The first narrative (Bardekjian, 2015: Chapter 4)
describes how language and metaphor influence and
shape identity and self-awareness in urban forestry
workers and how this in turn can impact practice and the
urban forest itself. Interviews showed that current lan-
guage and use of particular metaphors surrounding field
arborists and tree care workers in Southern Ontario per-
petuate negative perceptions of arborists by others and
by themselves. Participants expressed that they are the
brunt of many ungrounded assumptions about outdoor
workers, such as the notion that they are less educated
or knowledgeable than they actually are. They point
to the need for their skill-set, which, while integral to
urban forest practice, is undervalued in the public eye.
Thus, the profile of urban tree workers needs to be
raised from both inside and outside the trade by using
accurate terminology and being selective about our
choice of metaphors—and by more effective marketing
and communications through social networking and
popular media. Raising the profile of these workers
will increase awareness towards accurate knowl-
edge and foster acknowledgement and recognition
urban-forestry.com 23
of the trade as well as foster respect and apprecia-
tion towards a return to celebrating physical labour.
The second narrative (Bardekjian, 2015: Chapter 5)
explores how arborists negotiate the urban forest as a
place of work, including the pressures of policies, the
labour market itself, technologies, government regula-
tions, and the non-human agencies that they confront,
such as weather, insects, and species particularities.
Interviews showed that the existing political climate
surrounding urban forestry operations in Southern
Ontario can be biased and gendered. Participants
expressed polarized perspectives, contentions, and
inequalities that affect their practice and personal lives
and believe this is a result of an unregulated trade.
Building on identity constructions which evolved from
the first storyline, political ecology helped to high-
light subjugated narratives that contribute to a better
understanding of workplace conditions, behaviours,
and ethics—and helped to showcase how dichotomies
in management influence operations (e.g., when arbor-
ists often are brought into planning processes too >>
Photo by Dylan Stevenson
