Certified Arborists

Richard’s Tree Service: Licensed and Insured Arborists in Virginia

Arborists in Northern Virginia

Whether you own a residence or commercial property, it’s likely you haven’t had much time or occasion to think about caring for your plants and trees. However, working with a reliable tree service in Arlington, VA, and across the region provides the support necessary to get your property looking as beautiful as possible. It’s the most effective way to mitigate the dangers and expenses that result when you neglect the health of your trees.

As a licensed arborist in Northern Virginia, Richard’s Tree Service is your best bet for everything from expert pruning and trimming to professional tree removal. We’re proud members of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), offering the quality work, quick response and reasonable rates of a certified and insured tree service. Read on to learn more about the benefits of only partnering with insured arborists in Virginia and beyond.

What Is a Certified Arborist?

A certified arborist is a tree professional who has completed a credentialing program with ISA. ISA is an organization that exists to promote the work of arboriculture — the cultivation of trees and shrubs — and to focus public awareness on the benefits of healthy trees. ISA is also at the forefront of research into trees and their care.

The ISA certification program requires arborists to become skilled and knowledgeable in all aspects of tree care. Before even taking the certification exam, potential candidates are required to have three or more years of full-time work experience in the field of arboriculture. They must also have completed a degree in horticulture, forestry, landscape architecture, or arboriculture.

The certification exam itself covers several major topic areas related to tree and shrub care:

• Soil management, including soil, water, mineral nutrition, and fertilizer.
• Tree identification and selection, including nomenclature, classification, and tree characteristics.
• Installation and establishment, including planting and post-planting care.
• Safe work practices, including standards, regulations, laws, general safety, electrical hazards, equipment, PPE and personal climbing gear, climbing, rigging, tree removal, emergency response, and the culture of safety.
• Tree biology, including anatomy, physiology, growth, and biomechanics.
• Pruning, including principles, practices, and techniques.
• Diagnosis and treatment, including plant health care, diagnosis principles and practices, insects and other animals, diseases, abiotic disorders, treatment, management, and invasive and emerging problems.
• Urban forestry, including benefits and costs of trees, appraisal and evaluation, regulatory and legal issues, management, information and education, professional ethics, and best practices.
• Protection and preservation, including tree protection, damage, and post-damage management.
• Tree risk management, including roles and responsibilities, types of risk, risk assessment, risk analysis, risk evaluation, mitigation, prioritization of mitigation, residual risk, and inspection intervals.

Once candidates have demonstrated the depth of their proficiency and knowledge on this exam, they become credentialed ISA arborists. They are then certified and can provide quality, safe, expert care for trees and shrubs. 

Services That Certified Arborists Can Provide

Arborists can provide several different types of tree services, including:

Tree Removal

Parting with old trees can be difficult, but sometimes, an aged tree becomes unsafe to have on a property. The disease can strike a few trees and have the potential to spread the illness to other healthy trees nearby, or a severe storm can take a weakened tree down.

In any of these scenarios, it's best to seek out the services of a professional local arborist for safe, efficient tree removal. Professional tree removal provides the following benefits:

• Free estimates
• Quick, efficient work
• Friendly, professional customer service
• Diagnostic assessments
• Twenty-four-hour emergency service
• Skill and expertise for even the trickiest removals

Tree Trimming

When you need trimming services for any trees on your property, a professional arborist can help with that, as well. 

Tree trimming becomes necessary when you want to ensure the perfect growth or shape of a tree. Trees don't tend to grow perfectly symmetrically — their branches twist and reach toward the sun. So, on properties where the uniform appearance of the trees is a high priority, a little trimming can go a long way toward enhancing the aesthetic appeal.

Tree Pruning

While tree pruning enhances the shapeliness and aesthetic appeal of a tree, pruning enhances the health of the tree and helps ensure the safety of your home and property.

Pruning sometimes becomes necessary because an overhanging branch threatens the safety of your house, garage, shed, fence, or power lines or poses a danger to people who enter the yard. Pruning can also become necessary if overhead branches are blocking essential sunlight from reaching the limbs below, or if a diseased limb must be removed to preserve the health of the tree.

Tree pruning can be a lengthy, dangerous process for homeowners to attempt. However, a professional arborist can get the job done quickly and safely. At Richard's Tree Service, we offer both tree trimming and pruning and can soon have your trees looking and growing their best.

