are you really an astronaut if youve never been in space?
It doesn't really matter. That's for the astronauts to figure out.
As far as arborists, an experienced arborist is an experienced arborist, and that's based on hands-on tree care and knowledge. Gear and size of tree is not relevant to determining what they are. Now if there are "certified arborists" who have minimal experiences, certainly they will be less adept than the CA with 20 years constant hands-on. But even the entry level CAs have 3 years. And I'll skip including the odds and ends for the moment who may have borderline tree care 3 years.
On another note, if a climber comes down to work on the smaller trees, odds are I can prune circles around that person.
One CA - a very experienced climber - who worked in Georgia for a long time, and in Oregon for a long time, as arborist, climber and business owner, said that my pruning work is the best he had ever seen.
Basically, you blow it out of proportion. I've got over a dozen trees on my own property including 200 year oaks, Douglas fir, madrone, ponderosa pine. And I can look out my window right now and see most of what they need.
And I can go into town tomorrow and get a lift or climbing gear and do to my big trees what I do to my small trees, but within the confines of what age and condition allows.
I can see a few codominant unions, even from the ground I can tell from the bark what's alive and what's not. Dead stubs stick out like a sore thumb, and 20% of the canopy is equally as easy to judge from the ground as it is from above.
In addition, I know how to avoid damaging the bark with ropes and gear, what time of year the bark is more likely to slip-loose.
My plan may change once up in the tree, but where the ropes will be placed is already fairly obvious.
So you need to put your foolishness to rest.
I'm not going to tell you or other skilled climbers how to use your gear, but it will be a cold day in hell if you climbing makes you more capable to handle tree care. Because although I may not accomplish the task identically in equipment terms, I can meet or or exceed the quality of finished product.
Been there - done that.
The reason I was looking at my trees today, is I was out in the rainstorm taking some Madrone photos for Ekka's website. And glancing at our large trees and noticing a few needs in them, comments like yours came to mind and I amusingly chuckled. Especially since most arborists I know, don't usually climb to give an estimate, but they can see most issues from below. And anything that can be hidden up in a canopy, has occured at head level as well. Any problem I've ever seen in a big tree at 80', has also been found at head level, waist level, sometimes ground level. Even with big trees, the same issues can occur down low.
What makes a good arborist, is being an experienced arborist.
Because if you need climbing gear in big trees to be a good arborist, obviously one might need an orchard ladder and boots for small trees to be a good arborist. See, if you want to be logical, you have to expand your logic to all aspects and all sizes, as closely as possible. And your form of logic is not logical enough to handle the full scope of arboriculture.
opcorn:
