What You Need to Know About Arboriculture as a Career Option

With the increasing awareness for the environment, the demand for arborists is increasing. Future holds a lot of opportunities for them. If you are looking forward to considering Arboriculture as a career option or taking arboriculture training,

Then you first need to know who are arborists and what do they do:

  1. They are professionals who continuously have to grow their skills as per changing environment, new technologies or even issues that the trees face.
  2. They mostly give their inputs in various research programs by sharing their valuable knowledge. Arborists around the world also communicate with each other to better understand the whole ecosystem and generating better ideas.
  3. Apart from the technical side of their profession, they also have an artistic side. For example, there are multiple tree pruning techniques. Which one to choose will depend on the technical knowledge but how to do the pruning will depend on the artistic side of the arborist.  If something is technically right, it does not mean it will be aesthetically nice as well. The aesthetic side is taken care of by the artistic skills of the arborist. 
  4. Needless to say, they need to have ample knowledge about the environment. For example, unless an arborist knows the lifecycle of a tree, they won’t be able to plant a suitable one or even share the information with people who appoint arborists for decorating their urban space. The knowledge will also be helpful in knowing which tree to plant as per the landscape they need to work on.
  5. With the rising demand for arborists, the supply has also increased. If you want to become a successful arborist in India, then you also need some business management skills. This includes having good communication skills as well. Arborists needs to showcase their portfolio and maintain relations with the customers because this kind of profession also works by word of mouth. Your work will speak for itself.

All this might have left you wondering about the skillsets being taught in arboriculture training programs. If you opt for one, you will probably be acquiring the following skills:

  1. Knowledge of how the plants interact with the soil.
  2. How to understand the quality of the soil and how much water it needs.
  3. Biology of the plants and trees. This relates to tree healthcare study which includes study of pests or various kinds of diseases that the plants or trees can possibly catch.
  4. Identification of species of the tree and selection of appropriate plant for the urban space.
  5. Health and safety rules stated by the government around the maintenance and plantation of the trees or plants. 
  6. Data collection, analysis and reporting based on that data.
  7. Business management, communication skills and organisational skills.
  8. Practical training of tree maintenance like tree pruning techniques, tree risk assessment, rigging, rescue methods, replanting etc.

By now you must have got a fair idea of what it is like to be an arborist and what all skills are required. There are various tree care training institutes which provides arboriculture training in India.

Appropriate Way of Planting Trees

If the trees are not planted in the right kind of soil, it can have bad effects in later stages of that tree. This is why, it is important to first understand the kind of soil and also know how the roots function so that the plantation can be done accordingly. Below are some of the useful suggestions shared by experienced tree planning advisors:

What you must know about the roots:

Tree healthcare is a tricky thing and there is so much to learn about it. Starting with the roots is a great idea. If you expect the roots to grow nicely, then you need to make sure that they get enough amount of oxygen, water and also warmer temperature. For ensuring good levels of oxygen, they need to be present shallow in the ground. If they are too deep, they won’t get ample amount of oxygen. This will lead to slow decline of the tree. In fact, most of the tree declines are due to the bad soil quality. 

 

Investigation of the health at the root level:

Generally, trees should be planted so that the flare can be at the level or above the surface of the soil. If you need to investigate the trees, you can do so by looking at the way the trunk is formed. If the trunk is coming straight up from the ground, then most probably it is a badly planted tree, may be because tree risk assessment wasn’t done properly.

Air supply:

You need to ensure that the oxygen supply to the roots is proper, else the tree won’t be able to survive properly. One way to fix the problem is to replant the tree. It can be taken out of deep soil and put at an appropriate height. Another option is to manually remove the excess soil using some basic tools. Tree planning advisors suggests that replanting can be done only with trees whose planting is couple of months old. If the trees are quite old and replanting is not an option, then excess soil can be removed using a process known as ‘root crown excavation’. In this process, compressed air is used so that the trees do not get injured. This method is quite successful for old plants.

 

If you need assistance for any services like replanting or tree risk assessment before planting the trees, then contacting a tree development consultancy is an ideal thing to do. You can even look for an arborist in India who can help you out with these things. They are helpful not just for planting trees in the first place, but they can also guide you on how to access the health of already existing trees. If you are concerned about survival and health of an existing tree, they can help you in saving the life of such a tree by monitoring the condition and providing alternatives in case there is something wrong with the factors mentioned above like oxygen levels.

Challenges Pre and Post-Plantation

Expected Challenges Pre and Post Plantation of a Tree

Challenges Pre and Post Plantation

When you are planning to plant trees on your premises, you are likely to face many challenges. Though you can seek services of an arboriculture consultancy in Mumbai in order to help you sail through these challenges but even under their guidance a few expectations during pre and post-plantation of a tree are:

Finding the right place for planting trees: With so many high-tension wires, mobile towers, underground utility lines, gas pipelines, etc. it sometimes becomes difficult to find an apt place for planting trees especially crowded city like Mumbai. An established tree arborist in Mumbai can resolve your concern soon but you can expect that you may not be able to plant as many trees as you want or at the place at which you want to plant trees depending on the survey of the species selection and planting advisory services you have hired.

Land preparation for planting trees: It is another challenge which individuals/organizations face for planting trees in their premises. Tree planning consultancy services are the best people to hire for making the task easier for you. They astutely do the soil test, percolation test, hole digging and fulfill other requirements to grow as many trees as you want. You can expect that their test results may limit the area where you can grow trees and also narrow down the choice of trees you can grow in your premises.

Finding the right tree: Plant health care services recommend the best tree suitable for your premises in the available conditions. Tree survey conducted by them enables them to recommend only tree survey compliant trees for your property.

Plantation rate success: When you have planted multiple trees then you can expect 80% success rate in the plantation. 20% of trees may fail in the long run even if they are planted by most proficient tree arborist in Mumbai. This is because moving live plants from the nursery to your premises may cause irreversible damage to the roots even if utmost care is taken. So, while planting trees in your premises expect the loss of trees up to 20%.

Tree health: With successfully planted trees, a major concern during tree life is the health of the tree. Trees need a regular check-up by specialized plant health care services unless you have taken arboriculture training and you can maintain good health of your trees on your own. If tree decay detection is done on time and appropriate treatment is given by skilled plant health care services then you can save your tree.

Natural reasons for a short life of a tree: Despite adopting ample safe tree retention & protection strategies sometimes natural reasons can cause the death of your tree sooner than expected life. Excessive rain, drought, storm, etc. are some of the common natural circumstances when young trees lose the life.

Arboriculture consultancy in Mumbai can take appropriate measures to overcome the above challenges and give a long and healthy life to your trees.