I have been back in the real world of urban arboriculture for the past 4 years with the Minot City Forestry Department, since retiring from my classroom teaching gig. A large part of my work deals with tree and lawn inspections diagnosing real and perceived problems with people's landscape. Probably the most important class to have in your background for this is psychology, but a strong second is a firm understanding of tree biology. The two most important things in my estimation to establishing your credibility with the client is knowing what kind of tree you are looking at and being able to explain why the existing condition, which you may or may not be able to correct, is producing the symptoms or signs that they noticed on their landscape. Since we have very little power to control light and CO2 content in the atmosphere on an individual plant basis, most of what we find wrong is under ground or determined by the site. Also, a firm understanding of pest and plant phenology helps to explain why treatments may or may not have worked. I saw a great example of this last year. We had 6 birch trees from a nursery in our lath house that were infested with Bronze Birch Borer. We did not know this until they started to emerge one bright sunny morning. They were not there the night before nor the next morning when I remembered to bring my camera, just that one day. This points out the very narrow treatment window that we have to treat many problem. Now before you jump all over me, I realize that those adult BBBs were only interested in one thing at that stage of their life and it was not eating, so treatment was a shade late.
Now to explain how I get in the mix. I am leaving beautiful Minot, ND for western IL, Avon to be specific, about Oct 5th. The move is to be closer to family as we get more mature, (not older). I am sure I will go nuts if I don't find anything to keep me busy. Therefore, if you know of any companies or individuals that would like to arrange for some tree biology training, followed by on the job examples of its applications, let me know. I am qualified for most everything from raking and loading brush, through bucket work, climbing and rigging. Or if you are in the area and just need some short term help. I am used to 80 mile one way commutes after living in the wide open spaces. I think this would be a very interesting path for me in my mature years and would be beneficial to most companies in dealing with those homeowner problems, both real and perceived.
Thanks for listening, Bob.
Now to explain how I get in the mix. I am leaving beautiful Minot, ND for western IL, Avon to be specific, about Oct 5th. The move is to be closer to family as we get more mature, (not older). I am sure I will go nuts if I don't find anything to keep me busy. Therefore, if you know of any companies or individuals that would like to arrange for some tree biology training, followed by on the job examples of its applications, let me know. I am qualified for most everything from raking and loading brush, through bucket work, climbing and rigging. Or if you are in the area and just need some short term help. I am used to 80 mile one way commutes after living in the wide open spaces. I think this would be a very interesting path for me in my mature years and would be beneficial to most companies in dealing with those homeowner problems, both real and perceived.
Thanks for listening, Bob.
