Consulting arborists | Top Questions Answered

For some, what an arborist does for a living is not entirely clear. Then you start throwing around consulting arborist and people are totally lost. This is a very quick post to help answer some of the most common questions on consulting arborists.

Consulting arborist vs. regular practicing arborist

A consulting arborist specialises in tree inspections, risk assessment reports and other reports pertaining to the trees amenity value. A practicing arborist normally focuses on the physical management of trees in an urban environment.

Both are cerfitied arborists and have taken the same courses up until certificate III in Arboriculture, but consulting arborists have furthered their education to the level of a Diploma (Cert. V) and are equipped to do a more in-depth assessment of trees.

Most consulting arborists run regular tree services businesses and do consulting on the side as needed, though there are more and more arborists specializing in just tree reports and more consulting type work.

Practicing arborist tasks

A practicing arborist will perform all the physical aspects of managing trees in an urban landscape. Those tasks include but are not limited to:

Tree removal
Tree trimming
Stump removal
Tree safety inspections

Consulting arborist tasks

A consulting arborist is more of an office job than physical. They do need to be out in the field quite a bit taking photos and inspecting trees, but the bulk of their work is putting together plans and reports.

You should consider hiring an arborist if you have one of the below tasks.

A consulting arborists main tasks are:

Write tree reports
Tree hazard and risk inspections/ reports
Tree inspections
Advice on Tree Protections Zones on construction projects
Tree identification
Pest identification and control
Tree ordinance development for municipals
Management of nurseries
Tree planting programs

tree-protection-zone-on-construction-site

What do consulting arborists charge?

A consulting arborist fees vary by the job, not by the hour. If you have a single tree that needs an arborist report to satisfy council, it will cost $350 – $500 for a detailed report and recommendation.

The cost of a arborist for tree trimming and removal is a totally different kettle of fish as you are talking much larger undertakings. We have an arborist cost guide here that goes into a little more detail.

The price for reports for several trees on a property depending on the size and number of the trees would be $500 – $1000.

Reports vary in scope so it does depend quite a bit of the specific requests by council.

How to find a consulting arborist near me

Finding local consulting arborist in your area is a little trickier than finding a regular arborist or tree service.

As mentioned above a lot of the time they are one in the same, but if you wanted to just get a registered consulting arborist you are best going to the Arboriculture Australia site or ISA to see the list of consulting arborist they recommend in your area.

Author: Ben McInerney – Ben is a qualified arborist with 15 plus years of industry experience in Arboriculture. He ran a successful tree service before turning to writing and publishing. Ben is dedicating to providing users with the most accurate up to date information on everything trees.

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What is a level 5 arborist

A level 5 arborist is a consulting arborist. Level 5 is the Diploma for the arboriculture course, so it is just another term to use to describe a consulting arborist.

I have noticed some cities or councils will stipulate in their request for an arborist report that it must be prepared by a level 5 arborist.