[Closed] Becoming a tree surgeon

It's knot fir everyone.

You might be barking up the wrong tree.

Leaf it to the experts until you have paid 1k for a week safety course

It's just typical of perchy to treat it as a joak

Are you getting Sycamore paperwork?

Do you know who looks after underwater trees?

A tree Sturgeon...
Igmc.

It's very hard work for [s]a feeble office boy[/s] anyone. Lots of lifting and working in all weathers.

We've got one just started our furniture making course who is basically wanting a career change as his body is knackered. He's mid forties I think.

Yeah, like landscaping, very hard work but also, if you like the outdoors and can handle the elements I think it's not so bad.

Oaky oaky ive had enough of the puns

can be great, pay isn't brilliant, very likely develop at least some form of vibration and noise induced occupational ill health over a career ( how much depends on how well its managed) so work for a more reputable company/university/estates team

have seen some poor buggers with vibration white finger so bad they cant even undo their zip to have a pee during an attack and they were in their mid-late 20's. Got a nice payout, but 80K won't go very far for the rest of life with a disabling health condition and limited employment opportunities.

It's a growth industry, apparently.

If you live in Sheffield, there seems to be plenty of 'interesting' work around.

The guy who used to deliver my logs showed me the massive scar on his abdomen from the chainsaw-related injury which nearly killed him and finished his career.

A friend of mine set up on his own about 5 years ago. I started giving him a hand the odd day here and there, now I generally work with him one or two days a week felling, snedding, chipping splitting etc. If you can charge enough to work at your own pace I guess it would be ok but if you're keeping a tight schedule it's brutal. It's hard, heavy incredibly physical work, constantly dangerous and often cold and dirty. If you're working for a big firm they might have some equipment that can lighten your burden slightly but you're into many tens of thousands.

There's also the problem of cowboy operators - my friend was asked to quote for clearing a field/site prior to a house being built, 5 large trees, power cables, other assorted obstacles. IIRC he quoted for 5 days - the client gave the job to someone who quoted [b]£100[/b].

A good way to dip your toe and find out more will be to go through the necessary training courses - if you're thinking of working for yourself you'll need to do the climbing course and the demolition as well as the basic cross cutting and felling.

I have a mate who was one. Gave up when 40 as despite being really fit the physical toll was beginning to tell and he also lost his head for heights.

tough job plus the disadvantages of being self employed.

good tree surgeons are very much in demand tho

the client gave the job to someone who quoted £100.

Just cost me £400 for one sycamore tree felling, burnable logs cut to length & stacked and remainder chipping and taking away.

Most expensive quote I got was £450.

#harrogatetax

And is there a difference between a tree surgeon and someone who just takes trees down? I always assumed that a surgeon was more specialist (having to know how to trim back and manage different species of trees rather than just chop them to bits and remove).

johndoh - Member

the client gave the job to someone who quoted £100.

😯

Quite. In another instance we had a farmer who was having a shed built - the new shed would have been in danger of being crushed by a large overhanging tree. The shed builder assured the farmer that it would be no problem - he had a chainsaw and he would just go up in his hydraulic loader and cut the top off the tree.

We got called when he'd nearly crushed himself and his loader by dropping a few hundred kilos of ash onto it.

I am allowing that idea to take root before I cut you down with my thoughts.

my riding buddy started 10 years ago, went to the local training college for the necessary training/licenses etc (chainsaw use, safety, climbing etc) he is overwhelmed with work. a recent broken wrist from biking showed him how fragile his business was as a one man band who just hires in workers when needed. hes now got permanent staff who do some of the climbing to give him a break.
you need to be very physically fit, which he is and be prepared to work in all weathers. he does love a good hurricane though. very good for business

johndoh - Member
And is there a difference between a tree surgeon and someone who just takes trees down? I always assumed that a surgeon was more specialist (having to know how to trim back and manage different species of trees rather than just chop them to bits and remove).

