The Customer is not always Right
There are some services you can hire, tell them exactly what you want, and get exactly that. That’s perfect for us consumers and homeowners. There are, however, some services that you shouldn’t get exactly what you want. Say what?
You guessed it, this article is about arboriculture--tree work. More and more, people are being turned onto the idea the arborists are professionals too (but there exist some tree-cutters among us). There are instances where a homeowner just wants a certain branch off because they’re convinced its dangerous or something like that. These people expect the service of arboriculture to be one where they can ask and receive.
The thing is, unlike most other services, you don't get a second chance with trees.
No Short Term Decisions
There are plenty of tree services that operate under the customer-is-always-right philosophy. This isn’t necessarily in your favor.
This is a classic example of malpractice called Topping. This type of pruning can lead to major limb failure in the future. Is that something you should have over the house and driveway? Dearborn, MI.
Those tree companies simply looking for a dollar will not advise you against making compromising decisions with your trees. An overly agreeable salesman might not have your trees best interest in mind.
You don’t hire an electrician to tell them how to do their job. Same with arboriculture--our task is to maintain trees, and in doing so, incur as little damage to the tree as possible.
If something goes wrong with your plumbing, you can make a phone call and arrange to fix the issue. When it comes to trees, uninformed decisions about their care taking can lead to issues that are not fixable. Click this link to read our article about how shortsightedness can kill urban trees. I won’t go into those details here, but it is great read.
Maintaining the largest organisms around us is an important task. An arbitrary desire to just slice a limb off may not have any obvious immediate detriments to the tree or the local ecology. It isn’t evident to most homeowners how their decisions with their trees can endanger their property in 10 or 15 years. Our decisions can’t be short term.
The simplified concept is this: the average homeowner is not a botanist, horticulturist, or arborist, and therefore does not have an advanced grasp on tree biology or ecology. We arborists are, however, and should be expected to uphold a standard that does not compromise tree longevity or long term safety to those living in or around the tree. We reserve the right to say no.