"Trimming" vs. Pruning Driving me NUTS!

In my area the problem I have is not so much the terminology used with clients. As someone earlier said you need to just speak the language of the person you are talking to and I feel that is on the money. The problem is that there are so many dudes with chainsaws who worked for one of the big companies for a few years and then buy a dump truck and a chipper and then go around butchering trees. People see those trees everywhere and think that is the norm and that it is what you do trees. Or they knew a guy and "that is how he did it."
 
Drumbo said:
In my area the problem I have is not so much the terminology used with clients. As someone earlier said you need to just speak the language of the person you are talking to and I feel that is on the money. The problem is that there are so many dudes with chainsaws who worked for one of the big companies for a few years and then buy a dump truck and a chipper and then go around butchering trees. People see those trees everywhere and think that is the norm and that it is what you do trees. Or they knew a guy and "that is how he did it."
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Going after and developing a client base and potential clients can be quite important then.
 
My favorite line to use when the client speaks of the forsaken "trimming" or worse yet "shaping" is "I'm sorry those terms seem to be very generic, and I have found they mean different things to different people. I would like to specifically talk about what your goals are" Then follow it up with something like "Ok, now that I know what your would like, here is what I see (insert what ever term you like such as directional pruning)" all the while speaking to what they are wanting, and what I see the tree needs. Perhaps they want it "shaped" which means crown raises, and that one limb off the roof... I repeat what they want in my terms, and then I might add "reduction on that large scaffold limb, to reduce weight and leverage because it looks like it may be stressed because of xxxxxx......"

Often I can tell if one of the hack came by for a bid before me, based on the the terminology the client uses. We have a company here that does a lot of door knocking and cold calling. Their terms are incredibly vague....

I PERSONALLY view it as...

Trimming: what the power line clearance companies do, or just whacking on a plant as if it were an obstruction, such as power lines, roofs, driveways etc....

Pruning: Selective target pruning, to provide adequate separation from an object, plant health benefits (structural pruning), mitigate hazard (tree part falling, or tree failing), or for aesthetics while promoting tree/plant health.
 
FreeFallin said:
@TreeVBOh I'm not an arborist either, but @Hoowasat no offense but you do kinda sound like a hack :risas2:
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Well, I'm certainly not making any $$$ doing this ... have much more invested in gear and saws than I'll ever recoup (was expensive but I love my Wraptor). I do work for friends and coworkers mostly for the sheer challenge. This thread made me go back and review my history. I started 4 years ago when I was 55, and during the course of several weekends, I managed the following:
  • Removed 37 ... fell 18 & dismantled 19 (including 3 via high-line suspension between adjacent tress, plus a few extreme leaners requiring plunge-cut w/ trigger technique ... Daniel's widow-maker technique worked well, too ... and a dismatle over my niece's glass sunroom was a white-knuckle affair)
  • Trimmed 54 ... 43 to remove offensive and/or dead limbs & 11 toppings :eek:(5 were my trees, 4 were Bradford Pears + 2 Maples)
It hasn't gone completely without an "Oops!" I once dropped a three foot piece about as big around as my thumb on a coworker's roof ... and he enjoys giving me grief about that little goof. But yeah, all in all, I'm a part-time hack
 
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Hoowasat said:
I do work for friends and coworkers mostly for the shear challenge.
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Definitely a hack then ;)

I suppose I am too, although I have mostly just cared for my own trees over the years, I have had a lot of them. Over the last few years, as I have learned better techniques and broadened my knowledge from folks like the ones on here who are actual arborists, I have had a few cringe moments where I realized some of my past cuts have been either really bad for the tree, or dangerous and stupid on my part.

Incase you didn't notice, topping a tree is viewed the same as reducing the height of your dog with the same method. I haven't topped any, but it is something I would have likely done before getting to know some of the guys and gals on here and understanding the damage and stress that can add to a tree. Now that I know better, I do better.

So I say no shunning, let he who has never made a regrettable decision in a tree cast the first, er... branch, or something.:coffe:
 
I've never topped a healthy tree. I have removed a handful of dead tops. Couple of white pines, a black spruce, and some maples. These jobs were where the client couldn't afford a full removal and it was a hazard to something below, or they simply wanted the dead wood out and didn't want to loose their tree.
I see it like this ... if I don't do the work someone else will. At least the clients who love their tree get to have it around for a while longer before the rest of it expires.
I have done some spurless pruning, but I usually avoid that work. When I was 22 yrs old I was in a major car wreck and broke a lot of bone in the left side of my body, including a fractured hip. Told I'd never walk again. Here I am 24 yrs later. Spurless work puts a lot of stress on my hip where the spurs help me favor a leg. I've done a lot of trimming with spurs in dying trees, removing dead wood and hazardous leaders. Why not? The tree's dying anyway and really needs to come down. But I will not spur a healthy tree. Thus I do a lot of removals and trimming.
 
Tree surgeon is used a ton in NZ, Australia, and the UK. Australia also uses "lopping" a lot which would get a bit of a negative sense here in the states. I thoroughly enjoy (but not really) being called a landscaper.
A good one I heard was "what's the difference between an Arborist and a landscaper?.... One doesn't go around pretending to be the other!"
 
Hoowasat said:
Huh! I would've answered altitude. Pollarding is another European term for ... dare I mention it again ... topping. And allow me to point out the use of the word topping in the following TreeBuzz video thread ...
http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/threads/poplar-topping.34969/#post-515513
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A company I worked for in NZ would pollard street trees under powerlines. It was really just topping and they'd say pollarding to make us feel better about ourselves. "Proper" pollarding is a neat practice but labor intensive because you're supposed to visit the tree each year to remove all new shoots from the original topping cut which eventually creates a bunch of "knuckles". I think it's in Venice beach, CA that has some cool pollarded sycamore trees.
 
Hoowasat said:
Thanks, mate! I've been a US citizen for 38 years, but originally hailed from the UK.
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Hay TreeVB, don't sweat my last comment because I'm jerking your rope. :D I was only 8 months old when our family migrated here, so I've been raised American. My green card was issued so long ago, it was actually green in color (we were legal aliens), and I had to keep it on my person from age 14 until I became naturalized.
 
Hoowasat said:
Hay TreeVB, don't sweat my last comment because I'm jerking your rope. :D I was only 8 months old when our family migrated here, so I've been raised American. My green card was issued so long ago, it was actually green in color (we were legal aliens), and I had to keep it on my person from age 14 until I became naturalized.
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All good mate, and I'm not racist either!
 
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