6 Green Media / August 2014 www.greenmediaonline.com
An arborist technician pulls up in front of a client's house.
She turns off her GPS that got her there and pulls out her
iPad. She quickly checks her e-mail for the work order, and
gets the specs on the treatment she is going to perform today.
Hopping out of her truck, she grabs a drill, her tree injection
equipment, her PPE, and the bottle of product she is going to
use. Getting to the tree, she sets up the system, and starts the
injection. While she waits, she checks Facebook on her phone
and quickly goes to Google News for today's headlines. The
treatment moves into the tree quickly and safely, she rounds
up her gear, cleans up the site and gets back in her truck.
Using her iPad, she completes the customer invoice and gets
it e-mailed to the client. She checks her e-mail again for the
next work order, punches the address into her GPS, and is off
to the next site.
There are so many ways we use technology everyday in
this business it almost becomes an invisible part of the job.
Checking in at the offi ce, getting to the job site, and Googling
"What's wrong with this tree?" are all made so much easier
with technology available at our fi ngertips. Arboriculture is
a sophisticated bioscience industry that requires up-to-date
information; and the best in the business are constantly uti-
lizing the smartest tools and embracing the newest ideas.
Technology is defi ned as "the making, modifi cation, usage,
and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems,
and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem,
improve a pre-existing solution to a problem, achieve a goal,
handle an applied input/output relation, or perform a spe-
cifi c function." That pretty much describes everything we
use on a daily basis in this business. So, what are some of the
ways technology touches tree care and is making the lives of
arborists easier?
Vehicle technology
If I were to ask what was the fi rst piece of technology used
in the opening example, many people would say the GPS
unit. In fact, the vehicle she pulled up in is one of the most
technologically advanced machines she will touch all day, but
our vehicles are so ubiquitous we often forget how impor-
tant they are — until they stop working, of course. Vehicles,
such as passenger cars and light trucks, are the cornerstones of
any tree care business. The old joke goes, "What makes a tree
company? Two guys, a chain saw, and a truck." That is fairly
accurate in some regards, as getting to the job site really is
job number one. Heavy machinery, such as a chipper or a lift,
and other specialized vehicles, such as a bucket truck or a box
truck, can be technological game changers that can transform
the scope of you business. Our tree care service was interested
in bidding on municipal tree care contracts but could never
get our bid price low enough to compete. Adding a clam
TREE CARE TREE CARE
B y B r a n d o n G a l l a g h e r W a t s o n
All photos provided by Rainbow Treecare Scientifi c Advancements
Technology
for
Arborists
Technology in our business
comes in many forms.
