Advice for a newbie

[Gbuggle]

hey there, I'm a currently serving member of the forces and looking to get involved in the industry with my resettlement.

Can anyone share any words of wisdom or general advice for the transition to becoming an arborist? What books should i get my head in? What equipment will be essential for me to get a hold of? etc.

Think of it as a chance to mould a future colleague

 

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Edited July 28, 2015 by Gbuggle

[larry]

Hi buddy,

 

Welcome to the forum. Good effort on your service in HM armed forces.

But. Like me, the times comes for a change and it's time to move on.

Ok. Happy days you're looking into the arb industry.

Resettlement courses are offered at training in Kent.

However. Take a look at Merrist Wood in Surrey. 9 week course. Hoofing course. Learn loads to take into industry.

Service lads are valued in industry. They are punctual, honest, hard working, motivated, organised and keen to get on. So already you have many strings to your bow.

Get some experiences by offering a days labour with a local company. Try and get some top tips and see how things go and how you end the job.

From there, just see how you go.

Enjoy it. Stay positive and keen and you'll be fine.

PM me if you need further help.

Cheers and all the best.

Larry.

[Gbuggle]

Thanks Larry, I wasn't expecting a response so quickly, i will definitely keep your offer in my mind!

 

There's a course that runs in my neck of the woods in West Yorkshire that I've heard a lot of good things about, i just need to finalise all the aspects of resettlement before I'm able to enrol.

[kristoff]

Good luck. You lads deserve all the help you can get.

[peatff]

Good luck with your future career and I hope you are as happy as Larry

[Gbuggle]

Thanks for the well wishes!

 

I look forward to getting amongst it! But in the meantime is there any essential literature I should get my head in?

[Maxnaggle]

You could pick up and Collins tree book and see what your identification skills are like!

[Chris at eden]

Hello mate,

 

Have a look on tree source, its an online book shop. It will give you some ideas. The subject is huge and diverse in reality so it depends what you want to learn.

 

You could look at something fairly generic like the arboriculturists companion or the ISA certification guide, with the latter you can take an exam and get a level 2 qualification if you wanted to.

 

BS3998:2010 - tree work recommendations is important although some people tend to ignore.

 

When you get more into it you may want to start looking at some of the more technical stuff like Shigo or Mattheck for biology and bio-mechanics, or Biddle for subsidence issues. If you want to go that in depth that is.

 

Cheers and good luck

[Chris at eden]

Treesource is all one word by the way, damn auto correct.

[Gbuggle]

Thanks for the posts! I've done a bit of trawling through the forum and come up with a bit of a list to try and get a hold of over time and gain a depth of knowledge;

 

The secret life of trees - Colin tudge

 

Visual tree assessment - Claus mathek

 

Modern arboriculture - Alex shigo

 

Fundamentals of general tree work - Jerry baranek

 

Trees: their natural history - Peter Thomas

 

Meetings with remarkable trees

 

Woodland management - Chris starr

 

A fair amount of toilet time reading to be had! I'll have to sell my body and get an Amazon wish list on the go at this rate!

 

Thanks again for everyone's help, I hope one day I can repay it in kind!