What is a pruner?

A tree pruner is a person technically trained to climb a tree and to provide pruning care either to integrate the tree into the infrastructure or to sanitise it from diseased or decaying elements. Basically, like a plumber, a mechanic or a health technician, a tree pruner must know the appropriate work techniques and the elements that make up the tree.

Why hire a tree pruner specifically for trees?

A tree pruner is therefore a specialist in carrying out structural and/or sanitary interventions on a tree. Climbing with the help of ropes and retention mechanisms to prevent falls or uncontrolled descents (with the help of pulleys, slings, etc.), pruning and trimming a tree which requires general knowledge of botany and tree mechanics are apprenticeships that are specific to the pruner.

Why graduate?

Graduation is possible in Quebec in pruning. Training and obtaining a diploma in pruning is a guarantee, if the standards taught are respected, of work carried out by a professional in his trade.

The tree, like the vast majority of plants growing in urban areas, has to develop in a difficult environment, with a sometimes low supply of water and nutrients. But what differentiates it from other plants is its height and composition.

Wood has mechanical properties that allow the tree to reach respectable heights, requiring the tree pruner to have specific knowledge of botany, as the tree is also composed of living cells, and of mechanical resistance. The pruner has a duty to preserve and secure the urban forest.

The tasks for which you should deal with a professional pruner are ;
-Planting,
-Training pruning,
-Pruning,
-Securing the structure,
-Felling or removal by retention (a tree in an urban environment must generally be removed piece by piece with retention by roping up the branches, trunk parts for lowering to the ground),
-Application of soil improvers (compost)
-Hedge trimming

 

Karl Goupil, Consultant Arborist