Because trees live a long time, and have the potential to be a joy or a worry or even an eye sore, you need to make sure you hire well qualified help for your tree maintenance. Well kept trees add considerably to property values. A tree that is merely hacked back is likely to become ugly, hard to manage, expensive to remedy, dangerous, and prone to disease and insect damage. It's worth doing the job with professional help.

If you can do the work yourself and enhance the appearance and health of your trees, that’s great. But tree jobs, by their nature, involve work on lots of heavy things that can fall on you or your home, your car, your neighbor’s fence, your favorite rhododendron, etc. ( the oops! factor ). Many tree jobs require specialized equipment and working with tools that are dangerous even when used properly. Ladders and chainsaws come to mind. Large branches overhanging delicate objects may need to be rigged down on ropes. And there tends to be lots of debris to clean up. A chipper will get the material out of there and recycled the same day the work is done.

Return to top

Are all arborists insured?

Certified arborists are likely to be insured. You should always ask. Here in Victoria , all the arborists I know carry both liability insurance and full WCB coverage. We are happy to show you proof of that.

Return to top

So how do I choose the right arborist?

Certified arborists are not all equally experienced. A tree worker who wants to become certified is required to have three years experience working with trees, and can then take a qualifying exam, and will be required to gather CEUs (continuing education credits) in order to stay certified. My view is that certification is a beginning step, and does not automatically mean a person is qualified to do your work. As in any other field, there is always more to learn, and it takes years of accumulated experience to really tune to the subtleties of the work.

The truth is that some arborists are masters at tree removal but not very good at tree care. Some may have done a lot of tree care but have no experience with arborist reports. Some may not have enough equipment for your particular job. Some may have so much equipment that you will be paying for their very high overhead. Some work alone, some only on crews. There is no need to be shy about asking the right questions.

Personally, I believe that if you need an arborist report, it should be done by an arborist who is willing to be disqualified from bidding on the physical part of the job. Use a consulting arborist. He or she should also hold back from recommending any other particular person or company for the job. In other words, don’t get an opinion on whether you need tree removal from an arborist who specializes in tree removals! The advice may be offered “free”, but you should be wary of such advice.

Return to top

Do I need to use a large company to get the job done right?

Not necessarily. What you need is the right-sized crew for the job. Sometimes a large company, or a company with large equipment, is the right choice. For example, if you are removing a very large tree, then choose a company with a big truck, a large chipper, and a full crew. They will arrive with three or four guys and be done in a morning.

On the other hand, many jobs don’t require that level of force. In my work on hedges, for example, I find that on average only 1/3 or less of the work is cleanup. In that case a crew of two workers may not be as efficient as one person working alone. Likewise, if you want pruning done in small or mid-sized trees, treating that as a one man job is often a sensible choice.

If you go with a large company, you are likely to first be called on by a salesperson. Their job, of course, is to scope out your property and to try to sell you as many services as possible. That approach may be welcome or unwelcome, depending on the situation. And then when the crew members arrive to do the work, they won’t be familiar to you and it’s not their job to interact with you. Most of my customers prefer a more personal arrangement.

Return to top

What are the advantages of using you?

Most of the time I work alone, or with one helper, or a subcontractor. Over time I have gained insight into which jobs are right-sized for me and my equipment. I am open and honest about that when doing estimates.

For tree trimming, hedge trimming, hedge renovation, and shrub pruning, I am often an optimum choice. Along with having good tools and a chipper, I offer a personal approach. If you call again next month or next year, I will know who you are and what I did for you in the past.

My strongest interest is in tree care, not removals. I’d far prefer to help you preserve and save and work with your trees than to remove them. Pruning and tree trimming take a bit of finesse, and as that is my focus, I’ve developed a feel for it – for knowing how much to take safely at any one time, knowing the right season for the work, and being able to correct structural weaknesses. There are many trees around Victoria that I’ve known and watched over a period of several years. Their feedback is strong and true.

In summary, if you hire me to do your work, I guarantee a personal, experienced, caring approach.

Return to top

What are your rates?

I believe I have established rates that are fair both to myself and to my customers. Many of the jobs I do are completed for a fixed pre-agreed price. This gives customers the opportunity to shop for bids.

