Posted by Heather Green on March 4, 2008, 8:44 am, in reply to "Re: Illinois Tree Licensing Act Discussion"
72.135.217.208
Tom,
I apologize for the delay in responding to your Tree Expert Act. I have had time to think about it, but not to write about it. I know that you brought this up at the 2006 IAA conference and I did discuss it with several members, past presidents, our legislative committee, and other chapters since then. However, I did not keep you in the discussion or updated of the discussion results. I do apologize for that.
This topic is one of our Legislative Committee. However, the committee has not been active since last spring ¡V due to the nature of work constraints during the rest of the year. Not a great excuse, but ¡§it is what it is.¡¨ Hopefully soon we will be working toward hiring a lobbyist to help guide us in the nature of these things and to get our decision makers educated in the matter of the importance of professional tree care and the importance of trees.
I applaud your energy and enthusiasm and I hope we can find the best way to move the goal forward: Professionals providing professional tree care; Minimal spread of EAB infested wood; increase respect and utilization of professional Certified Arborists; and ultimately greater respect and care for our trees.
Through the various discussions that I have had, it seemed that moving forward with state licensing did not seem to be the best manner to achieve this. I am not saying that we should or should not pursue it or support or not support it.
In my discussion with the Florida Chapter, Joseph R. Samnik, last spring they shared their 10th draft of the legislation! Yes, after 2 years of research and 2 years of drafting, several attorneys and lobbyist have been involved they still did not have the legislation approved that they wanted. (I did not research today to see if they finally passed the legislation.)
He also corrected me in that (for lack of ability to gather the correct wording in this e-mail) we have a marketing/ image issue vs. a legislative issue as it relates to wanting to license in relation to EAB. We will not solve this issue with licensing ¡V from their experience. It can only be addressed successfully with marketing.
Let me add that in my discussions with INA, Dave Bender, who has had experience in such matters, the state usually is not supportive of ¡§State Licensing.¡¨ The State of Illinois seems to currently struggle with so many other programs (not just agriculture/ tree related) to expect them to fix this issue seems to be not an easy task. (Don¡¦t get me started! ƒº)
To me, the best case scenario is to have the State recognize Certified Arborist as a minimum criteria for professional tree care, NOT a License. Unfortunately without a strong mechanism to enforce non-compliance of a ¡§State License¡¨, it seems to hurt those that would be compliant ¡V an extra fee to those who are Certified, and minimal costs to those who are not ¡V unless they are caught. (Having recently just built a house, ¡§licensing¡¨ has a WHOLE NEW MEANING to me than what I previously thought it to be.)
The positives that I see, is that such a legislation, ¡§State Licensing¡¨ or required ¡§Certified Arborist¡¨ status would be a possible tool for those communities who have Municipal Arborists or staff who are Certified or recognize Certified Arborist qualification. (The communities that do not have such staff would be VERY unlikely to enforce.) Those communities could then use this state law for local licensing requirements and violations for non-compliance, IF they have the opportunity to look into it. (I have a hard time with enforcing the other thousand or so laws that we currently have locally. Okay so I am exaggerating. But there are a lot. And when I call the police to assist in processing a violation, it is not always supportive. They do it because they have to do, but usually I get a ¡§Why am I here? This is ridiculous.¡¨ look.)
Don¡¦t get me wrong. I want the same things as you seem to want, I just think that a different avenue might be better: Possibly pursue Certified Arborists for work on any government contracted work? Now that is a start. At the same time STRONG education campaign on WHY it is GOOD to hire a certified arborist. Have the public and elected officials BUY IN to the idea.
IAA has a young marketing and legislative committee with some great members, ideas and goals. I think if we can make these two committees stronger and the IAA hires a professional marketer, lobbyist and attorney we can move these issues forward at lightning speed. We can then greatly impact these issues in a very positive manner.
I invite anyone passionate and interested to join these two great committees to help us move these issues forward. Please contact April for more details.
Tom, again, I so appreciate all that you have done to move this as far as you have! It is absolutely remarkable! Great Job. I hope we can take this energy and hard work and move it to the next level. Let me know what you think about my soapbox! ļ
Hope all is well.
Heather Green
Heather Green
Village Forester
Village of Oak Lawn
9446 Raymond Avenue
Oak Lawn, IL 60453
Phone: (708)499-7098
FACSIMILE: (708)499-7065
HGREEN@OAKLAWN-IL.GOV
WWW.OAKLAWN-IL.GOV
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