Services
Site Consultation
Diagnosis of tree and landscape problems: During your consultation our first objective is to educate you about your trees and give you the confidence and tools to manage them! Before any type of treatments or planning takes place we assess the health of the tree, site characteristics and any pre dispositional stress factors that are contributing to the health of your tree. This is so I can ensure that the tree is worth the time, effort, and budget that is required. After we assess what is wrong with the site and the tree we can then create management tools and treatment options to help preserve and maintain your tree canopy for as long as it can remain sustainable. I do this by not only providing the services for tree healthcare but also giving you the tools and information to do it yourself. Consultations are so much more than just the question of what's wrong with my tree? We dive into the biology and physiology of your yard and specific trees. We can sometimes find ourselves deep in specific sciences and studies pertaining to the subject depending on your level of questions. As a consultant I strive to be able to honestly and confidently answer any questions pertaining to trees. (even the weird off topic ones!) And if I don't know the answer, not only will I strive to find the most accurate one, I will first and always admit that I do not know it. **I require a site consultation before any treatment options and recommendations can be made.**
Estate Management and Long Term Planning
The highest degree of service that I can offer is estate management and long term planning for your trees. This is where we create long term goals based on your needs and available budget. There are a few prerequisites and requirements for this type of term management style. This is because we create long term tree planning that lasts anywhere from 3 to 50 years and is needed to insure the integrity of the treatments and that the goals are realistic and obtainable. Long term tree planning holds many aspects to tree care and requires several highly skilled laborers to be involved. But in order to achieve these goals someone not only needs to know how to lead the team; but how to assemble them appropriately. I strive to provide the finest service and above all I truly care about what I’m doing. It takes so much more than a certified arborist to manage your estate. As a consulting arborist I have gone above and beyond in the studies of trees and the sciences that are involved. You can feel confident knowing that your trees are receiving the best long term care possible by someone who truly cares.
Expert Witness and Litigation
Forensic Investigations: Sometimes trees can be involved in many unwanted legal disputes. When this happens it can sometimes be best to bring in an expert to help better understand and plead your case to the courts. The people you have involved in the process are key to the success of your case. A consulting arborist can play a key role in creating your case and finding the evidence needed to prove it. This can come in many forms and in many ways. From providing evidence that a tree was unwantedly poisoned to strapulating the value of each tree lost in a stand due to some type of damage. Having someone on your side that understands trees and has the qualifications to back it up could be the difference between a case lost and won.
Tree Healthcare and Tree Preservation
Plant healthcare programs: Sometimes we want to give all the love and care we can to our Trees. With proper plant health care protocols and practices we can ensure your tree has the best life potential to maximize its vigor and increase its vitality. Tree healthcare is more about preventing, maintaining or enhancing the health of the tree. This can be done in many ways. Fertilizer is looked at as the main form of tree healthcare to most homeowners and arborist industry bigbox companies. This is far from the truth to what is needed or included in the overall healthcare plan of your trees. This is where we test the soil, trees, and water to determine their current quality and the compatibility of the site with the trees. Tree preservation is at the heart of tree healthcare and will naturally happen with the proper protocol for your environment. Think of tree healthcare as the active planning and adapting to specific stress symptoms to maintain tree preservation.
Tree Appraisal
Trees have Vault! Big Value, and trying to quantify that value in such a way that can not only be understood but properly used can be difficult. When it comes to creating the values associated with tres there's alot of subjective and experiential things that came into play. Who you have evaluate your tree really matters. I truly love and value trees and I'm what some people would call a "hippie". I say this because trees are integral to who I am. Wha I've learned is that until you can communicate a trees function and monetary value, a lot of people don't care about them. Except for you reading this of course :) When valuing trees I follow all standards set forth by the council of landscape appraisers and perform all valuations in accordance with the guide for plant appraisals 10th edition revised. You can feel confident knowing that your tree's monetary value has been calculated tot he best possible standards.
