I firmly believe in education and training so this blog post is easy to write. I think it’s amazing when things come together.
Three required elements
First, you have your eager apprentice who wants schooling and experience. Both should eventually lead to better pay. Notice the key point here: action! Sign up and do it, don’t analyze it too much.
Second, you get an employer willing to sponsor the dude financially in exchange for good quality work in the future. Filling out the required paper work is also a huge task.
Some pessimists will ask, “But what if the new arborist technician decides to leave?” No, ask yourself this, what if he stays? You have to take a chance and support your workers.
Third, you get one humble ISA certified arborist to work with the dude after he completes his schooling. The key function of the arborist is to sign off on the official papers; and to make sure nobody dies.
Program details
I believe that the Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley, BC is the best school in the Lower Mainland for horticulture and arboriculture. The arborist technician programs are fairly new and in need of new students. The arborist technician course takes eight weeks to complete and covers the following topics.
- The Safety Conscious Arborist
- Plant Identification
- Biology, Pruning & Planting
- Falling and Bucking
- Rigging and Climbing
- Tools and Equipment
An interview with Darren Edwards
Since there might be some workers considering taking the arborist technician program, I took the liberty of asking our apprentice Darren a few questions. He kindly agreed to the scheme.
Vas: What motivated you to take the arborist technician program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University?
Darren: When I started working in the landscape industry I found out I really enjoyed working outside, but didn’t like the repetitive maintenance schedule and enjoyed the arborist aspect so I talked to my boss and he was willing to send me to school for it.
V: What was your typical school day like?
D: Typical school day consisted of one or two classes, each class being 2 hours of in class work and 2 hours of outside in the field type work, putting what we just learned inside into practice outside.
V: What did you enjoy the most about the program?
D: The fact that you are surrounded by like-minded people who are equally as excited and interested to be learning about arboriculture as you are. If it came to classes I would have to say rigging, learning about mechanical advantages so that you could lift unreal amounts of weight and learning all the knots is really cool.
V: What did you enjoy the least about the program?D: My least favourite part would be having to pay the toll to go over the bridge every day to get to school, other than that I have no complaints, the teachers are all nice and the course was well planned out.
V: How many trees and shrubs did you cover in your plant ID training? Were there any cool trees or shrubs that stood out from the list?D: There were 51 plants total, all of which can be found on the KPU plant database website under the “Course plant list” link. Arbutus Menziesii and Metasequoia Glyptostroboides are two of my favourites.V: What advice would you give to people considering enrollment in the Arborist Technician program?
D: If you’re considering taking the course I say just do it, it was a lot of fun and you meet a lot of cool people.
V: What are your plans for 2017 and beyond?
D: 2017 season I plan to stay with my current company and do most of the tree work for them as well as maintenance when needed, hopefully I’ll be able to stay here doing tree work full time in the next few years.
Happy ending
I’m happy to report that Darren came back from his course more confident and competent. The boss started squeezing him right away with tree projects. There is a lot of pruning to do on trees and shrubs. We witnessed stump grinding and Darren got to take down a large Norway maple (Acer platanoides). We also planted some trees and shrubs.
As for me, I will get to sign a few papers knowing that we really did work together in the field. I might even learn a few things.
It’s good to know that you should get a certified arborist to work with you to help you become an arborist. My brother is wanting to work in nature and he was wondering how he can become an arborist. I’ll be sure to tell him to work with other arborists to become better at his job.