How to Choose an Arborist

Personnel of the University of Massachusetts’ Shade Tree Laboratories are often asked to recommend companies for tree care. At least two good reasons prevent compliance:

1. It is improper for public employees to favor one commercial concern above others equally competent and ethical.

2. Contacts of arborists with the Shade Tree Laboratories usually concern educational questions, including tree identification, choice, location, planting, feeding, culture, injuries, pruning, wound treatment, disease and insect diagnosis, and use of pesticides. University personnel seldom see enough of the arborists’ work performance to judge their qualifications.

Many ways used to choose a doctor, mechanic, or contractor can be used for an arborist. The first step is to make a list of those available, using these sources:

1. The yellow pages of your telephone directory and the classified advertising section of your local newspaper, under “Arborists” or “Tree Service.”

2. Your Tree Warden or City Forester, who knows many of the local companies.

3. Any neighbors and friends who have employed arborists.

4. Tree workers’ professional associations, which have lists of members who operate in your vicinity.

The next step is to choose among the candidates, considering these factors:

1. Are all employees of the arborist fully insured against damaging your property and also against injuring themselves and/or others while working on your property? And does your own insurance cover liability for such injury to workmen or anyone on your property (“blanket”)?

2. Is the arborist’s business well-established locally? If so, presumably he or she keeps a high standard of quality in the work to keep clientele from year to year. A nearby office saves money by saving workers’ travel time (for which the customer pays!). A local firm can easily finish any work undertaken or correct any unsatisfactory work. Beware of itinerants, who come one day and are gone the next, no one knows where.

3. Are the men who will actually work on your trees (not necessarily company owner, office manager, or salesman) qualified either by long experience or by special training or both? Are they well equipped? Do they keep up-to-date by refresher courses, demonstrations, conferences, books, government pamphlets, and professional journals? Arboriculture is a specialized field, requiring much knowledge and skill, beyond the capacity of a “jack-of-all-trades.” Careless, ill trained, or ill equipped workers may injure themselves, your trees, grounds, and buildings, and may waste your money by using excessive time to do their work.

4. Are the prices reasonable? Don’t come to a final agreement over the phone about work to be done. Ask each arborist to examine your trees and estimate the price of a particular job. Remember that a low price may or may not mean poor work, and a high price may or may not mean good work. Prices should be compared with reports from other sources.

5. What do your friends, neighbors, Tree Warden or City Forester, former customers or other references named by the arborist, say about their experiences with his or her work and/or reliability?

6. Does the arborist make exaggerated claims for his “miracle cure,” try to hurry you into a sudden “on-the-spot” decision, or try to sell just any job regardless of the need for the work? An arborist should show interest in the greatest benefit to your grounds for each dollar spent. Remember, however, that tree work which urgently needs to be done may be apparent only to the trained arborist and not to you. Compare what the representatives of various firms think needs to be done and why.

7. Is the agent with whom you talked really the person responsible for the work? Does any contract offered you contain all the promises made? Read and understand all written agreements or contracts you are asked to sign. Do not sign until you are satisfied about all specifications and until you are sure you want to go ahead.

8. What record does the arborist have for safety in past work, and are all OSHA safety requirements enforced by the firm?

9. Are the arborist’s on-the-job personnel properly licensed to use restricted pesticides? (It is an interesting legal point, probably not yet resolved in any court, whether the employer of the arborist (i.e., you) may share in the guilt for knowingly employing someone to spray a restricted pesticide who is spraying illegally by virtue of the lack of a required license.)

• © 1982, International Society of Arboriculture. All rights reserved.