Wildlife Trained Arborist List (for Arborists)

Wildlife Biologist Courtney McCammon showing tree care professionals a nest during a Wildlife Workshop in Los Angeles, CA. Photo credit: Nurit Katz.

Updated November 2, 2023

This article is to provide additional information to arborists about Tree Care for Birds Wildlife Trained Arborist list. Relatively frequently, wildlife lovers ask us who has taken our training and would be a good choice to hire for their project. We want to connect the people who want to hire Wildlife Trained Arborists with you. To be added to the list, enter your information here. Periodically, we will confirm credentials and update our list, it does not happen instantly. We have another post with more information for those who want to hire Wildlife Trained Arborists. 

The Tree Care for Wildlife Best Management Practices define a wildlife trained arborist as: tree care workers with training and/or experience in the following: knowledge of wildlife protection regulations, determining habitat value, conducting pre-work nesting inspections, identifying signs of nesting wildlife, determining if nests are active (contain eggs or young wildlife), responding to wildlife emergencies, and contacting Wildlife Biologists when needed. This list is essentially the agenda for wildlife workshops that have been put on by a variety of organizations (WCISA, PNWISA, AAA, ACTC, SimsTLC, etc.). Taking these workshops should provide you the knowledge and skill to be a Wildlife Trained Arborist, but you will need to continue practicing to build enough experience to meet all of these responsibilities.

As of right now, there is no organization credentialing Wildlife Trained Arborists. Tree Care for Birds made up this term and definition, and we welcome tree care professionals to use the term to describe themselves when they feel that they meet these requirements. We hope that many tree care professionals will continue to get training, practice identifying signs of nesting wildlife, and manage wildlife habitat through urban forestry. We are creating a list, not of all Wildlife Trained Arborists, but only those who have met four specific requirements. We reserve the right to change these requirements at any time.

Certified Arborists

Many Wildlife Trained Arborists are not Certified Arborists, it is not a requirement. But, Tree Care for Birds wants to ensure that anyone on our list meet at least a this minimum standard. We encourage all Wildlife Trained Arborists to work towards their Certified Arborist credential because we think that it is important for our industry.

Have completed a wildlife training workshop of at least 4 hours

We think that these workshops are important places for arborists to learn about the laws and best practices. The list of skills to train Wildlife Trained Arborists is long enough that we have set 4 hours as the minimum length to be on our list. Most wildlife workshops are 5-8 hours long. A few that are shorter than 4 hours, do not seem adequate to cover all of the important content. If you want to have a workshop in your area, fill out the request here.

Are aware of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (Migratory Birds Convention Act in Canada) and any other laws or regulations in the area and have practices in place to minimize impacting nesting wildlife

The Best Management Practices and Wildlife Workshops are largely designed to help arborists minimize impacts to nesting wildlife based on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. But, arborists must go out every day and try their best to make good decisions. Understanding what is legally protected and trying to minimize your impact is something that you must be committed to in order to be on our list. Tree Care for Birds is here to help.

Want customers to contact you directly

Many Wildlife Trained Arborists are not directly contacted by customers looking for tree care. They are out in the field climbing trees and making good cuts, consultants or municipal arborists that don’t offer these services, etc. This list is not designed to check whether an arborist has taken the training or is following the BMPs, it is to directly connect Wildlife Trained Arborists with customers who want to hire them. If you want to be on Tree Care for Bird’s Wildlife Trained Arborist list for a different reason besides connecting with customers, contact us or use the form to tell us why.

Other Logistics:

Don’t want address publicly available

If you don’t want your address publicly available, just enter a zip code. The mapping software appears to use the center of the zip code to show your location. If many Wildlife Trained Arborists use the same zip code, the usability of the map is limited, but it is the best that we can do right now.

Large companies with multiple offices

Each Wildlife Trained Arborist is tied to one geographic location. We have created a map to help potential customers find Wildlife Trained Arborists in their area. If you have multiple offices or cover a wide geographic area, the best solution is likely to submit multiple Wildlife Trained Arborists at different geographic locations. For example, Ryan is the Wildlife Trained Arborist that covers Northern California, and Corey is the Wildlife Trained Arborist that covers Southern California.