Tips for Choosing the Right Arborist

Choosing the right arborist can be challenging — it's hard to assess the expertise of someone in a field with which you have limited experience. So here are a few tips to make the selection process easier:

1. Seek out Reviews and Recommendations

When you're choosing an arborist, examining the experiences of past customers can help you make a more informed decision. Ask friends, coworkers, and other trusted acquaintances about their experiences. Reading the reviews on certain online review sites can also provide some insight into different companies' standards, professionalism, and capabilities.

2. Ask About Credentials

Some tree companies do not have certified personnel on staff. When you're planning to have people wielding chainsaws on your property, it's a good idea to make sure they have the best qualifications. Finding out whether an arborist has ISA-certified technicians on staff can tell you about the employees' training and expertise. 

3. Request an Estimate

Reading reviews and verifying credentials are excellent first steps, but soon it will be time to get into the specifics of your needs. Contact an arborist and request an estimate — the company will then send an employee or a team to your property to assess the scenario and make recommendations. Doing this will allow you to get a personal feel for how the company works, learn how the company would approach the problem and get an idea about the cost. 

4. Compare Different Companies

Getting a few different estimates provides you with even more knowledge. If a few different companies all quote similar figures, and one quotes an exorbitant price, you'll probably want to go with one of the more reasonable options. And if one business goes above and beyond in its professionalism, insight, and competence, you can feel good about engaging its services. 

Certified Arborists FAQ

Below are a few frequently asked questions about certified arborists.

1. Why Choose Certified Arborists Over General Landscapers?

A general landscaper typically offers many services such as mowing lawns, planting foliage and even manicuring trees and bushes. But that doesn’t mean a landscaper has any real knowledge about the trees they’re working on, including which species to choose, where to plant them and how to care for them. A licensed arborist, on the other hand, is specially trained and equipped to plant, care for, maintain and remove all different kinds of trees.

Choosing insured arborists in Virginia, such as Richard’s Tree Service, comes with many benefits, from increasing the value of your property to reducing risks that often go hand in hand with poorly maintained trees. Perhaps most importantly, removing large trees can be extremely dangerous, requiring the knowledge and precision of a skilled professional. Our ISA member arborists are expressly trained to work safely in and around trees.

2. What Does It Mean to Be Certified by the International Society of Arboriculture?

The International Society of Arboriculture is a non-profit organization dedicated to aiding tree-care professionals in developing and progressing an effective plant health care program. A certified ISA-member arborist has undergone a non-governmental, voluntary process by which they are assessed and measured in the skill and competency to provide proper tree services. As a dedicated tree service for Arlington, VA, and across the region, we’ve successfully made the effort to document our training and knowledge in the art and science of caring for, maintaining and removing trees.

3. Why Hire an Arborist?

Hiring an arborist is a great choice for a few different reasons:

• Safety: The work of an arborist involves great heights, as well as chainsaws and other formidable tools. For homeowners who have little experience with tree work, trying to do the job without professional help could lead to serious injury — either to themselves or to bystanders. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 36,000 Americans end up in the emergency room each year because of chainsaw injuries. Professional arborists have the training and know-how to keep themselves and your family safe. 
• Knowledge: When trees become sick and need a diagnosis, or when you're not sure how to approach a trimming or pruning project, you can turn to professional arborists for advice. Their years of study and experience give them the knowledge they need to get the job done right. 
• Efficiency: For an average homeowner, what may seem like an enjoyable thirty minutes of yard work can quickly turn into hours of frustrating labor. Certified arborists have the skills and tools to get your trees looking good quickly. 

Contact Richard's Tree Service for All Your Arborist Needs

When you need tree removal, tree arborists or tree service in Northern VA, get in touch with Richard's Tree Service. We are fully licensed and insured, and we pride ourselves on the experience and sharp eyes of our certified personnel. We offer an extensive array of tree services, from deep root fertilization to stump grinding to tree evaluation, trimming, pruning, and removal. Plus, our friendly customer service professionals are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help you find solutions to all your tree needs. 

Are you searching for a licensed, insured tree arborist in Northern Virginia, or do you have a question about what it means to be an ISA member arborist? Give us a call or submit our online request form for more information today.