Arboriculture

Arboriculture (ˈɑrbərᵻˌkʌltʃər,_ɑrˈbɔr-) is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. The science of arboriculture studies how these plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environment. The practice of arboriculture includes cultural techniques such as selection, planting, training, fertilization, pest and pathogen control, pruning, shaping, and removal. A person who practices or studies arboriculture can be termed an arborist or an arboriculturist. A tree surgeon is more typically someone who is trained in the physical maintenance and manipulation of trees and therefore more a part of the arboriculture process rather than an arborist. Risk management, legal issues, and aesthetic considerations have come to play prominent roles in the practice of arboriculture. Businesses often need to hire arboriculturists to complete "tree hazard surveys" and generally manage the trees on-site to fulfill occupational safety and health obligations. Arboriculture is primarily focused on individual woody plants and trees maintained for permanent landscape and amenity purposes, usually in gardens, parks or other populated settings, by arborists, for the enjoyment, protection, and benefit of people. Arboricultural matters are also considered to be within the practice of urban forestry yet the clear and separate divisions are not distinct or discreet. Tree benefits are the economic, ecological, social and aesthetic use, function purpose, or services of a tree (or group of trees), in its situational context in the landscape. Environmental tree benefits Erosion control and soil retention Improved water infiltration and percolation Protection from exposure: windbreak, shade, impact from hail/rainfall Humidification of the air Food for decomposers, consumers, and pollinators Soil health: organic matter accumulation from leaf litter and root exudates (symbiotic microbes) Ecological habitat Modulates environmental conditions in a given microclimate: shields wind, humidifies, provides shade Carbon sequestration Oxygen production Increased biodiversity Social tree benefits: Employment: forestry, education, tourism Run-off and flood control (e.