on arborists and birds
by julie Amato
Arborists and bird lovers are working to change the tree care industry with wildlife-friendly practices.
What does it take to change a culture, and how can birders help?
Like many people who love birds, I tend to feel queasy, and more than a little helpless, when I hear the sounds of chainsaws and wood chippers on my block, heralding the arrival of tree trimmers. If it’s spring or summer, and the birds are nesting, my unease spikes.
Are they cutting down the tree where the Nuttall’s Woodpeckers are nesting in a small, easily overlooked, cavity? Are they trimming the palm fronds where the Hooded Orioles have woven their delicate basket nests? What about the Barn Owl fledglings that call from my neighbor’s hedge at night, but are quiet and still during the day? My stomach knots, and I fervently hope that this time, all will go well for the birds, even if I don’t quite believe it myself.
Nuttall’s Woodpeckers, quintessential California birds, nest in tree cavities. These cavities can be hard to spot, requiring careful inspection before trimming trees (photo by Teresa Cheng).
Then one day, something unexpected happened: while out birding, I met and exchanged excited field notes with another birder, Matt Sesody. We got to talking about other things, and it turned out that when not birding, my new acquaintance is an arborist. Spearheaded by a group called Tree Care For Birds, Matt and others are bringing new practices into the tree care industry to protect birds and other wildlife.
Inspired and hopeful, I decided to learn more about the people who want to change the way we do tree care; what they’ve accomplished; and just what it takes to change a culture. This article is an exploration of what I learned.
The Tree Care For Birds Committee brings together arborists and wildlife advocates to develop and teach new industry standards.
Ryan Gilpin is a consulting arborist who runs his own company, Nidus (“nest” in Latin) Consulting. Consulting arborists are a professional category of arborists who are trained to assess trees and prepare neutral reports recommending solutions to tree problems. Although much of his current work revolves around tree care, Ryan’s background is in conservation ecology, and he brings this perspective into his consulting projects. Now based in Portland, Oregon, he lived in Berkeley for a long time, and was active in the Golden Gate Bird Alliance.
Ryan is the chair of Tree Care For Birds and Other Wildlife, a committee of the western chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. Tree Care For Birds was established in 2015, in response to “big headlines” about birds being harmed and killed during tree work in California, says Ryan. Its founders wanted to make sure that incidents like these didn’t happen again.
The group has two main goals: to minimize the impact of tree work on birds and other wildlife, and to promote urban spaces as valuable habitat. Most of the committee members work in the tree care industry, like arborists, but there are also wildlife professionals; bird and wildlife advocates, including representatives of bird conservation groups; people in the public sector; and students.
Tree Care For Birds’ main project to date is the development of best management practices (BMP’s) for the protection of wildlife during tree work.
The BMP’s categorize the sensitivity of tree care on a particular site by (1) whether it occurs during the breeding season for birds and other wild animals, and (2) the value of the habitat to wildlife. Habitat is classified as “low value,” “high value,” or “sensitive,” depending on how likely it is to host wildlife. Most urban spaces are considered to be “low value” habitat, due to the large amount of human activity and the limited number of trees and other plants that support wildlife. (This is not to say that developed areas are not valuable habitat, but rather that they have fewer features that are attractive to wildlife.)
Tree Care For Birds’ Best Management Practices can be downloaded from the group’s website (see links at the end of this article).
The BMP’s specify different work procedures based on the season and habitat category. Pre-work inspections to determine bird and other wildlife activity are an important part of the process. The practices emphasize training tree care workers to recognize active nests and to understand what to do when they encounter one, including stopping and postponing work, and seeking guidance from an arborist who has been trained in the BMP’s, who in turn may consult a wildlife biologist.
The document also encourages arboriculture practices that support wildlife, from tree selection to preserving dead trees for cavity-nesting birds to use. In addition, the BMP’s educate tree care specialists in the laws that protect birds and other wildlife, such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Tree Care For Birds’ practices apply not just to birds, but to all wildlife, like this raccoon peeking around the trunk of a coast live oak (photo by Amber Graves).
In order to introduce these practices into the industry, Tree Care For Birds conducts workshops to train arborists and other tree care professionals in the BMP’s. Hundreds of arborists have completed these workshops, which are increasingly popular - a recent training in Palo Alto had a long waitlist of people who wanted to attend. The group has created a new designation, “Wildlife Trained Arborist,” to distinguish professionals that have completed one of Tree Care For Birds’ workshops and are knowledgeable of wildlife laws.
Tree Care For Birds’ work is raising awareness of the role that tree care workers play in caring for the environment.
According to Ryan, some people have felt that the BMP’s put too much onus on arborists - professionals with expertise in trees, not birds - to make decisions that affect wildlife. Ryan sees it differently: arborists are on the front lines of tree care, and are often called upon to solve wildlife problems during work. “We’re getting in trouble for this. Laws exist, birds are nesting in trees, we are cutting trees and we can potentially injure birds. Whose responsibility do you want that to be?” he asks.
The BMP’s help tree care companies do what is legally required to protect wildlife, which is important if they want to avoid fines, negative publicity, and regulatory solutions like moratoriums on tree work during the breeding season. “We have proposed a potential solution that we think is the best solution out there,” Ryan says.
