What is an Arborist?

During the first semester of Bachelor of Landscape Architecture in UPM, the students are exposed with a series of related professionals that work together with landscape architects. Some of them are engineers, architects and arborists. The term arborist seemed a bit alien as the students made funny faces when hearing it. Well, surprise kids, there are so many more things you can do for a living. Typically, as children, we were exposed to certain profession such as doctors, lawyers, architects and police officer. As we grow older, and if we were curious enough, we learn that the world is so much more than all that. 

What is an arborist? 

In general, an arborist specialize in raising, maintaining and removing trees. They may specialize in keeping trees healthy, planting trees or landscaping. Sometimes referred to as tree doctors, they examine and take care of trees and shrubs with structural, nutritional and disease issues. They may evaluate tree color and texture to see if there is any decay or damage. If there is a problem with a tree, the arborist might take samples and send them to a lab for examination. Arborists also perform pruning and trimming on trees and shrubs, including removing dead branches as well as living branches that are obstructions. 

In Malaysia, there are not that many arborists, yet. According to their website, the list showed about 50+ members. You can access the website by clicking here. Do browse through and who knows, you might be interested in joining them :)

photos from http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/blakegarden/