[i]Forestry & Arboriculture
Award in Accessing a Tree Using a Rope and Harness Including Aerial Tree Rescue Operations (CS38)
Award in Aerial Cutting of Trees Using Free Fall Techniques (CS39)
Award in Chainsaw Maintenance and Cross Cutting (CS30)
Award in Felling and Processing Trees up to 380mm (CS31)
Award in Felling and Processing Trees over 380mm (CS32)
Award in Maintenance, Cross-cutting & Felling Trees up to 380mm (CS30/31)
Award in the Safe use of Brushcutters & Strimmers
Chainsaw Maintenance & Operations - Occasional User
Ground Based Chainsaw Refresher
Maintain & Operate your Chainsaw Safely
Safe Use of Manually Fed Wood Chipper[/i]

A friend of mine is a Tree surgeon, but due to the amount of cowboys around undercutting him, has moved into Forestry work, investing in heavy duty machinery etc . Seems to be good money in that area....if you can cut it! (sorry)

I left an office job in my late twenties for a career change into arboriculture. A good place to start is the [url= http://www.trees.org.uk ]Arboricuiltural Association[/url].

You'll need to get trained on chainsaws, wood cutting, felling, and climbing with a saw. Probably best you get aerial rescue too.

It is very physically demanding and you'll take perhaps 5 years to be well skilled and experienced. I lost two stone in the first year. But then I probably needed too!

Good luck - I haven't looked back but I'm now in my forties and don't work on the tools anymore. Still working in the industry though.

Happy to answer any specifics if you want to email (in profile).

Just cost me £400 for one sycamore tree felling, burnable logs cut to length stacked and remainder chipping and taking away.

I cut up a 30 year old willow that fell over in our garden last winter. Not a real monster by any means, but three trunks at maybe 15m, two of them about 30-40cm wide. Took me three whole days to deal with the thing, and that was before splitting the logs, *and* it was already on the ground so the most dangerous bit was already done. Splitting and stacking took another few weeks in and amongst. £400 for a big tree all safely chopped and chipped and tidied up is reasonable value for money, I think.

Having dealt with a couple of actual real life trees now, I'm well over my wanting to be a lumberjack phase... 😉

My boss once told us that he wanted to be a tree surgeon as a lad, as he wanted to look after and preserve old trees, and went right off the idea when he found out what they actually did, the murderous swines.

A friend of mine just left the tree surgeon game at the age of 30 due to most of the reasons mentioned above: toll on body, undercut by cowboys, being self employed with no real back up/emergency plan.

Good job. Interesting. One Todo while youngish. You can always move into a boaring job when older. If you are interested do it now.

I used to do it and absolutely loved it. When money "got a bit tight" about 8 years ago we really struggled for work and I ended up going in a different direction.

I still miss the work but the self-employed nature of it and all the tickets and red tape was frustrating.

One of my favourite types of job was actually dealing with fallen trees. I really liked working out where and when to cut.

£400 for a big tree all safely chopped and chipped and tidied up is reasonable value for money, I think.

It's a super hard job - if you want longevity it's better to fit in some smaller pruning jobs week in week out - I'd say it's virtually impossibe to sustain the physical demands of big jobs 5 days a week - The pruning jobs will give you a recuperation. The older guys tend to invest in plant machinary to cut down on the physical graft - like diggers for ground work and stump grinders..

Ha ha, I've spoken to other tree surgeons who thought they were too good for mere hedge cutting or garden maintenance.

Funny thing is most of them worked for a big firm who have a base nearby and the regional bosses subbed us to do the tricky/dangerous jobs 'cos they didn't trust their people to do them.

Garden jobs were great as fillers between big ones and yes, the rest was nice.

lazlowoodbine - Member

Garden jobs were great as fillers between big ones and yes, the rest was nice.

That's what my friend does too. Although saying that hedges (big ones) are often more of a problem than trees. Those big leylandii are an absolute nightmare.

Looked into retraining when I was about 33 to be a tree surgeon. Was working as a deckhand on a ship and climbed a lot so head for heights and outdoor work. As above after training would be maybe 5 years to be skilled and fast. Decided against it I think sensibly as would have completely knackered me. Depends on your age. I did a stint in offices and found in soul destroying but life would be full if we were all the same.

johndoh - Member

I guess so - a million miles from the £100 for much more work quoted above though - just having a little envious moan.

John, I should have pointed it out (although I assumed it was obvious) that the £100 quote was obviously a complete cowboy - someone who just happens to own a chainsaw. Someone like that will either probably get themselves killed or kill someone else.

