Tree Surgeon Or Arborist

about Trees

What’s the difference between an arborist and a tree surgeon?

What’s the difference between an arborist and a tree surgeon? It’s a question that’s often confused. Every trade has its own language and tree care professions are no different.

An arborist, arboriculturist and tree surgeon are all tree care professionals who have received training in tree biology, tree identification and tree preservation.

Tree surgeons are arborists who receive additional education in how to properly use equipment to safely climb trees for the purpose of performing tree work. While an arborist may have license to climb trees, not every tree surgeon will be licensed or able to perform tree climbing.

The Tree Surgeon

A tree surgeon provides tree removal and looks after the health of a tree, pruning to keep the tree in good condition. They will often use traditional cutting tools like saws and chainsaws to fell trees, cuts branches into logs or firewood or prepare them for removal.

These cuts are significant to tree health, and tree surgeons should identify decay, insects and other tree diseases that need treatment.

Tree surgeons carry out many services from the removal of trees, tree trimming, tree stump removal, grinding, and tree planting to help keep trees in the best possible health. They are an invaluable asset for councils everywhere that depend on arborists to ensure healthy tree populations.

Tree cutting is when tree surgeons remove trees, often for clients who require them to do so or where they are dead or dangerous. Tree surgeons use hand tools like saws and chainsaws as well as more specialized equipment like wood chippers.

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The Tree Arborist

On the other hand, an arborist can focus exclusively on tree maintenance and tree care and often use pruning methods to keep trees healthy. Arborists may perform tree climbing in addition to arboriculture, but not all arborists will be tree surgeons.

An arborist can be either an employee or work for themselves operating as tree care professionals.

Those tree care professionals who work for tree removal companies may perform tree climbing, tree felling and tree pruning services if trained in these disciplines. Tree surgeons and arborists all perform professional tree inspections.

An arborist handles hedge trimming as they also look after hedges. Climbers can tend to the trees that climb.

On the other hand, an arborist also uses climbing equipment but is not involved in tree surgery more involved in diagnosing problems with trees and shrubs, which might be structural defects, insect infestation, or fungal infection.

They can give appropriate management advice and recommend treatment options, but it might need to be carried out by a tree surgeon.

Arborists have extensive knowledge of tree species and their growth habits, including preventing damage from pests, diseases, certain trees in good health through correct pruning or felling techniques that reduce risks associated with working at height and surrounding trees. They are also trained in arboriculture, which means they are experts in planting new trees and caring for existing ones.