The IAS have a website where you can have a look at a list of the skills required to gain their certification. Your guess is pretty accurate for someone starting out. You might want to consider consultancy but this requires a lot more study.

I am not an arborist, but when I have to recommend one I have two distinctly different arborists that I like to work with.

Both have a great background and many years experience in the field but one took a more scientific educational approach while the other is most happiest when hanging from his ropes with a chainsaw in his hands.

Admittedly though, the older scientific guy ( Ted Kipping of Tree Shapers in San Francisco ) spent many of his younger years weilding a chain saw high in the canopy of trees )

When I attended hort. school at the Arnold Arboretum we had several classes taught by arborist and most of them did in fact climb high into trees with chainsaws at one point or another in their careers, whether it was on a daily basis or less frequent.

If the thought of climbing daily turns you off you might consider a more academic position or find a niche within the field of arborculture that supports the more scientific / botany edge of the profession.

Even Shigo spent years hanging from ropes with a chainsaw, so I'd expect that you might take stock of that and consider that you may have to do this or have a partner who climbs and collects samples and or can come back down and accurately describe what s/he saw while opening up a cavity or limb.

"I got the impression that arborists spend a lot of time climbing trees and using chainsaws. How accurate is this perception? "

I assume you are talking about the ISA certification ? It is a worthwhile certification ... I completed it myself back in 98 ... it by itself does not include the training needed to work with chainsaws in trees ... additional training and experience would be needed.

Tree work is difficult and dangerous ... most tree workers I know dread the idea of climbing as much as possible but instead use lift trucks whenever possible ... climbing takes too much time and is more involved although maybe the only choice in some situations.

Like many areas of hands on landscaping making a good living is extremely competative and a lot of work ... "tree workers" have carved out a niche in the market by doing the more hazardous and laberous job of working off the ground with chainsaws .. lift trucks .. grinding machines ect .. it's dangerous up their thats where the electric lines are located !!

Ofcourse there are many areas of tree work ... from growing .. installation .. design .. management .. in the private sector to goverment work ... many certified arborist may do little or know "tree work" as you mentioned above but instead work as designers .. landscapers .. have their own radio show ... work in a nursery or write books for a living ect.. so take a long look around before jumping in to the industry.

Certification is a minimum qualification ... a 2 to 4 year degree up to a Phd may be required for areas that involve a lead position or areas like pathology or other areas of tree research... the Forest Service .. lumber industry ect..

If hands on tree work is what you are after remember your office will be outside ... good or bad weather you will need to be out there like it or not ... Also , there is less interesting task to be done like raking up wood chips .. picking up branches .. driving in traffic all day to get from one job to another ... the smell of carbon monoxide ...

Good Day ...

"...I got the impression that arborists spend a lot of time climbing trees and using chainsaws. How accurate is this perception?"

Very accurate! A good arborist who obtains employment with a large firm with a fleet of vehicles and equipment, tree crews, ground crews, and salesmen/consultants may be able to work his/her way up the ladder to the salesman/consultant position...in time...and spend 'much' of his/her time with feet on the ground doing the sales and consulting work. But time 'in the trees' will never go away, and has has been said, your office will either be outside or in your car/truck. There's no glamor in it, and before you get up the corporate ladder there will be a lot of hard outdoor work...ground crew, third man, climber, bucket man, driver, etc. And you'll learn every piece of equipment from hand clippers, hand saws, and chain saws, to chippers, grinders, buckets, and perhaps bobcats, loaders, and whatever other kind of equipment the company has in its fleet.

If you work in a small company, unless you own it, (and even then its questionable), you'll be in the trees a lot.

An arborists job is outside, on the ground and in the trees...unless his physical condition says otherwise and his reputation is such that people seek his knowledge without regard to ability to climb. Those guys are rare.

Good luck.

Thank you all for the insight.
Although I would enjoy climbing trees, I wouldn't like using a chainsaw all day every day. I am notoriously clumsy with sharp objects.

me + chainsaw = eventual injury

Mostly I like to grow, propagate, plant, trees. It has been my #1 hobby since age 12, and I'm really good at it! Weather makes absolutely no difference to me, and I don't need any "glamour" to be happy. I don't mind getting a little scraped up or bruised, as long as I don't get really hurt. I enjoy mildly strenuous work, and moving around a lot.

