Make the right choice when hiring a tree service.
Trees are the most valuable part of your home landscape. Trees provide several benefits including cooling our homes, providing beauty and privacy. It's important to make the right choice when hiring a tree company to care for your trees. Most of us have heard stories of improper care damaging trees in our neighborhoods.
One way to provide your trees with the best care is to hire a Certified Arborist. Arborists are certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. Certified Arborists must meet several requirements in order to obtain certification. arboricultural report These include adequate experience, passing a rigorous test of arboricultural knowledge, agreeing to a code of ethics and maintaining certification through continuing education. To find a Certified Arborist in your area check the web sites for the International Society of Arboriculture or the Tree Care Industry Association. Both provide information for finding Certified Arborists in your area.
If a tree company advertises that a certified arborist manages or is employed by the company the arborist certification number must be inlcuded in the advertisement. Beware of companies that do not display these numbers which can be checked on line for credibility.
It is also important to find a company that will have a Certified Arborist on your property while the work is performed. It is one thing to have a qualified individual make an estimate but if there is inadequate supervision when the acutal job is done the results may not match your expectations.
In addition, doing a little homework goes a long way. Ask for certificates of insurance whenever you hire a contractor. These should be mailed to you by the insurance company not a copy that is provided by the tree service. The only way to ensure a company is currently insured is to get the certificate directly from the insurance carrier..Make sure you receive proof of liability and worker's compensation coverage.
Also, check with the State Contractor's Licensing Board. Any estimate or advertisement should have the license number printed on the form. Check that the license is current and that there are not complaints against the company. In addition, there may be surety bond held by the Licensing Board for additional protection.
Before getting an estimate it is a good idea to know what to look for and what to avoid when hiring a tree service. Check with the Better Business Bureau to obtain a rating on companies and find out if there are any complaints. Getting references from previous clients is also important. I recommend getting the names of clients worked for in the past few days so references aren't cherry picked.
The more you know about proper pruning and tree care practices the better choice you can make when hiring a tree service. The I.S.A. and T.C.I.A. websites are a great place to learn more about proper tree care practices. These two organizations have worked together to establish the ANSI A-300 Standards for tree care. These standards provide the guidelines for arborists to follow in tree maintenance ranging from pruning to fertilization to cabling or lightning protection. Make sure the company you hire is knowledgable in these standards and estimate their work accordingly.
Finally, beware of companies that recommend the wrong practices for tree pruning. Some things to avoid include topping or overpruning trees. Pruning should be limited to 25% of live branches in a pruning season. Tree climbers should not use climbing gaffs or "spurs" to climb trees unless the tree is to be removed. The only exception to this practice would be in an emergency situation that puts the tree climber in harm's way.
Another incorrect practice is the removal of large branches. Large cuts take years for the wounds to close. These large wounds make the tree more susceptible to decay or insect problems. Making more smaller cuts is preferable to making a few large cuts. Another practice to avoid is overthinning the interior of a tree and leaving the majority of the remaining foliage at the ends of the branches. This increases the likelihood of branch failures because of excessive end weight. A better pruning practice is to maintain interior branching that promotes better branch strength while reducing end weight which reduces the likelihood of branch failures.