made a difference in some partici-
pants' feelings towards their work.
Specifically, oaks and maples were
often regarded as good trees to
climb, whereas honeylocusts and
willows were not.
Lastly, the notion of control is
enmeshed and often hidden in
arborists' experiences. Most arbor
-
ists take pride in caring for trees as
living organisms. Arborists do not
fell trees needlessly; they manipu-
late trees carefully and knowledge-
ably. Arborists spend time with
trees, touch trees, shape and con-
struct trees; how these decisions
are made is fundamentally based
on understanding the variability of
nature's agency while simultane
-
ously contending with the lack of a
decision-making model that results
from this variability.
Other stories revolved around lan-
guage constructions; labour equal-
ity and gender issues; the material
reality of nature's agency; and the
impact of educational inconsisten-
cies. Considering the perspectives
of field arborists and tree climbers
is useful for understanding tree
Photo by: Julian Ambrosii