For the life of me, I don't know why I chose to get a masters degree in speech pathology, because I am very unhappy right now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I work among trees and enjoy climbing with a hand saw only. The men I work with know exactly what they are doing and I feel confortable to help just loading the branches.
since you like trees maybe you could specialize in making them more like art. I found this site very interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.arborsmith.com/

There are many more niches in the plant industry dealing with trees than just being an arborist. It's that way with any industry..........jobs you wouldn't even imagine. It's easier to see them from the inside of the industry, than from the outside looking in.

Have you considered working with growing woody nursery stock? Have you gone to a university near you and talked with the Hort advisors?

I was an arborist for twenty years, 1971-91.
There is almost nobody in this who hasn't got seriously hurt. And or need a hearing aid.

You can't hire out the work and make any profit. The owner must do most of the work. Never paid very well.

I was fesh out of college.
What surprised me was the upper body strength and muscle tone I got very quickly.
And getting the girls as a consequence.

Superphosphate, you swayed my undecided vote to NO.
I don't want to get seriously hurt, and I do value my hearing.

Upper body muscle tone is great. However, if girls start ogling me, I would get a little uneasy, since I'm not a lesbian.
Seriously, though...I am a very able-bodied worker, and I enjoy climbing trees, but chainsaws don't excite me, uh, so to speak.

Calliope: thank you, I will pursue other specialties.

Read books by A. Shigo, C. Whitcomb etc. so you find out how trees work. This is regardless of what aspect of tree care you get involved with. A bit of Shigo's stuff is posted and can be read online, Whitcomb has a web site where his books are shown.

Instead of doing arborist work, you could hone your shrub/small tree pruning skills and focus on that instead. Too many "mow-blow-and-go" types just lop hedges and branches with electric trimmers, instead of doing genuine remedial pruning.

There are lots of homeowners with established shrubs and ornamental trees that need to have dead and diseased wood removed, reshaping and aesthetic pruning... not lopping.

You could make a niche doing that. I am doing more of it myself.

Brush up on pruning methods, get the best equipment, and be willing to work year round (and learn which plants should be pruned in which seasons). You won't need a chainsaw, but you will need good pruners, loppers, a pole saw and pruning saw, gloves, and a three-leg (tripod) ladder for working in dense/tall shrubs.

Cady, if there were a business like that in my area, it would fly. You got your lawn mow men who will chop anything, and you got your really good professional tree service, whom I use for the big stuff, and precious little in between.

"Instead of doing arborist work, you could hone your shrub/small tree pruning skills and focus on that instead. "

Roses and fruit tress are a good area work in if you want to avoid heavy tree work. High profit margins but make sure you know your materials.

Still leaving your full time job is a big job ???

Good Day ...

"Still leaving your full time job is a big job ???" Finally, a cynic shows up. Well FYI...I have no "day job". I am unemployed, by choice. I can't stand my career! I spend the majority of my days, rain or shine, doing what I enjoy: working with plants & trees!

A cynic !!!

Ehhh .... maybe ... LOL.

So what are you going to do ?

Good Day !!

There is a guy in your area named Mario Vaden. I think he is in Beaverton. He has a pruning/landscaping/nursery business and sits on some of your licensing boards. He has a web site and a think he is a certified arborist. I'm sure he would be helpful if you called him or e-mailed him. He usually participates here, but must be busy. If you do a search here you will find some threads by him on the subject. I think he would be eager to give you advice.

Using the website of the International Society of Arboriculture, there are two arborist owned web site in Portland that appear informative. A third site showed up using yahoo.

There is one for Collier tree service at www.collierarbor.com with information and a newsletter. Apparently, Collier has been in business the longest. Collier seems to have an emphasis in trees almost exclusively, with a nursery promotion on one of the web site pages.

Vaden has been in business for less time; maybe 15 years. That web site had the largest information content, infiltrating the entire site - as well as regional and tree care albums accessible starting with a caption under a deer photo on the home page. The main address is www.mdvaden.com

A third site that looked professional belongs to Tree Care and Landscapes Unlimited. They seem to be a commercialized outfit running not only tree and landscape crews, but lawn service too. The site has a few pictures and tells what kind of work they do.