scilly

What is your husband's training? Does he have a degree or a diploma?


Arborists do not work 12 months even here in the Lower Mainland of BC, which is often considered the Banana Belt of Canada .........

....... I know quite a few, many have another job where their skills can be used, eg botanical garden, parks board. Those are also usually unionized jobs, and I know arborists who were hired from the UK 20 or 30 years ago to fill vacancies, but not recently.

I would say that the pay is not good unless you can get a lot of work in a short time ........ and Canada is an expensive place to live, as others have commented.

There are Tree Pruning Companies (note the name of them) who employ arborists with varying level of skills, according to what I see them do. They get the big jobs ........ pruning street trees from about April to November, with the parks board when there are a large number of trees to be done in a short period of time, by Hydro to "prune" trees that are compromising (or likely to compromise) overhead lines in the city, etc.

I have been known to refer to work done by these companies as "butchering" ......... pruning out the centre of a canopy to allow the Hydro lines to pass free while leaving an incredibly deep vee shape to the tree.


The season for arborists (and landscape gardeners here seems to come to an end in late October / early November ......... and many independents then go away to warmer climes or travel until early March.


I have a landscaper who cuts our grass ........... he has an arrangement with his wife who has a job she loves. She goes to Europe in summer when he is working basically from dawn to dusk, he goes away in late November for 3-4 months to a new country every year, hikes, climbs, etc, when she is working very hard

bats

Funnily enough an arborist knocked at the front door this afternoon. He works for The Forestry Department of Hydro One and was here to tell us which of our backyard trees they are going to cut down. You might want to look at Hydro One's website for jobs. Also the MNRF. TheY will both pay well but usually that means it's hard to get a job with them

scilly

We get a notice from Hydro after they have inspected the area (about every 3 or 4 years) to say they will send people to prune our tree at the end of the back garden on such and such a date, and that we MUST arrange to get it pruned ourselves if we do not want them to do it.

We then contact our "tame arborist", who has a regular job elsewhere but has university degree and diploma in the subject, and he comes round and does the job properly.

As I said, Hydro contracts to one of the many "tree pruning companies" who tend to "butcher".

I've watched them at work ......

........ a true arborist will stand back at frequent intervals to weigh up how the shape of the tree is looking, where the next cut should be made. It's almost like watching an artist at work.

The tree pruners hired by Hydro go up in a cherry picker, and cut out branches around the Hydro lines with little regard to the natural shape of the tree, the look of it, or the safety aspect of leaving a deep vee through the centre of the canopy.

ann m

I have no specific knowledge of arborist work in Alberta - and we do have a lot of forests up north, and various parklands - but the growing season here is short and the tree variety and size is limited.

None of those massive sycamores, oaks, elms or other fancy work. You get small elms and oaks, weak (but admittedly large) poplars and silver birch, and tons of larch and conifers. Domestic work around here would be on smaller varieties that have perhaps got a bit big, or messy, or have split from winter kill. Admittedly, snow storms can wreck our city's trees if they come when the tress are still in full leaf, and there's a lot of clear-up work required.

I can't get excited by trees in my southern patch of Alberta.

bats

Yeah, but it's a job

scilly

true!

DandNHill

If he can do landscaping there are always signs by the side of the road for landscapers who seem to be snow polugh operators in the winter.
I notice them as our friends who were supposed to be moving over are in the business...
I saw a sign just this morning in Erin, Ontario...

Dorothy

I used to work for Davey Tree (was called by another name then) in Vancouver about 25 years ago and we did work year 'round. Storm damage, etc still needs clean up even in winter. A lot of the routine maintenance was done between April and November, but certainly there was work for the arborists all year.

carlyhemsworth

Thanks. We have spoke to Davey tree and they seem very interested in his skills etc. So that's positive

scilly

Davey Tree is one of the one companies that I classify as butchering street trees!

To be fair to them, Hydro will not lay lines underground, they're all overhead and we have many thousands of street trees in Vancouver (not mention trees in back gardens along the lot line. Trees grow up alongside the Hydro lines or around them, and without chopping down the tree, there isn't much that can be done other than clear inner branches away.

However, I do wonder how many trained arborists they have.


Have they told you that the company has to provide evidence of no suitable Canadian being able to do the work ........... that takes 6 months of advertising across the country, interviewing then providing proof that there is no trained arborist already here. It cost the company around $1000.

DandNHill

They're applying in her name...

getoutofbritainquick

Try Vancouver Island contact Capital or one of the other main contractors BC Hydro uses. VI is much cheaper than Vancouver and we have far more trees. Most of our power lines are above ground (due to relative cost of overhead to underground which is approx. cost ratio of 1:20) and surrounded by trees in BC. Due to the property boom in Vancouver developers are now willing to pay the extra to have their services underground). We spend a very large part of our operating budget on vegetation maintenance all year round. Winter is storm season and many trees get blown down and need to be removed. You also have to be specially trained in Hydro safety procedures to work around power lines.