I sort-of do both, office job and forestry / log work. (Not a qualified tree surgeon, but send about 20hrs per week doing tree & log work.) Run a side business selling logs, clearing pre-felled trees for farmers and private land owners, alongside being a buyer for one of the big online cycling retailers.

My advice is, if you're going for it, you need to be 100% committed to your decision. Be aware that you'll have days stood freezing cold in the middle of nowhere, putting yourself at huge physical risk for little reward. You will more than likely get injured and be out for weeks. Plan for it, I don't know a tree surgeon who hasn't.

Also, if you're going self employed, be aware it's not just solid money rolling in. Good kit can cost well over a year's income. I started as a side earner with limited kit, but quickly discovered you need to be at it for a few years to really get the benefit.

The good days are great, the bad days are ****ing awful.

A mate is a tree surgeon, i would say most of the above covers what the job is like, the outlay can be very silly money to get started.
Being flexible gets the money in, i know some who can't be arsed with doing a single tree or a hedge. I gave my mate a single tree job once he got all the locals asking him to sort their trees out he made so much money he offered me commission.
He gets all my large hedges and tree work and i get all the gardening work off him, works well for both of us.

I’m not a tree surgeon, I volunteer for the NT. We’re currently clearing a 1km long, 20m wide ride through woodland. Today felled, processed, stacked in trailer, moved, stacked at other end 3 x big Oaks and 2 x big Rowans (burning all the brash/smaller branches) good, hard work. Cold? Not a chance with all that graft!

So, to see if you’re cut out for it, go volunteer at a local NT place (or other) with the ranger team. Then, if you like it, pay your qualies that you need.

I’d love to get paid doing it, keeping my eyes open.

How old are you? Personally I would not think you'd want to be grafting in that job much past 40 unless you plan to have employees. Round here there are a lot of tree surgeons competing for work but I'd say not enough gardeners and landscapers which can bring in similar money.

Gardening work is more secure too as you can have regular contracts bringing in fixed monthly income unlike tree surgery which can be feast or famine. Both are hard work but gardening there are more options to pick and choose easier or harder jobs as you age.

In terms of white finger and other problems from vibrating tools mentioned. This should not be an issue for someone starting now with better health and safety and the option of battery tools with much lower vibes. I switched due to carpal tunnel.

I climb trees with my job, but I’m not a tree surgeon (I’m an Ecologist). The climbing training is the same, through the City and Guilds CS30 “chainsaw” series of courses for tree climbing and aerial rescue. For full tree work qualifications there’s a flow chart somewhere that shows you the order to do them in, as some are prerequisites for others, so that might help get an idea of how long it might take to pick up all the skills. You also need to know a lot about, y’know, trees and tree health and that 🙂

The apprentice route looks quite good, but it does look like a hard / risky job - I only have to do the fun bit!

I do tree surgery as part of my job.
I work from a mobile elevating platform though. Even working from a MEWP and tidying up after and doing all the chipping etc is a hard day , I sleep well after.
The boss has asked me numerous times if I want to climb, first when I was 37 and I turned him down, no way would I do it now at 46.
It's a job for young folk.

Oh! I used to work for the Forestry Commission as a Forest Craftsman , lots more fun and a wide range of jobs including felling.
I'd recommend a forestry job all day.

Looked at it a few years ago various agri colleges do the courses quite expensive for a week and then the gear,what put me off was working for a paramedic, whos collegues had attended a chap fell backwards off a step ladder and sliced into his shoulder, with a chain saw., seriousinjuries loss of blood etc.

Google image search chainsaw injuries first....

As another option that involves trees and being outside.... Try googling "utility arb surveying" or similar.

Power companies usually use contractors for their tree cutting around power lines and the precursor to that is walking along the lines and marking what needs cutting. It also involves talking to landowners for permissions to do the work.

It may be worth a look..

I was a tree surgeon for about 10 years - it was easier/ a step up from the Forestry work I did before ( really hard work) ,I gave it up in the end ( in my mid 30's) as its a young mans job -to get qualified I did a number of chainsaw and climbing courses and wet to Merrist wood for 10 weeks to do an Arb course and then did the Cert Arb via a correspondence course.

