, if I am doing woodland felling, its Forester, climbing - Surgeon, or consultancy erm, Consultant! I experimented once with a catch all term of Tree Expert, and to be honest I immediately felt pretentious, irrespective of whether or not it was true!

 

I agree with the idea that Arborist is mainly an Americanism and Tree Surgeon is much widely more understood, if not a wholly accurate description, in the UK.

 

While we're on the issue of nomenclature, the other word used (and often misspelt) is Arboriculturist not Arboriculturalist - as the latter does not follow the rules of the English language - but its an easy mistake to make!

 

For example: Pianist, Dentist, Acupuncturist, Agronomist, Cosmetologist etc...

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

and................Horticulturalist.........

[Steve Bullman]

and................Horticulturalist.........

 

It's Horticulturist, try keep up

[10 Bears]

It's Horticulturist, try keep up

 

Heee - you beat me to it!

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

errr ....well.... I have it from a higher authority (The Oxford English Dictionary) that "horticulturalist" is indeed a noun!

 

But I am sure you guys know better

[daltontrees]

Tree surgeon is in the dictionary, "a person who prunes and treats old or damaged trees in order to preserve them". A lot of the time what people in the business do to trees has nothing to do with preserving them. I would call them tree workers/cutters.

 

Arborist isn't in the same dictionary. I have always taken it to be an aerial tree worker, basically a lumberjack with a rope. In America.

 

Conversely arboriculture is in the dictionary as "the cultivation of trees and shrubs". IN BS5837 it has a formal meaning something like 'someone who through relevant training, sducation and experience has gained expertise of trees in relation to buildings'

 

Seems to me they're all pretty vague terms but if you're dismantling a tree or felling it that aint tree surgery. And swinging about on a rope with a chainsaw doesn't make you an arboriculturist unless you're the one that also made the strategic and informed decisions about why the work is being done, where and how.

 

It's probably just me then, but I think a lot of the time tree surgeon sounds pretentious and misleading. There's some right cowboys around calling them tree surgeons and committing atrocities to trees from a safe position of reflected glory and public confusion that tree 'surgeons' are somehow surgeons. In what other business can you buy a saw and a rope and start a business with a moniker that suggests 5 years at university and 10 years of experience?

 

Sometimes I think of myself as a boy in a man's body who is delighted at being paid to climb trees, mess about with machinery and destroy things, all of which I wuld probably do for nothing if I was allowed to or could get away with it. Don't know if there is a word for that, though?

[Steve Bullman]

I had a customer once say to me(in a nice jokey manner), 'you're nothing more than a professional vandal really aren't you'