Tree Inventory
To truly manage your tree canopy and larger properties to the next level I would recommend inventorying all the trees. With this type of technology we mark individual trees on specialized GPS mapping software that holds all the information for the tree. The more information we gather the greater the inventory’s power! We can provide vital information that would show us the current health, projected mortality, costs vs benefits, treatments programs and long term planning. With this tool your budget can be maximized to the fullest extent and we can manage your assets with long term confidence in our planning knowing and addressing the condition of the individual tree that makes up your canopy.
Preventative Treatments
We all know the age old saying an apple a day keeps the doctors away right? Well don’t forget those apples need to grow first! I'm sure most of us can all agree that prevention is truly the key to live a long healthy life. Trees benefit from all types of preventative treatments just the same. Trees and being majorly affected by drought and climate change throughout the state and there is no doubt about that! Preventative treatments for the change in environment both physically and externally should be part of your overall thinking and planning for your trees healthcare needs. This is not just in the form of fertilizing or feeding the tree with nutrients, even though that can be a very big part! After a site consultation and health evaluation of your trees we can better understand their long term needs and what preventative treatments you should consider to maximize the benefits of your tree and create sustainability for the canopy.
Active Treatments
When pathogens such as bark beetle, fungus, and bacteria attack your tree that’s when active treatments become part of the tree healthcare protocol. Active treatments imply that your tree is in a downward spiral of decline in health due to some type of stress. These types of treatments should be viewed as interventions and not preventions. Not all active treatments are effective and it should be known that there is no guarantee of success with them. Prevention is the best form of tree care. Once major types of stress Start affecting the tree it’s hard to pull it out of certain types of decline but is not impossible. For instance; It’s more than possible to effectively treat bark beetles in pines and spruce trees. But it should be noted that most pathogenic and biotic (living) problems first start as abiotic meaning (environmental or physiological- nonliving). This is where most certified arborists and tree services fail in treating these underlying factors of stress. Most focus on just the symptomatic problems that they can see and not the things actually causing the problems. Please take a look at the diagrams explaining the decline of stress in trees. Understanding how they recover is vital to the proper treatments and long term preservation. Here is a list of all the active treatments I provide: Root Collar Excavation General IPM for trees Pine Beetle and Scale Treatments General and Strategic Fungicide Treatments Treatment for Spruce Spider Mites Plant Growth Regulators Soil Conditioning/Fertilizing Drought stress reduction Cabling and Bracing Construction stress mitigation
Tree Risk Assessment
All trees hold risk and the potential for failure. Understanding what risk is and how trees defects and limitations affect the likelihood that something might happen is vital to proper tree risk assessment. This is where experience with the trees really comes to play. My time as a tree trimmer and climbing arborist I've seen plenty of storm damage and tree failure to know what most tree species can and can’t handle. I currently hold the ISA qualified tree risk assessment designation, this shows that I am not only qualified within the professional community but have shown the experience and ability to perform the necessary tasks to locate and identify the hazards and risk associated with an individual tree and its target. This designation is only offered to professionals that have completed all the required prerequisites and actively hold specific credentials for a required timeframe. Understanding trees and the risk they bring can be difficult to do even within the professional community and for certified arborists. This is why that community created this designation as a way to distinguish professionals that have completed specific skill sets.
Health Evaluations, Site Monitoring, and Storm Watch
The single most important treatment is follow up site monitoring and tree health evaluations. With most tree services they just perform a basic tree trimming, a fertilizing routine and if they have the licenses they will spray for bugs. Most don’t dive into the science of what, why, when, and to who (tree species). Most arborists focus on symptoms and not causations. Site monitoring is not just following up with treatments and looking for ways to make money. Rather it's looking for inconsistencies with what should be correct with a healthy tree and adapting to the changes that occur from the treatments made from the enhancement or preservation techniques. Storm watch goes hand in hand with monitoring trees and continuing to evaluate overall health. It’s important to follow up with hazardous trees or trees that contain defects or have major targets after major storm events. This helps maintain integrity of the tree and allows us to observe the tree before and after mitigations to insure the tree receives the best treatment possible.
