Aboriculturist

Whether you’re based in the country or the city, you’ll know the ins and outs of maintaining, preserving, and felling important large-scale plants.

Your role also concerns the safety of the public, as you’ll be the one to decide whether trees need to be removed or trimmed to fit around urban items like telephone poles or even buildings.

What is an Aboriculturist?

Arboriculture takes into account several different areas of work. Sometimes you might be referred to as a tree surgeon, an arboricultural officer, or a forestry worker. The root of the role, though, is taking care and maintaining tree, bush and shrub life. You might work in the following landscapes:

• Forests and woodlands
• Private estates
• Rural areas, like small villages or towns
• Private estates
• Urban areas

People who work with trees only are also referred to as arborists or ‘arbs’ for short. The terms arborist and arb are occasionally used to mean arboriculturist, so make sure to search ‘arb jobs’ ‘arborist jobs’ and ‘arboriculturist job’ when doing your research.

You’ll usually specialise in a particular area of work. These can include:

• Tree preservation, such as maintaining large protected woodlands.
• Tree surgery - cutting down, trimming, or solving issues, such as large boughs or branches breaking.
• Planning, such as organising planting new trees in a housing development, or adding trees and shrubs to a new city area.
• Surveying and inspection, deciding if certain trees require moving or taking down based on safety concerns.

Arborist salaries and arboriculturist salaries vary depending on location and level of experience.

Responsibilities

These can differ greatly depending on your location and specialism, but you’re likely to require a selection of the following skills for arboricultural jobs and arborist jobs:

• Cutting, thinning and potentially removing trees.
• Identifying any hazards or safety concerns and acting on them.
• Keeping up a good working knowledge of tree types, their needs and potential issues.
• Producing reports for clients, councils, and regulatory woodland bodies around tree health.
• Producing reports for insurance and mortgage companies, if a tree is likely to cause damage to property, encourage particular forms of wildlife, or cause subsidence on land plots.
• Servicing key equipment, like chainsaws.
• Support planning for where tree life should go within urban areas, advising the most sustainable way to carry out planting, and assessing the success of overall planting efforts.

Salary

Arborist salaries and arboriculturist salaries vary depending on location and level of experience.

• Entry levels of jobs, such as apprentices and technicians, can expect a salary range of around £15,000 - £20,000.
• Highly skilled arborists, especially those who have specialised in a particular field, can expect to attract salaries of £30,000 to £40,000.
• More experienced arborists, tree surgeons, and forestry workers can expect salaries between £25,000 and £35,000. Jobs in the South East and London are likely to attract a higher salary.

Those with more experience may decide to set up their own business, employing junior staff and managing their workload. This may attract higher overall salaries depending on business success.

Qualifications

A degree is not essential to access arboricultural jobs, but it is helpful. Many people choose this route as it includes essential certifications and experience you’ll need to act legally as an arboriculturist.

Once you have carried out your initial training, much of your development happens on the job as you rise through more junior roles to more experienced ones within a company.

College courses and university degrees all cover the relevant information you’ll need to apply for an arboriculture role. The following arboriculture degree subjects are worth more research if this is something that interests you:

• Arboriculture
• Agriculture
• Biology
• Conservation
• Ecology
• Horticulture

The Royal Forestry Society is a great resource for looking at the selection of college and higher education institutions available to you to study towards aborculturist and arborist jobs. Key institutions offering degree-level study for forestry include Bangor University, the University of Cumbria’s National School of Forestry, Myerscough College and Inverness College UHI.

If you prefer the idea of an arborist apprenticeship or a tree surgery apprenticeship, there are several options available to you. You can view the government’s recent new Forestry Apprenticeship and other Arborist apprenticeships.

If you prefer not to follow formal education routes, you can also complete certification with City and Guilds alongside building up around three years of experience. You’ll also need to complete certifications on the handling of key tools, like chainsaws.

Training and development

Once you have carried out your initial training, much of your development happens on the job as you rise from more junior roles to more experienced ones within a company.

Many arboriculturists join professional bodies such as the The Royal Forestry Society or the Institute of Chartered Foresters. Membership offers networking opportunities, news updates and seminars with professionals in your industry.

An employed role in this sector will require prior experience in forestry, conservation or planning.

Experienced arboriculturists who do not have a recognised qualification may choose to take an accredited course with the Royal Forestry Society. This involves providing a portfolio to give evidence of your skills and experience, after which you can add this accreditation to your CV.

Skills

To work as an arboriculturist at an entry-level, you’ll need to have the following skills:

• A good level of physical fitness, as you’ll likely be climbing and operating heavy machinery.
• A clean, full driving licence.
• The ability to work collaboratively with others.
• Attention to detail.
• Knowledge of public safety.
• Stamina to work outdoors and at height.

Work Experience

An employed role in this sector will require prior experience in forestry, conservation or planning. For many, this requires some voluntary work if they are starting afresh. If you choose to begin your career with a course, either at college or university level, check to make sure your course offers you this initial experience.

Arboriculture takes into account several different areas of work.

Once you have banked initial work experience, it’s a good idea to find a company that offers additional training on the job or has a clear structure of progression. This means you’ll build further on your experience as you go.

Career Prospects

Initial junior roles can take you down multiple routes within the field. You may progress from a junior employee to a manager, or start your own business.

If you prefer the planning side of this field, you may work your way up through larger organisations or local councils to senior urban or rural planning positions.