Some jobs are very hard to predict. In these cases I will offer you a base charge for equipment and then add an hourly rate for labor. This reflects my costs of operation.

Fairness is the keyword. My rates are competitive with other professional arborists. I prefer long term relationships. My favorite customers are those that I have come to know through repeated visits, through chit-chat, mutual respect, and our shared concern for the health of the trees and hedges that bind us together. Most of my repeat business comes because the work is high quality, and because a sense of friendliness and loyalty develops in a natural way.

Return to top

Can you top my trees?

We may be able to reduce the height of your trees. We need to be sure we can do that in a way that’s healthy for the tree. It’s generally a very bad idea to whack the top off of a tree. Within a very few years it will have grown again to the same height, along with being malformed, ugly, decayed, and often dangerous.

On deciduous trees, we may be able to do what is called crown reduction. This is a way of cutting stems back to places where damage can be sealed off by the tree’s natural processes, and to where new growth is likely to be strong and firmly attached to the trunk.

On conifers, topping is never advised. I don’t do it, except on hedges. I don’t think you’ll find a reputable certified arborist who will do that for you.

I advise customers that trees have lots of their own wisdom, and they’ve got a strong genetic program telling them how big to be. In many cases, if a tree has really outgrown its space, the best remedy is to remove it and start again. Often you can plan this over a period of years, planting a replacement tree first, letting it become established, and then removing your oversized tree.

Return to top

Do you do tree removals?

I do small to mid-sized tree removals (up to 40 feet or so) at very reasonable prices. Beyond that, the scale is outsized for my equipment. As I've said elsewhere, I'd much rather help you keep your trees healthy and well-trimmed. But the reality is that some trees are very good candidates for removal, for various reasons. So yes, give me a call if you want a free estimate for tree removal.

Return to top

Saanich (or Victoria) won’t let me remove my protected tree without an arborist’s report. Can you help me?

I totally support the tree protection bylaws of Saanich and Victoria. I support the covenants protecting trees in Broadmead. In fact, I believe the laws should be tougher. So I am not the right person to call if you want to bypass the tree protection bylaws of our area.

At the present time I am not doing arborist reports or consulting. I do not involve myself in settling disputes between neighbors. My view is that these sorts of issues need to be settled with qualified legal assistance.

In simpler cases, I can meet with a city arborist and propose a tree care plan during your tree permit application process. I do charge for this service, but customers often find it worthwhile to have their goals clearly explained.

What would be ideal, from my point of view, would be a system that allows property owners to recover some of the costs of caring for their trees, in exchange for doing the tree care in a responsible way. I’d like to see the trees treated as a shared resource rather than purely private property. I think we are coming closer to a time of widespread realization that trees are performing all kinds of services for us, from producing oxygen, to moderating rainfall and storm patterns, to flood control, to soil building. The list could go on. We need to protect trees not merely through government regulation and penalties, but also by our group thinking. If we care enough, then the trees will stay far healthier and will be more abundant, and we will likewise stay healthier as well.

Return to top

My protected tree has a big branch overhanging the house. What can I do?

Both Saanich and Victoria are going to be reasonable about this. Their duty is to protect certain trees while balancing risks to people and property, and they meet a lot of resistance in trying to do that. But when a protected tree violates a building envelope, they are generally going to allow you to trim it in a responsible way under the supervision of a certified arborist. You may have to get a permit, and the cuts are usually limited to stems no more than 4 inches in diameter. Details vary in specific cases. Give me a call, I’ll take a look, and we can go from there.

Return to top

I have heard of spiral pruning in large conifers to cut the wind load. Is it a good idea?

Spiral pruning, sometimes called radial pruning, is a pruning method that removes part of a canopy in conifers by systematic removal of one or more branches in each whorl, chosen in a certain pattern. It is controversial. Trees have developed their own intelligence on how to distribute and manage their loads over millions of years. Their swaying sends a stream of messages throughout the system that helps decide where new wood is put on to compensate for structural imbalance, wounds, and so on. There may be situations where spiral pruning is warranted, as where trees are newly exposed to fierce winds because of the removal of other trees nearby. But the forces at work when trees blow around in the wind are very complex. Our assumptions about how to make a tree safer are not always correct.

