The Arboriculturist

The arboriculturist paid a visit to my neighbour’s tree. The Swedish aspen, one of two planted at the turn of the century, had grown 15 m high and then died out before its 20^th birthday. The species became popular in urban gardens due to its rapid growth and good coverage along fence lines but has been open to criticism for its tendency to grow an extended array of roots that sucker and hence a massive use of water. Tree Service companies now seem to benefit well from taking them down.

Arborist and horticulturist

Maury has been an arborist for twenty-seven years. He used to manage farms in Iran growing dates and citrus fruits and has a master’s degree in horticulture.

This one was a challenge.

He knows his trees and said: “This one was a challenge” due to its ramble of secondary branches and its terminal, hence somewhat fragile status. Section by section, he roped up himself and the isolated limb above him, cutting manually, then lowering the timber down safely onto the ground.

When the remains reached ladder height, the tree surgeon changed his instrument of choice to a giraffe saw, a small chain saw attached to a pole, applying a delicately artistic pruning action to cut out small pieces of the trunk.

He finished his aerial post-mortem operation with what he called his “big toy”, a large hand-held chain saw to cut through the bigger girth at the base of the tree.

This monster-suckering, moisture-sucking tree was gone.

More photographs

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