CERTIFIED ARBORIST IN MEMPHIS
ISA Certified Arborist SO-1461A
Most tree companies will tell you they have a certified arborist. Ours has a number you can look up.
Jason Sengel is an ISA Certified Arborist, number SO-1461A. It is on every estimate we write, it is on this page, and the International Society of Arboriculture keeps a public register you can check it against without asking us anything. We would rather you did.
Look up an arborist on the ISA’s own register — ours or anybody else’s. If a company cannot give you a name and a number for the person who will actually look at your tree, that is worth knowing before they quote.
What the certification actually requires
“Arborist” on its own is not a protected word. Anyone with a saw can use it, and in this trade plenty do. ISA Certified Arborist is different, because it has to be earned and it has to be kept:
- Three years of full-time practical experience in arboriculture, or a degree in a related field plus less time in the field, before you may even sit the exam.
- A written examination covering tree biology, soil, diagnosis, pruning, cabling, climbing, electrical hazard awareness and tree risk assessment.
- Thirty continuing-education units every three years, or the certification lapses. It is not a certificate you hang up once.
- A code of ethics, with a complaints process that can take the credential away.
None of that makes someone a better climber. What it makes them is someone who can tell you why — why the tree is doing what it is doing, and what will happen if you leave it alone for another year.
The difference it makes on your yard
The honest version: for a straightforward job, it may make no difference at all. A dead pine in an open yard is a dead pine, and a good crew will take it down safely whoever signed the paperwork.
It matters when there is a judgement to make. Whether the oak leaning over the bedroom is actually a risk or just an oak that grew that way. Whether the dead patch in the canopy is a disease, a root problem, or last summer’s drought. Whether a tree can be saved with a season of care or is three years into failing where you cannot see it. Those are not cutting decisions, and a tree can carry a full green canopy and still be failing at the root plate.
The cost of getting that wrong runs both ways. Remove a tree that did not need removing and you have paid thousands for shade you will not get back for thirty years. Leave one that did and it finds your roof in the next storm.
When it is worth asking for the arborist specifically
On plenty of jobs the crew is all you need. On these, ask who is making the call.
A big tree near the house
Risk, not guesswork
- Anything tall enough to reach the roof, the drive or a neighbor's property
- A lean that is new, or soil lifting on one side of the base
- Cracks, cavities, fungal brackets at the foot of the trunk
- A written assessment you can show an insurer or a neighbor
Something is wrong and nobody knows what
Diagnosis before treatment
- Thinning canopy, early leaf drop, dieback at the branch tips
- Borer holes, bleeding bark, mushrooms in the root zone
- Tells you whether it is treatable or terminal
- Leads to disease and insect control, or to removal — not automatically to removal
Buying, selling or building
Before the money moves
- An inspection before closing, while the price can still change
- Construction damage: roots cut, soil compacted, grade changed
- Trees that look fine for two years after the digger leaves, then do not
- Something in writing for the file
A dispute or a claim
When it has to hold up
- A neighbor's limbs over your yard, and who may cut what
- Storm damage an insurer wants documented
- A city or utility question about a tree in the right of way
- A qualified opinion carries weight an invoice does not
Things a certified arborist will not do
This is as useful a test as anything on the list above. Ask a company whether they will top your tree. If the answer is yes, the certification is not doing any work.
Topping — cutting the main limbs back to stubs to make a tree smaller — is rejected by the industry’s own standards. It strips the leaves the tree feeds itself with, forces a flush of weak regrowth from the cut ends, opens every stub to decay, and three years later leaves you with a taller, heavier, weaker tree than the one you started with. Reducing a canopy properly means cutting back to a limb that can take over, not to a stump.
The same goes for spikes on a tree that is being pruned rather than removed, and for taking more live canopy than a tree can spare in one season. None of it shows up for a year or two, which is exactly why it keeps getting done.
Memphis has its own problems
Years of working here is a different kind of qualification, and it is not one you can sit an exam for. Our clay goes to concrete in a dry August and holds water in a wet spring; roots on a mature water oak spend their lives between those two states. Straight-line winds come through in the spring and again in the fall, and they find the same weaknesses every time.
Robinson Tree has been family-owned since 2001 and works yards right across the city — Midtown, East Memphis, Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, Cordova and out to Eads. We know which species fail here and how, which is half of what a risk assessment is.
What we do with that: tree health inspections, disease and insect control, tree trimming, and tree removal when a tree is genuinely past saving.
Insured, and that is a separate question
Certification says someone knows trees. Insurance says what happens if a limb goes through your roof on the way down. They are not the same thing and you want both.
We carry liability cover to $2 million and workers’ compensation, and we will send the certificates to you directly rather than telling you they exist. Ask every company you get a quote from for the same — if a crew member is hurt on an uninsured job in your yard, the claim does not stop at the company. More on how we are insured.
Questions people ask before they call
Is an arborist the same as a tree service?
Not quite. A tree service does the work. An arborist is trained to decide what work the tree actually needs, and whether it needs any.
We are both, which is the point — the person who assesses your tree is the person whose crew does the job, so nothing is lost between the diagnosis and the saw.
How do I check that someone really is a certified arborist?
Ask for the name on the certification and the number. Then look it up on the ISA's public register at treesaregood.org — it takes about a minute and you do not have to tell anyone you are doing it.
Ours is Jason Sengel, SO-1461A. A company that will not give you a name and a number is telling you something.
Does it cost more to use a certified arborist?
Not for the work itself. Our prices are for the job, not for who signed off on it.
Where it changes the number is in what gets recommended. An arborist will sometimes tell you a tree you were ready to remove can be kept, which is the cheaper answer, and sometimes that one you wanted trimmed has to come out.
Do you charge for an estimate?
No. Jason comes out, looks at the tree and gives you a written estimate at no cost and with no obligation.
A full written health inspection — the kind you would want before closing on a house or for an insurer — is a separate piece of work. We will tell you up front if that is what you need.
My tree looks fine. Is there any point having it looked at?
Often, yes. The trees that come down in a Memphis storm are rarely the ones the owner was worried about. Root and butt problems do their damage out of sight and the canopy is the last thing to show it.
Once a year, and after any major storm, is the usual advice.
Will you top my tree if I ask you to?
No. Topping damages the tree, costs you more in the long run and leaves it more dangerous than it was.
If a tree is too big for where it stands, we will tell you honestly whether it can be reduced properly or whether the right answer is to take it out and plant something that fits.
Have a certified arborist look at your tree — free
Tell us what you have noticed and we will call you back to arrange a visit. No charge, no obligation, and Jason will tell you if the answer is to leave it alone.