In 2017-2018, the Massachusetts Tree Wardens and Foresters Association offered its first six-module course designed to educate tree wardens about what they need to know to fulfill their duties. Those who successfully completed the course received the Massachusetts Qualified Tree Warden designation and certificate of achievement. The next course will begin in September 2019 and wrap up in November. Here is a list of frequently asked questions. Please email us if you need further information! Click here for a session-by-session course outline.
Course topics will include those in the list below.
- What you need to know to be a tree warden, including work priorities, public relations, and cultivating community support
- Plant ecology, botany and soils
- Tree identification (all six sessions)
- Arboricultural safety, ANSI Z133, and EHAP introduction
- Massachusetts tree laws
- Working with utility arborists
- Budgeting, outside contracting, ANSI A300 Tree Care Practices
- Tree wardens and the community: working with other departments, tree boards, volunteers, and the media.
- Storm preparation: planning with other departments and the utility company, using i-Tree
- Managing and funding tree programs: municipal budgets, DCR & other grants, writing grant applications, Tree City USA and other programs
- Municipal Plant Health Care (PHC)
- Construction zone management
- Tree risk evaluation, inventory policy, and liability
- Decay and structural support of trees
- A300 tree risk management
- Tree risk field evaluation
- Municipal inventories and i-Tree
- Streetscape design and tree planting
- Tree planting best practices