ISA HK/China --- Free Arbor seminars to the public

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Dear Station Members,

Our Station Motto is Integrity, Professionalism & Participation.

Whereas Integrity & Professionalism are for the credibility & conduct of our Station CA especially those from the CA Family, Participation is meant for Station Members to join Station activities so that our Station remains active instead of dormant, & also for our Station to join the public at large to let them feel Arborists are part of the community. The last thing that the CA Family would like to be known is a village of noble people living high up in the clouds & laughing at the world below. Not all Station CA's are in the CA Family. There is a certain criteria to join this prestigious group. At present, only around 65% of Station CA are in the CA Family.

It has been demonstrated time after time in past that our public would desire Arbor education. Every Tree Supervision Class of the Station Manager in CITA ended up with thundering applause. This Station has been interviewed many times by the media & continues to receive phone calls on Arbor matters from public individuals. There is a genuine need to promote Arbor knowledge in HK/China as a public need.

On the other hand, various newspapers have given counts of public complaint about tree malpractice constantly. Nearly every time, the tree owners would find an educated excuse to defend their wilful act. Then the complaint would be dissolved & the same act would repeat next time only to be met with another intelligent answer. The public are rarely winning.

Why can't the public win? They simple answer is that they do not know enough about trees. They are not Arborists & have not been trained specially for tree care. When replied, they would not know what the next question should be. Many a times when puzzled, they do not know where to go for help. Most of them have never heard of the existence of ISA either.

If our Station believes in Participation, we should offer help. Offering help will cost us time but we are supposed to believe in Participation. If we do not live up our word, then we are infringing Integrity. If our answer does not comply with our practice, then we offend Professionalism. We would then become a bag of hot air & lose the respect we deserve.

Therefore, we have to do something to maintain our credibility. Arborists are Practitioners & we materialize our word. After discussion with the CA Family, this Station has decided to provide free seminars in Chinese or English in basic Arbor education to the public. The initial sessions would be those described below with each lasting around one hour each in :

1. Basic ISA Tree Standards --- What are the international requirements for a quality landscape tree? How should it be grown & what are the inspection procedures? In short, how should a good tree look like?

2. Basic ISA Tree Planting --- What are the requirements for tree & ground before planting? How & when should we plant or transplant a tree? What are the requirements for backfill, wound protection, fertilizing & staking in accordance with international practices?

3. Basic ISA Tree Pruning --- Why do we prune? What are the objectives for pruning? What are the pruning techniques in accordance with international practices? Are young trees & mature trees pruned the same way & why, if different? ? What are the harms of Topping? What is Structural Pruning & how is it used in landscape trees?

This Station has already prepared power points for the 3 topics above. The speaker will be a volunteer CA from the CA Family. Other topics can be prepared when needed in future.

The free seminar will be given to any group of over 25 persons in a class upon request at a time & location convenient to the CA Family speaker. Our target groups include Political Parties (any discipline), Religious Groups (any faith), Student Unions, Teachers Unions, Press Unions, Social Workers Unions, Civil Servants Unions, Labour Unions, Trade Unions, etc. This Station will approach them one by one to offer our service.

On the other hand, if any Station Member can gather a group of over 25 persons, he/she will be welcomed to contact this Station for any of the above seminars. Please kindly note the organizer will need to provide an air-con room with projector & screen for the presentation, at a time & location convenient to the CA Family speaker.

Participation is the commitment of the CA Family to serve our society. It will also bring close the Arborist Profession to the public at large. Our service is in every way beneficial to the society of HK/China & our Station.

Please propagate this message to friends & neighbours at will. You may want to print out this message as a record for future reference. This is the least this Station can do to serve our society with no funding & limited resources at our disposal.

The CA Family looks forward to anybody's invitation anytime from now.

best regards,

Sammy Au
ISA HK/China Station Manager
ISA Chief Proctor for the HK/China Region
ISA Certified Arborist / Certified Tree Climber no. ML-0174AT
Lecturer of Tree Supervision at CITA