In general, we can be confident that trees aren’t making effort where it isn’t needed. They have to manage all sorts of forces, and their growth patterns are well rehearsed for efficiency. Spiral pruning seems to interfere with these well tested patterns. And new reactive growth is likely to result, often less sound from a structural point of view.

In summary, don’t be talked into spiral pruning just because it sounds good. Just know that not everyone agrees on it as a strategy for risk management.

Return to top

I have a tree with hundreds of watersprouts. What’s wrong, and what can I do?

Your tree was undoubtedly cut too hard at some time in the past, and now it’s full of vertical fast growing stems that don’t follow its natural growth pattern. In deciding whether you want to try to help it recover, consider the costs and the time involved. If it is really disfigured, I mean if it really got hacked, I usually recommend removing the tree and starting over with a new healthy replacement. It can cost as much or more to do a good job of pruning as it costs to remove the whole tree.

Some trees will not recover from abuse, not ever. Flowering plums, for instance, are usually the happiest if they have never been pruned. If you so much as give them a sideways glance with something sharp in your hand, they seem to begin to react! Yes, that’s an exaggeration, but only a slight one. When cut too hard they lose all of their elegance, all of their symmetry, and the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets!

Other trees, such as apples, may slowly recover from abuse or neglect with a bit of help from skillful pruning. There are some tricks that can soothe it back into a healthier growth pattern. In these cases, it is best to set a goal of doing the work over the course of about 3 years. We never want to cut too hard at any one time, and we need to make some careful choices about what to take and what to leave in place. Most of all, we have to do this sort of restoration pruning in the right season.

Return to top

What is the best time to trim my hedge?

Here in Saanich and Victoria, the weather tends to be quite mild compared with other locations in Canada. Books on pruning tend to be very specific about the most appropriate seasons for pruning and for hedge trimming. Some of the advice doesn't apply in our climate.

The best timing is dependent on your goals and the stage of life of your hedge. If you want to stimulate growth to thicken the hedge, late winter or early spring is a good time, especially after hints of new growth begin to appear. If your hedge is well established and perfectly dense, you may get more bang for your buck by trimming in the fall. I have noticed that laurels, especially, hold their profile better if trimmed in August. Some hedges will not mind being cut in hot weather, and others are more delicate.

I always advise that hedge trimming should be done lightly and frequently. It costs just a bit more to have your hedge trimmed each year than to let it go several years. That's because if you wait too long you will need a hedge renovation, not a trim, and that's a far more expensive project than a mere trim. If you wait too long, you may also not be able to reduce the hedge to the size you want. Many evergreens die back instead of regenerating when cut too hard. And, of course, it's much harder on the hedge to be cut hard than to be cut gently. They often eventually recover, but it can take years and can leave large wounds that impact long term health of the hedge. Meanwhile, while you are waiting for recovery, it's bound to look as though a rat chewed off the top for you, even if the job is done skillfully!

In summary, trim at least once a year. And not too hard.

Return to top

My fig (kiwi, grape, maple, dogwood, beech) is pumping lots of sap where I was pruning it back. How can I stop it?

Well, if you chose a nice spring day to do the pruning, it was probably because you felt your own sap flowing and just couldn’t resist getting out in the garden with some nice sharp pruning shears. Now your beloved vine, shrub or tree is pumping buckets of sap and you are truly alarmed. You rushed into the house to do an internet search, and here you are.

The first thing to realize is that most of the literature says there is no long run health consequence because of what is happening. Eventually the plant will staunch itself.

Personally, I have to wonder about that. I mean, if we were pumping buckets of fluid out of an arm, we’d be concerned about the long term. It’s best to at least try to stop the flow. The pruning sealer compounds don’t work. The only thing I have found that works is to stick a potato onto the cut, like a marshmallow roast. The starch in the potato will quiet the flow. The only problem is that you may have made a lot of cuts before realizing your error, and that means you are going to need lots of potatoes.

The trouble is that you have pruned a “bleeder” at prime time for sap flow. Next time do your cutting in late summer, fall, or winter, depending on the type of plant.

And try to remember to laugh at yourself. We’ve all done this, most of us exactly once. It’s an unforgettable experience, isn’t it?

Return to top