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ISA Certifications Advice The AA is pleased to announce new resources to assist with ISA Certifications, including exams dates for ISA Board Certified Master Arborist®, the highest level of certification offered by ISA. 8 April 2017, Enfield, Middlesex 21 October 2017, Enfield, Middlesex Candidates for this exam must book through ISA International as part of their application process. No booking is possible via the Arboricultural Association. ISA READ MORE ABOUT CERTIFICATION AA Achieves CEU Recognition for Training Courses In another step forward we’ve gained recognition with CEU values now assigned to all our UK training courses. See below for a list of commonly run courses in the UK and their CEU values. Arboricultural Association awarded courses will have CEU codes placed on the certificates of attendance. You can then use these to upload on to your ISA CEU Page. The AA is not administering the CEU process, just assisting the ISA, so it is the ISA member’s responsibility to make sure their CEU records are up to date with ISA International. Get the lowdown on CEU’s here with our handy guide

Hi In February of this year, 8 year old Bridget Wright tragically died when she was hit by a branch that failed from a tree at her school in Pitt Town, north-west of Sydney, Australia. On the back of that incident the Department of Education in New South Wales produced a directive to inspect trees in all state public schools for safety. In order to meet the criteria of the directive arborists had to be qualified to Level 5, and be a QTRA Registered User or have completed the ISA’s Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ); TRAQ is founded on the ISA’s Best Management Practices - Tree Risk Assessment (‘Risk BMP’). I was in Sydney, and other cities in Australia, in March delivering QTRA & VTA workshops, and was asked by a number of TRAQ arborists whether there was scope for QTRA and the Risk BMP to work in tandem. This point has also been raised by some QTRA Registered Users, who are ISA members, and were looking to become ISA TRAQ accredited. During the Australian trip, and by email and phone after it, I’ve been discussing the Risk BMP with arborists who have attended both courses, and going through the Risk BMP publication along with the manual that accompanies the TRAQ training. What I’ve been looking to try and do is see where the common ground is, and what the Risk BMP risk rankings of ‘Extreme, High, Moderate, and Low’ mean in terms of actual risk. By way of background. QTRA quantifies tree risk using Monte Carlo simulations and a manual or software calculator to produce a Risk of Harm as a probability, which is the ‘risk assessment’. The level of risk can then be compared to levels of tolerable and acceptable risk in the Tolerability of Risk (ToR) Framework by the risk owner (client/manager) who makes the ‘risk management’ decision. The QTRA approach to tree risk assessment, including an advisory on risk management, is outlined in the QTRA Practice Note; Quantified Tree Risk Assessment The Risk BMP uses two matrices. A Likelihood of Failure & Likelihood of Impacting the Target Matrix, which produces a ‘Likelihood’ ranking. Then the Likelihood ranking is fed into a Risk Matrix, where ‘Consequences’ are also ranked, to produce a qualitative risk ranking of ‘Extreme, High, Moderate, or Low’, which is the ‘risk assessment’. The client then manages their level of tree risk at Extreme, High, Moderate, or Low depending on their ‘risk tolerance’, and this constitutes the ‘risk management’ decision. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the Risk BMP can read about it in Arborist News here; Risk BMP I’ve reproduced the two Risk BMP matrices below, which I've abbreviated to the 'Likelihood Matrix' and 'Risk Matrix', and coloured the cells to make it easier to identify the cell categories in each matrix. What I would like to do, with the help of TRAQ arborists and anyone else who would like to chip in who is familiar with the Risk BMP, is to go through the process of working out where the risks of ‘Extreme, High, Moderate, and Low’ sit in ToR. I’m going to break this up into easy to digest bite-sized pieces and will start the next post by looking at ‘Likelihood of Impacting the Target’ in the first matrix. Cheers Acer ventura Update - There is now a formatted and referenceable summary of this thread available as a pdf document, which can be downloaded at the first post of the new thread here: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/88697-tree-risk-assessment-traq-qtra-compatibility-common-ground.html .

Hi my name is Nathan, I am a 21 year old apprentice arborist in Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada on track to write my ISA certification by the end of summer 2015. Upon completion of my certification I have been strongly considering working abroad for a year in hopes of learning and experiencing new cultures and ecosystems. I consider myself to be physically fit and knowledgeable about Western Canadian Arboriculture and id really like to broaden my horizons in terms of both work and experience, my climbing skills however are more limited as my training has been mostly directed to ground and boom truck pruning although I am eager to greatly increase and establish myself as a climber. All this being said about myself personally I consider myself to be laid back and I have both a strong respect for both people and nature. I have heard Sweden is a great place to practice, however im open and interested in hearing any and all stories and opinions of countries and places to work and live in as well as places that pay higher than usual for professional tree work! Happy and Safe Cutting, -Nathan

News & Events | ISA UK & I Chapter Vist chapter web site to click and down load the results. To keep up to date join our TCC face book page... - ISA UK/I Chapter Tree Climbing Competition - http://www.facebook.com/IsaUkiChapterTreeClimbingCompetition2013 Cheers Alex

UK&I TCC FINAL THE RURAL LIFE CENTRE, TILFORD, FARNHAM, SURREY, GU10 2DL Fri/Sat/Sun - April 29th/30th/1st May 2011 (Bank Holiday Weekend) This is an OPEN competition to all climbers Novice or Senior. Whether it is your 1st competition or your 50th come along and give it ago. Everyone walks away with a goodie bag and prizes will be awarded to best Senior and Novice climbers. Also, don’t miss out on your opportunity to represent UK&I at the ETCC Vienna and the ITCC Australia this year. This is a 2 day competition with gear check available from noon on the Friday until 8.30am on Saturday morning. On Saturday evening there will be a band & BBQ included in entry fee. You may purchase BBQ tickets for anyone not competing that wishes to come along. Camping is available but NO open fires allowed, There is also a café for breakfasts & toilets on site. More info on the Honey Brothers website and the ISA Website where you can view the rules and download the entry form.