Hacks are people who do anything for money, cut every corner possible and are too cool for school. Most of the time they are bad drunks or druggies, who will price jobs, not at what they should be, but at what they need for the day. They poke fun at those who do it right, who wear PPE and go small to protect instead of going big to go home. They are the same ones missing fingers, have multiple court dates, long criminal history's with prison records and have no drivers license because of to many DWI's. Part time, full time, weekend warriors, it does not matter. As long as u do it right, do it safe and you are honest with yourself and your clients about your capabilities, you will be good. Being a CA does not determine if you are a hack or not. I know several CA's that got the cert, just for advertisement. They still take no true interest in the care of trees. They do horrible work, lion tail the hell out of trees or prune every thing up to about 30ft, leaving huge chunks of deadwood right above their work. They will do anything a client wants. They may want a tree topped, and instead of educating the client, they sign the deal. Even have made the statement on why they don't letter their trucks " I don't want anybody knowing who did this work" as if it is a business plan. I also know several guys who are not CA's that I consider mentors. They never bothered with the test, but are epic level Tree Jedi. It all comes down to the work ya do and how ya do it.
Keep in mind, as I often have to remind myself. No matter what, there will always be hacks. No matter what, they will never go away. This is bad for the trees and for our industry, but, hacks make it pretty easy to look good. I barely advertise. I have my site and I do a direct mailer to specific hoods. I put a add on CL just to piss off the hacks. I have a great rep....... sometimes I get a bad rap for not being to responsive to first time callers, there is only 24 hrs in a day after all. But as far as work goes, my rep is beyond reproach. Because of this and because there are many hacks in my area, I have more work than I can handle. I often get told that "we didnt realize that there are tree guys like you" Year by year, my client list grows. Most don't go to bid, they just call and tell me what they want. Tho, I still loose some to price. But in this economy, you will have that.
Never lower your standard to raise your average. I walk away from a lot of work. Homeowner's that don't want to hear it, just want it topped or trimmed in a jacked up way, I am not interested.
READ! There are many resources out there that you can exploit. Become a member of the ISA and the TCIA. They will send you all kinds of good info. The biggest thing, is to learn tree biology, once you understand how they work, everything else will come together.
There are a bazillion books out there. So you can get lost trying to figure out which ones are best before dropping a bunch of coin on them. Here are a few that I have read and I know many others on here have aswell. Not saying that these are the only ones, but these are the ones that seem to be the favorites.
1. Tree Climbers Companion - Jepson
2. Best Practices: Tree Pruning
3. Art and Science of Practical Rigging-Arbormaster
4. A New Tree Biology-Shigo
5. Arboriculture-Harris
6. Modern Arboriculture- Shigo
7. Diseases of Tree and Shrubs- Sinclair
8. Abiotic Disorders of Landscape Plants.
If you where to read all these, by the time you got thru them, you will be past the time requirements for the test and would probably run thru it pretty quick.
You can claim or say that you are a Arborist without being certified. As long as you look at the definition and it fits.
As far as learning the way of the Jedi, that can only be taught in the field, up a tree. Gotta find that guy who will spend the time to teach. You can learn a lot from the net, places like this, vids and webinars. But nothing beats getting grilled by a Pro Arb on a rope.
Moving this to 101
