Who turns up
A certified arborist in Courtenay should be checkable before they arrive, not described in a paragraph afterwards. Here is who does the work and what they hold.
Invented people · demonstration site
The four people below do not exist. On a real build this page is the one piece of the site where nothing may be taken on trust: every certification number is verified against the issuing body before it is published, because an ISA credential is checkable at treesaregood.org in about a minute and publishing an unverified one puts the client in real trouble.
Owner, climbing arborist
14 years in the trade
Started climbing on the mainland, moved to the Valley in her third season and has been taking trees out of tight Courtenay backyards ever since. Writes most of the arborist reports and does the assessments nobody else wants to be wrong about.
“Half of what I get asked to remove does not need removing. I say so, and I put it in writing.”
Climbing arborist, rigging lead
11 years in the trade
Runs the rigging on the hard removals — the ones where the tree has to come down in pieces over a roof, a hot tub or a neighbour’s greenhouse. Spent four winters on storm response and still gets the first call when something comes down at 2am.
“The cut is the easy part. Where the piece goes after the cut is the job.”
Consulting arborist
9 years in the trade
Handles reports, permit submissions and the tree health work — the cedar dieback diagnostics that have taken over half the Valley’s calls since the dry summers began. Tends to be the one explaining to a developer why the retained tree needs a bigger protection zone.
“A report that always concludes "remove it" is not an assessment, it is a quote with a cover page.”
Groundsman, grinder operator
6 years in the trade
Runs the chipper and the stump grinder, and is the reason the lawn looks better when the crew leaves than it did when they arrived. Knows which gates the narrow-access machine fits through in half the neighbourhoods here.
“You will not know we were in the backyard except that the tree is gone.”
Any company worth hiring can produce an ISA certification number, a liability certificate and a WorkSafeBC clearance letter in about five minutes. Ask all three of your quotes for the same paperwork.
Quotes are free, and we come and look at the tree before we price it.