ISA or TCIA

[vharrison2]

"
Good for them, I think. Which species are you calling invasive?
I miss good old Cayo Hueso, subtropical land of the Eternal Party.

Brazilian Pepper/ When were you there last?

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

I am going to do my bit for the INDUSTRY i have already spoken to a few AS member's that are local to me ,i intend to start up a local charitable oraganization designed to help home owner's and company's find reputable tree service company's and at the same time help promote proffesional tree care businesses,P.S this idea is not an off the cuff reaction to this thread i have had this in mind for quite sometime,i beleive together local contractor's can do a better job than the big international organizations ever can .

 

[treeseer]

i beleive together local contractor's can do a better job .

Rolla, that sounds great. Hope it works for you.

I formed the Triangle Arborists Assn recently. Just a handful so far, but acting locally can pay off well.

 

[vharrison2]

I am going to do my bit for the INDUSTRY

Good for you ROLLACOSTA quit your bit##en and make it better! :blob1:

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Rolla,

Great to hear that. If you need a model or some help, contact Cass Turnbull in Seattle.

http://www.plantamnesty.org/

Think globally, act locally.

With visible topping jobs like in this picture you're going to have a hard road to travel.

Tom

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

thank's for the encouragement guy's..that tree in the picture is a London Plane who ever worked on the tree had the intention of the tree being some sort of pollarded if left for some many years the tree won't look to bad ,this type of work is very common on London planes ,we havesome that had work carried out on them like that at 20 years ago ,now they don't look to bad,but all said its still a nasty topped tree

 

[Big A]

I am going to do my bit for the INDUSTRY i have already spoken to a few AS member's that are local to me ,i intend to start up a local charitable oraganization designed to help home owner's and company's find reputable tree service company's and at the same time help promote proffesional tree care businesses

Dont wish to rain on your parade, Rolla, but how long do you think this would last? Speaking to a few arbos this week even the "friendly" companies back-stab each other over standards and especially pricing, so how on earth do you think they would get on! I've never experienced such a dis-jointed profession as this one. If you look in the Yellow Pages in an area there may be a dozen tree cos. If you look under Building/ Construction there are many more, but they all seem to work along nicely, pricing seems pretty even and they all earn a living. I'd love for your idea to work, I really would but just can't see it.

 

[SteveBullman]

course the other thing is, to keep something like this respectable you're obviously not going to let just anyone join....and from what i see of general standards in this area theres going to be a lot of people not allowed in the club.....lots of people would be put out i think....assuming it took off.

 

[Big A]

Just how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? I'm sure we all know of "professional" companies with all the relevant bits of paper who COULD be in the hack category, do we drive around and checkout each others work? After all anyone can talk the talk, but do they walk the walk? Sorry for the negativity, but why not have a local forum group at a pub, invite all comers and compare notes, techniques and so on, and maybe even educate a few of the less knowledgeable, have a laugh, have a beer.

 

[Mike Barcaskey]

I think you'd run into a problem with the last 20-30%
How do you define hack?
Me and Big A sit down over a beer, we'd probably agree on 80%, after that who calls the shots

heck, I stop when I see other guys working to strike up a freindly conversation, it dont happen around here
Its all
"I'm a macho, macho man,
I can cut a tree better than you can"

I think you may have an easier time herding cats

Hey ROLLACOSTA

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

to become a member you would have to full fill a certain criteria ie have relavent qualifacation's and insurance for the work you do ,and maybe fill in a questionaire ,and the questionare would be marked by the committee

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

if only 20 people /company's joined it wouldn't bother me ,oh and there would be a committee that would be voted in every 2 years,i'm not looking at running a private members club....come on guy's look positive

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

Back stabbing and priceing would not be a concern for me and shouldn't be for other member's ,if your insured ,qualified etc etc then my guess is you would all be charging the same or at least a similer price,but this isn't about pricing it's about seperating the 'wheat from the chaff' yes there are many many company's who will not be allowed to join the organization,simply because they will or do not fit the criteria plain and simple

 

[Tree Wizard]

Sounds to me like you are talking about TCIA's accreditation program. No price setting or discussing but everything you do is on the up and up.

 

[clearance]

What a funny thread, everyone hacking madly away at each other. No to government regulation, they will fek it up and tax and fee everyone to death, get lost. Tom,- "arbos", what a totally gay name, I like treeman, instantly understandable to everyone. I.S.A. or any other accreditation is no gaurantee of common sense, something I see all the time. From I.S.A. arborists having tall growing trees planted under powerlines and having big growing trees planted in the 80s that have cracked sidewalks all over town. Today I went to the site of what is to be a new city park, the city bought up a bunch of lots and houses to do this. Almost all the trees there are to be removed, but we have to fall them and chip all the branches, bushes too. One man with a big saw and one man with an excavator could have had it down and binned out of there today. As it is we will be there for a few days and an excavator will have to come there and rip out the stumps. I said to my boss "there must be a goddam arborist that's figured this out, right" "Of course" as he shook his head.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Clearance,

What about the women who work in arborculture?

Arbo...ists care for trees as individuals and work to preserve them at their highest value. Tree"men" could be loggers for all anyone knows. Would you use a Wild Thing for taking a tree down? Probably not, using language as a tool is important too.

What is your definition of "arborist" ? You do know that you're an arborist don't you by all definitions?

There are times when everyone realizes that they get paid by the hour not the job. Once you make your peace with that it doesn't make any difference how a job is done as long as your pay envelope is full on Friday.

If you read the thread without a bias you'll see that most of the people want keep the government out of the picture. We also want the best care for the trees.

In the US we're fortunate to have ANSI committees that are made up of volunteers from within the profession setting standards. Most times when OSHA doesn't have an applicable reg they use the ANSI standard. I have no clue how standards are set in Canada. Would you care to explain?

 

[treeseer]

Arbo...ists care for trees as individuals and work to preserve them at their highest value.

Great post Tom, though instead of the above I would say that arborists work to IINCREASE, not preserve, tree value. If we do it right, the value grows. I know that's what you meant.

Hmm, let's see, if the term "arbo' is callled "totally gay", and women are treated like they don't exist, what does that say?

Clearance, I agree that big-growing trees under lines and next to sidewalks is not a good thing. hOwever, it is a common thing that has to be dealt with in ways other than tree removal.(see the Root Pruning thread) City regs call for trees, and they also call for an overkill of parking spaces. Everyone wants to park next to the door, so the trees get sited under the lines, next to the sidewalk.

Educating city planners and landscape architects is doing some good on this, but there needs to be a lot more. If the only tool we use is a saw, then they'll just plant another in its place; problem not solved.

 

[Treeman14]

got the TCIA flyer. first year membership is $359. right now they're running a special of $259.
second and subsequent years are based upon your sales
0 - 100,000 is $359
100,001 - 200,000 is $503

I'm almost afraid to ask, but how much is it for the $400,001 - $500,000 range?

I joined for a year or two back in the '80's, so I'm not eligible for the new member special rate.

 

[Tree Wizard]

I am not sure what the dues are - but the next range is 200K to 500K.

 

[Mike Barcaskey]

treeman14, I stopped asking at the 100,000 - 200,000 range
I dont plan on going any bigger.
if it dont get posted I'll call on Monday