I enjoyed it for a few years but it was very hard work for not a lot of money - the power line clearance work for the electricity companies was not to bad ( although I had some horrendous days at that as well)

On a good day it was an enjoyable but hard job and the robust humour of my tree gang was good entertainment but a lot of the time it was cold/wet/hard ( wet winters in Cornwall with all of your kit wet for days on end) - I remember one winter my hands were sticking to my carabiners - gave it up in the end and retrained as an engineer - now have an office job that I don't like ( to put it mildly) but the pay is a lot better and I can do sports ( cycling/martial arts etc) in the evening as I don't fee that I have been half been to death in the day

Apart from that it did get you outdoors 🙂

As others have said.. it's hard work.

My mate is a Forestry Commission Manager, and he's worked up from Uni, through the ranks (this was from 25 years ago) - he wouldn't get near his chain saws without the kevlar gear. He's a manager now, with all limbs in place.

I use electric chain saws at home, but you've got to be very careful - I'm not trained but I'm only playing with 3-4 inch stuff to keep it engulfing the land - not big trees.

Be careful.

I was one for a few years after doing various courses at Sparsholt and Newton Rigg, hard work in all weathers, money not great for the outlay and effort but didn't have many responsibilities then. Young man's game as others have said. But it did lead into rural estate management so still plenty of outside work but without the risk and better money as I got older, less fit and did have more responsibilities. Mind you a couple of my counterparts who trained when I did are still doing it 25 years later somehow, fair play to them, crosscutting and stacking logs for the fire is enough for me now.

Just cost me £400 for one sycamore tree felling, burnable logs cut to length & stacked and remainder chipping and taking away.

Most expensive quote I got was £450.

#harrogatetax

Haha - try Winchester, Hants. The cheapest quotes we have for the same were both a grand. And both were mates rates! Highest was £1.8k.

The sycamore lives on

I always found climbing the least knackering part of the job to be honest.

Doing the groundwork side is full on physical. Lowering limbs on ropes, clearing up before the next big piece comes down to save yourself more hassle etc. Where it really gets hectic is on a partial road closure with lights, you need eyes in the back of your head. I actually had a troupe of roadies riding up the hill we were on [i]inside[/i] the cones, in the work area. I told them to piss off and the leader gave me a load of lip about how we were endangering them by making them ride in the road with the traffic! FFS if you don't like traffic get a mountain bike instead.

Yeah you have more to go wrong up the tree but it's much more relaxing.

I've known good operators hurt themselves with saws but very few won't acknowledge that they were doing something wrong at the time. They are dangerous but if you're careful you'll have a good chance of being just fine. Put it this way, I know I was in more danger in the Transit on the way home.

im 45 and am still climbing with no ill effects, it can be badly paid if you just apply for a job with a local arb firm. I did my time running a powerline clearance team for a few years and now do domestic work for myself and work for a few ecological consultancy type companies. As with everything if you are prepared to work for very little (some do) it's not worth it. Im lucky in the respact that my customers/clients are prepared to pay a decent wage, some are not. You cant really just do your tickets and go out alone or contract climb as you just wont be up to speed or have the experience to keep yourself safe. The best route in is to get your tickets and then get some time as a groundie/second climber but its likely to be crap wages. If you relish hard physical work and are prepared to work for not a great wage initially then go for it. Its not for everyone but i still absolutely love it.

I personally wouldn't do it due to the risk of injury, but as per myti above will throw in a suggestion to look at garden maintenance and/or landscaping. If you are reliable it's really a reasonable way to make a living.

I'm taking home well above a national average salary (over a year) working just 3 days a week, pretty much 9 months a year. I don't do garden clearances or landscaping, just grass cutting, lawn care, general maintenance visits, weed control and a bit of planting. I've turned down work almost every day this year, it's been bonkers.

A friend of mine set up on his own about 5 years ago. I started giving him a hand the odd day here and there, now I generally work with him one or two days a week felling, snedding, chipping splitting etc.

Just the two of you? I've thought that'd be work for tree fellers...

A friend of mine started off as a tree officer, did her courses, spent a few years climbing and moved into teaching at an arboricultural college, more exams, moved into consultancy then set up on her consultancy working for big money developers, then worked for MOD managing their trees over a bunch of army camps in south of england, then took over their groundcare management as well, then got tired of management and HR rather than being outside. Now back to being a tree officer again! And sorting her back out after years of abuse.

So loads of directions to go if you feel like it, depending on how restless you are and how much you want to learn.