Krista Strating wears many hard hats. She works full time, year-round, as an arborist for the City of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, just outside Toronto. Strating also works part time as lead instructor for the Humber College Arborist Apprenticeship program. And she serves as an ambassador for Husqvarna and Notch Equipment. Finally, she currently holds the women’s title of North American Tree Climbing Champion.

“I really love my work, so it doesn’t feel like a job,” says Strating.

How it all began

Strating broke into tree care not through a classified ad but at a wedding. There she met a tree care company owner who was in the wedding party. She was already working in horticulture, having gone to school in the field, and knew plants, pruning, working with her hands and working outside. He recruited her.

Furthermore, he guessed she would be good at tree climbing because of her fitness and sense of competition – she plays several sports. She accepted. On day two of the job, Strating was climbing trees.

The native Ontarian worked for Arborwood Tree Service Inc. in Smithfield, Ontario, for eight years. She has now been an arborist with the Mississauga Forestry Department for almost eight years, working on roadside trees and in woodlots, backyards and parks – a mix of everything.

Fast forward

Sixteen years in, and having competed all over the world, she is a four-time women’s International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) North American Tree Climbing Champion and was the 2018 International Tree Climbing Champion. She also won the TreeStuff JAMBO title in 2019 as part of a four-member, all-
Canadian team.

Does she feel part of a community in these many pursuits?

“The competitive-climbing community is incredibly welcoming and inspiring for me. Especially when I first started out. I didn’t work with a lot of the women, so to go to the events, to see different women from all over the world, was inspiring and encouraging to keep going,” she says.

“Bringing it back to my chapter – to get people involved, to use it as an educational event and share knowledge, stories and gear – it felt very inclusive. It’s unlike any other environment I’ve ever seen. We want each other to do well, we cheer for each other when we are competing with each other,” Strating says.

“Climbing is very demanding, taxing both mentally and physically, and it takes a lot of years to get good at it. So when you come across someone who has been doing it five or six years, you relate. We’re all of a different breed. You have to be a little nuts – climbing a tree, swinging around a tree on a skinny rope with sharp objects, cutting them down using unengineered anchor points, all while hanging suspended from the same trees. We’re crazy, right? But someone has to do it.”

History of climbing competitions

Tree-climbing competitions started in California and grew and spread as more tree care companies encouraged their arborists to take part, according to Strating. ISA held its first official Jamboree in 1976 in St. Louis, Missouri. Skip to 1996, when the competition changed its name to the International Tree Climbing Championship to reflect European participation. The ITCC continued to grow as more women competed, and now about 30% of the participants are women.

“You meet another arborist, and we could sit down, have beers and chat no matter what,” Strating says.
“Every decision we make is an educated guess, and it’s all based on experience and training. So the more tree climbing you’ve done, the more you can look back in your mind and say, ‘I’m going to try this and see if that works.’ And if that works, you say, ‘I’m going to do that again.’ Every tree is different. You can’t use an owner’s manual for a tree. You have to make the decisions yourself.”

That said, she has a variety of favorite trees: favorite tree to climb, red oak; favorite tree to prune, honey locust; favorite tree overall, American elm.

“I wouldn’t want to climb an American elm, but I love the look of them,” she says.

For the municipal forest work in Mississauga, there are only two women in operations, which is kind of typical, Strating notes. Not all the people she works with are involved with climbing, nor are they involved with TCIA or ISA events and networking. “Some of the crew members have no interest in any of that. I feel they are really missing out on what makes this industry so cool, and the community that comes with that.”
Serving community as ambassador

The ambassadorships carry their own rewards. “To be part of Husqvarna and Notch is exciting. They are designing tools and equipment we use every day to do our job, but they need someone to have an inside view, to give input on the equipment we use. It’s an opportunity to suggest a new feature that would make it even more safe or useful. So we get to have input on the equipment engineering while serving our community as a voice, bridging that gap,” she says.

She is a member of Husqvarna’s H-Team, a group of highly skilled and respected industry professionals. “My ambassadorship with Husqvarna has had me testing their new battery saws for them, helping them promote the launch of new saws and providing feedback on saws and new features and how they are holding up in the field,” says Strating.

“Notch has had us ambassadors out to summits where we pitch ideas for new products and help them perfect current products or design completely new ones. We also help them educate customers on how their products work and the different features they have.”

“It feels like you are serving your community by helping. It feels good to be part of those teams,” she says.

Encouraging others

What lies ahead for Strating? One goal is to extend her climbing as long as possible. Somebody once told her that a climbing arborist’s career is comparable to that of a professional hockey player – short and sweet. She hopes to prove that wrong.

She also wants to extend her educational roles as much as she can in her interest to diversify and experience every part of the industry. A teacher for 12 years, Strating feels blessed to be able to help a lot of people, both male and female, and to be a role model for women, one who shows them that “anyone can do this.”

Strating also works as an assistant instructor with the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop based in Massachusetts, another source of friendship and camaraderie. Started in 2009, the workshop’s mission is to create a safe, encouraging and empowering learning environment for women to climb trees, with an emphasis on arboriculture. The program offers workshops throughout the country.

“It’s an opportunity to learn a lot about climbing, but also for encouraging each other without distractions,” she notes.

Conclusion

Does Strating train for the competitions? No, she says, explaining they are just an extension of her job.
“The idea of training takes all the fun out of it. It would change my outlook. I just go and bring the skills and abilities I have day to day. It’s just a place to get prepared, have fun and practice together. I play hockey, soccer and baseball, and am active outside of work, but I don’t do that to stay fit for the competitions.”

While her work and competing complement each other, they also are opportunities for her to share her passion with other like-minded souls. “It’s really a community, and once you get into that community, it turns into family.”