Arboriculture and Urban Forestry Education in the United States: Results of an Educators Survey

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Examples of skills taught in urban forestry classes: A review of eight syllabi.

Table 2.

Examples of skills taught in arboriculture classes: A review of eight syllabi.

Table 3.

Arboriculture and urban forestry educational topics considered very important or important.

Very important	Respondents in agreement (%)	Important	Respondents in agreement (%)
Tree planting	98	ANSI standards	79
Tree pruning	97	Herbicide/pesticide application	78
Tree selection	95	Bidding/estimate	78
Tree soil and water relations	93	Public relations	76
Tree structure and decay identification	92	Public speaking	75
Plant insect identification	92	Landscape design	78
Tree identification	90	Benefits and values	75
Preserving trees during construction	89	Climbing practices	73
Tree risk management	88	Chain-saw operations	73
Tree anatomy and physiology	88	OSHA standards	73
Tree nutrition	85	Street tree ordinances	73
Safe work practices	85	Computer science	73
Ethics	84	Personnel management	73
Urban forest management	80	Tree inventory	71
		Small business management	70

Table 4.

Arboriculture and urban forestry educational topics considered less important or not important.

Less important	Respondents in agreement (%)	Not important	Respondents in agreement (%)
Conflict resolution	59	Volunteer management	49
Land use planning	58	Watershed planning	49
Zoning	57	Business law	49
Contract administration	57	Public relations	48
Utility line clearance	55	Spanish	44
Rigging	54	Transplanting large trees	41
Cabling and bracing	53	Heavy equipment operations	37
Habitat restoration	53	Lightning protection	33
Park management	52	Statistics	37
Stormwater management	51	Urban fire ecology	36
Role of tree commissions	50

Table 5.

Respondents who strongly agree or agree that provision of arboricultural and urban forestry educational topics is adequate.

Strongly agree is adequate	Respondents (%)	Agree is adequate	Respondents (%)
Tree establishment and installation	90	Structural decay and compartmentalization	77
Tree identification	89	Landscape design	71
Pruning	88	Herbicide and pesticide safety	71
Tree selection	87	Tree preservation during construction	69
Tree nutrition and fertilization	86	Tree benefits	68
Plant insect and disease identification	82	Trees, people, and ecology	67
Tree, soil, and water relationships	82	ANSI A300 standards	67
Tree anatomy and physiology	81	Tree condition and risk management	66
		Safe work practices	64
		ZI33.1 standards	62

Table 6.

Respondents who agree less or do not agree that provision of arboricultural and urban forestry educational topics is adequate.

Agree less	Respondents (%)	Do not agree	Respondents (%)
Tree climbing	59	Public relations	48
Cabling/bracing	57	Tree removal	47
Chain-saw operations	55	Tree management plans	46
Urban forest management	54	Ethics	46
OSHA	53	Park management	45
Tree appraisal	53	Lightning protection	45
Street and park tree inventory	51	Integrated Vegetation Management	45
Street tree ordinances	51	Transplanting large trees	43
		Role and function of tree commissions	41
		Small business management	40
		Volunteer management	39
		Urban wildlife	37
		Rigging	37
		Zoning and subdivision ordinances	35
		Urban fire ecology	35
		Personnel management	33
		Watershed planning	33
		Utility pruning	33
		Land use planning	32
		Conflict resolution	29
		Heavy equipment operation	26

Table 7.

Relationships of dependent and independent variables in chi-square test of importance (percentage).

Variable	Certified Arborist		Worked as arborist		Worked as urban forester
Variable	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Arboriculture	73	59	68	62	69	63
Planning	39	42	36	45	42	39
Safety	85	55^*	78	59^*	76	64
Tree preservation	90	87	88	90	85	83
Tree structure	89	81	90	79^**	85	83
Urban forest	61	48	56	51	75	47^**

Variable	Years in arboriculture			Teaching		Residence			Region
Variable	1–10	11–20	21–30	University	2-year college	City	Suburb	Town	West	Midwest	East	South
Arboriculture	65	62	67	60	67	64	57	72	60	60	73	76
Planning	42	33	42	49	28^*	58	20	29^**	27	42	39	54
Safety	67	62	79	63	81	73	78	66	57	68	83	70
Tree preservation	89	81	97	90	89	92	81	91	86	92	90	88
Tree structure	83	76	93	85	80	88	75	84	77	91	85	85
Urban forest	56	50	54	57	42	60	33	56	64	54	57	44