• Arborist Apprenticeship
    April 2, 2025

    How did your tree-work journey begin? Did you grow up in the midst of arboriculture, a member of a family team? Did you, like me, stumble upon men swinging – precariously! Wildly! How are they doing that? – far [...]

  • Mark Chisholm
    November 1, 2024

    In an issue dedicated to the “legends” of the industry, there’s no avoiding the name Mark Chisholm. His official tree-climbing career began more than 40 years ago, at age 12, helping with his dad’s business on weekends. He was [...]

  • Tandem-climber removals can improve production, says August Hunicke, shown with a fellow climber. “So many options. More stuff hitting the ground.”
    May 1, 2024

    Justin Donahue, owner of Donahue Arborists in Honolulu, Hawaii, seasoned International Tree Climbing Championship (ITCC) competitor and a veteran tree worker with more than 30 years in the industry, talks from a place of experience. And fatigue. He’s accustomed to [...]

  • Worker in a tree wearing green shirt and red helmet sitting on a branch tossing a brown rope
    July 1, 2023

    Perhaps one of the least-sexy topics in all of arboriculture is that of rope management. It doesn’t get the same attention some other topics do, but probably deserves more than it gets. This article is a brief attempt to shine [...]

  • May 1, 2023

    Jim Kasper, right, and a co-worker conduct a pull test to determine the structural integrity of the tree at the tie-in-point. But how useful is it? Does the TIP pull test actually make sense? Photo courtesy of the author. There [...]