Burned by land clearing guy, a cautionary tale

[csgray]

There are licensed and bonded tree cutters, just like many other contractors; this is a state license. There are also Certified Arborists who are certified through the ISA (International Society of Arborists) who have passed a set of rigorous tests that they cannot even take until they have both education and experience in the field. They also must continue to update their training and take tests to keep their certification. The ISA makes a real effort to weed out the absolute hacks and to revoke certification for bad professional practices.

There are several ISA certified people on the Island, personally I would only use someone who is certified as well as licensed and bonded if I was having trees trimmed or removed near my house or the neighbors. Tree cutting is dangerous work, and improper tree trimming can create dangerous and expensive future headaches. Of course if you are just removing all the trees in an area you don't need an expert in trees, but you do need an expert with the saw and ropes, and a good ground man to clean up the mess. This is another one of those areas where you get what you pay for; there are an awful lot of bozos with chain saws out there calling themselves tree trimmers.

I am so sorry that Kathy had to go through this. There is something about someone getting in your face in your own home that makes it especially bad.

Carol