Checking Your Sources

I went to a tree pruning workshop over the weekend. With all the questions that were brought up, the series that stuck the most to me, was how do you know you are hiring the best landscape contractor or maintenance company and how do you know they are doing things correctly. So often we trust that if they are still in business, they must be doing things good enough. It was interesting to learn that there are only 5 certified arborists within 100 miles of Richfield, only one of which is within 30 miles. That means, unless you are lucky enough to find that one company, you really have no guarantee that the guy pruning your tree is trained and current on the healthiest and best practices for pruning your trees. That may not be a big deal for your shade trees, but it could be huge for your fruit trees.

So, how do you, as a resident, know who to hire or how they should be doing things. Here in Utah a great resource is the USU Extension (extension.usu.edu). They will have literature and links for all sorts of landscape, garden and home issues and questions. Much of the literature is for the entire state of Utah, but some things (like how frequently you need to water lawn) are set up by county.

Another good resource is the International Society of Arboriculture (isa-arbor.com). On their website you can search for an arborist including the name of the arborist and their company. You can also find detail sheets for how to plant trees and shrubs, or even installing a sprinkler system.

Another place to look for information on nursery plants is americanhort.org. They can help you see what you should be looking for in nursery plants and what information you should be able to find on the plant labels.

A good thing to look for when hiring a company is their business licensing. The state licenses businesses in general, individuals in specific fields (like Landscape Architects), and then specific businesses. You can research a professional license at dopl.utah.gov or a general business license at secure.utah.gov/bes.