Hi guys, I'm brand new to the forum and I have never worked in Tree/Arboriculture world before but I am considering it as a potential career or own business start-up. I don't really know exactly what is involved in becoming a professional Tree Surgeon or Arborist or even if there is a difference between those two terms, so I have loads of questions that I would appreciate a bit of input on from some of you guys in the field.
Firstly, I am not 16 and thinking of this as a future career, I am 40 and I have recently given up working on the railways after 10 years of permanent nights and weekends all very far from home (I have also been an electricians mate and welder fabricator amongst other things) so I am looking for a career that can support my family whilst giving me more sociable hours and more local work and a good opportunity to work for myself. I like the outdoors, have no fear of heights and have used chainsaws before (used them on the railway to cut back branches trackside that may obstruct lines, accesses and signals etc and to trim sleepers) - so I quite like the idea of making my living in the outdoors in this area.
I don't actually have much knowledge about trees, I know a Leylandii from an Oak tree and could identify a few more types of tree but that's about it. I have no climbing experience, at least not with ropes but I used to climb trees a lot as a kid and teenager as I'm sure we all did.
So some of things I would initially like a bit of advice on are...
1) Is this a reasonably accessible career path for a guy my age with no real experience so far in this area? Obviously I understand I will need training and some experience but what training will I need as a minimum and roughly what are the timescales and costs? I have looked around online for training courses but the companies offering the training offer different things and say their course is what you need plus I've seen degree courses even which is not really a possibility for me as I need to earn fairly quickly.
2) What is the industry like at the moment in terms of employment/earning prospects? Is it affected by the recession at all, is there a need for more tree guys or is it a saturated market with not enough work to go around. How seasonal is the work in terms of bringing money in all year round.
3) I have been looking at some of the equipment required and have priced some stuff up but I suppose until I have some training and experience I won't really know exactly what is needed to do the job but I need to roughly know what my minimum start-up costs would be for equipment if I wanted to equip myself to fell and process small/medium trees.
I know I am asking for a lot of info here guys and sorry it's such a long winded first post but I'm just trying to assess whether it would be at all feasible for me to make my living in this field as it's something I could really see myself doing. Thanks in advance for any input.