Tree Planting Programs
Tree planting is at the beginning of everything for a tree. As a long lived woody plant it does just that, it lives a long time, but that’s only if it's planted correctly! When a tree is planted wrong it’s not like a flower or shrub and dies in a month or year. Most trees will take upwards of 7 to 10 years before they die due to improper installation and some upwards of 20 to 25 years. This is due to the anatomy and physiology of the tree. Not only this but independent studies from Colorado have found that up to 96% of trees are improperly installed by professionals and this is to include certified arborists. These numbers are astounding and honestly should be unacceptable for the professional community. This is due mostly to misinformation, practiced culture, and the fact that most arborists are never involved in any of the planting and planning process. Not only that but most certified arborists don’t fully understand the consequences or side effects of an improperly installed tree. Because of this they constantly misdiagnose and poorly treat those trees that are failing due to impairment within the anatomy from the installation. Newly installed trees should be vigorous and full of life! Not gloomy, thin, sparse and constantly looking like it needs more water. Please take a look at the videos and diagrams provided to see if your tree might be improperly installed. I have also provided a video link and diagrams on how to properly install a tree. Remedial treatments are available for improperly installed trees but success varies by severity of installation and post treatment management.
Report Writing and Insurance Claims
Contract supervision and preparation: “No job is done until the paperwork is complete” was a sign that hung in my grandparents bathroom next to the toilet paper. Trees are no exception to this rule and tree reports can be important for many different reasons. For some cities they first require tree reports before specific types of construction can begin to take place. Plus we can all agree that insurance companies love their paperwork. They can make things difficult to navigate and understand. Having someone that not only understands how the process of insurance and trees work but has experience as well is something very difficult to find. I am one of the few arborists here to help with all tree insurance claims and report writing needs.
Educational Workshops and Classes
Training and education: Education and information is very important to me and spreading that information in a manner that people can relate and understand is vital to create a culture within them that cares about trees. I believe that no matter who you are or where you're at in life, you at some point had an emotional connection with a tree! Being able to communicate the needs of trees and educate others the sciences is a deep passion of mine and the primary reason I choose to work as a consulting arborist. I provide all types of workshops and educational classes on trees, from PowerPoints, tree canopy walkthroughs, and private fruit pruning. Everyone can benefit from someone who not only knows their subject but truly loves to understand it and express the information to others.
Tree Trimming and Tree Removal
Tree trimming and tree removals are a key part for any tree service. As a consulting arborist I do not personally trim or remove trees any more. I have several tree services that I contract with to perform all those types of tasks and services associated with tree health care. I set forth all stipulations for the tree service on how and what to trim or remove and maintain positive control of the communication and negotiations. Depending on what is needed from the tree service will determine who we use for your specific tree needs. I don’t surcharge or add any additional costs for this service nor withhold any type of information from you. You get their direct pricing and see all the quotes we received. I offer this service only for returning clients or those who are actively receiving services and treatments from me. If during your initial consultation we learn that I cannot perform services or treatments then I simply refer you to tree services and you negotiate all stipulations and pricing.
Water Management and Irrigation Adjustments
Trees need water! Knowing exactly how much can be a rather big question to ask. Knowing the changes we are experiencing with our climate it's important to have tree water management in the forefront of all planning and goal setting. There has been a lot of motivation to flip the strip and change to xeriscaping throughout utah. It’s important to know that most trees will die due to the inadequate adjustments and changes that are taking place. Most landscapers that are the ones performing these changes know nothing about the biological properties of a tree and its needs. They are using either the wrong materials, wrong rates or just down right poor design! Not only that but a lot of the times they irreversibly damage the tree's root system installing the products. Water management in trees is so much more than just the weedmat of death and placing a few drip emitters at the base of the tree. Majority of the time drip systems for trees are not designed to properly water the tree long term and must be adjusted or modified as the tree grows. Understanding each trees water needs can be very difficult but vital to the long term success of your yard. During your consultation we will discover some of these needs and can better determine then if we would need to perform any adjustments. Sometimes we can’t perform all the needs during our initial consultation and will need to meet again for a water consultation. At this time we turn on all your systems, check flow, quality, and ensure the trees have adequate water.