A Cooper’s Hawk fledgling in Sunnyvale practices flapping its wings (photo by Doug Beattie).
Overall, the industry’s response to the BMP’s has been positive, and Ryan has seen more and more interest in them, including requests for proposals that require the BMP’s to be used, information requests from companies, and high demand for workshops. To Ryan, success can also be measured by what isn’t happening: since Tree Care For Birds was established, he has not seen “enormous mistakes making their way into the news” in California.
“Our main message is that nesting birds are protected every day of the year,” Ryan says. And he thinks this message is getting through. Ten years ago, he might have received a text from someone in January, saying that they found a nest in a tree that they were planning to cut, so needed to remove the tree before the breeding season started on February 1st. Ryan doesn’t get notes like this anymore.
Tree Care For Birds has been a source of inspiration for Ryan - and it’s also fun. “When I can go and teach workshops, and facilitate other people doing great work, it keeps me motivated. I feel like I’m giving back and making the industry better.” He also welcomes more collaboration with birders. “We draw a lot of divisions and silo ourselves,” Ryan says, “but if you’re interested in trees or birds, you’re truly interested in both.”
Arborists are bringing wildlife-friendly practices into their workplaces.
Amber Graves is a consulting arborist for Monarch Tree Services in Milpitas and a member of Tree Care For Birds; she has taught workshop sessions for the group. Growing up far from cities, “there were so many birds,” she says. “I loved them. I wanted to know what each bird was and what they were doing.” Amber became a member of Tree Care For Birds after meeting Ryan: “This is so, so, so important,” she says, “because everything we do in trees is going to impact birds and other wildlife in some way.”
Amber Graves teaching a Tree Care For Birds workshop (photo by Matt Sesody).
Arborist Matt Sesody has spent “half of his career outside,” and has liked being out with trees and nature ever since he was young. “In the summertime, I wouldn’t have shoes on. I’d just be outside running, so I’d have calloused feet,” Matt says (a “wild child,” jokes Amber). Like Amber, Matt works at Monarch, where he is also in sales; before becoming an arborist, he was a horticulturist for twenty years. Amber told Matt about Tree Care For Birds, and it was eye-opening for him. Preserving dead trees for cavity nesters has become a personal passion, and Matt likes to talk to people about why it’s important to conserve a tree for habitat rather than cutting it down.
Amber and Matt have been working to integrate Tree Care For Birds’ BMP’s into their company’s culture. Getting information to the work crews - “the people who are in positions to protect wildlife and to change habits” - says Amber, is critical to this mission; workers often aren’t aware that there are legal protections for birds, and may not know what to do if they accidentally disturb a nest. “Everyone does harm when they don’t know,” Amber says. Matt concurs: “Generally people are good. We don’t do harm with malicious intent. There are people out there who care.”
Last year, Amber trained Monarch’s work crews, teaching them that there are laws protecting wildlife, and explaining what to do if they found an active bird’s nest. After the training, she received phone calls from crews in the field that discovered nesting birds and wanted to know how they should proceed - a sign of the success of the training, in her view.
The Cavity Conservation Initiative provides signs that educate the public about the importance of preserving dead and dying trees (photo by Matt Sesody).
A key message to work crews, says Matt, is that “they have the right to stop.” Amber says, “If they shake a dead tree and a bird flies out of a cavity, and they say ‘not doing this one,’ they’ve done the right thing,” and she will defend their decision. “They shouldn’t be concerned about getting into trouble for protecting wildlife.” Annual training, she thinks, is needed to reinforce the message and refresh information so new ways of doing work gradually become the status quo.
Implementing the BMP’s also means slowing down, taking the time to evaluate a site for signs of birds and other wildlife when putting together a work proposal. Sometimes it can be difficult to find this time – salespeople are often “moving at the speed of stress,” say Matt and Amber. Regardless, Matt believes that it’s crucial that he carefully inspect a site to ensure that he budgets the right amount of time to manage any wildlife concerns that might arise during the job. In turn, this gives crews the time to be attentive and respond to what’s happening in the field while doing the work.
Both Amber and Matt view change as a long-term process: difficult but worth the effort. “You have to have the time to change, and two people alone can’t do it,” says Matt. You start by finding the people who are willing to make changes, working with them, and modeling the way you’d like things to be.
Matt Sesody rescues a fledgling Barn Owl that was orphaned (not as a result of tree work). Photo by Amber Graves
Amber and Matt are motivated to cultivate the next generation of arborists by introducing new practices, encouraging people from diverse backgrounds to join the profession, and mentoring young people in the field. It’s about “having the people who are willing to stick with it,” says Matt, so “new people coming in understand that there are new ways of thinking.”
“Be the change because it needs to happen,” Amber adds. “I want it to be better for folks who come after me.”
Bird advocates, like SCVBA members, can change tree care by speaking up and teaching others about birds.
SCVBA member Linda Sullivan is an advocate for nesting birds and habitat conservation, and believes that trees are vital to both. Linda grew up in New York City and loved trees even then - “a tree grows in Brooklyn,” she quips. She has lived in California for much of her adult life.
A Great Egret displays its plumage at the Almaden Lake breeding colony in San Jose (photo by Linda Sullivan).
Linda monitored the Great Blue Heron rookery at Vasona Lake County Park for eighteen years on behalf of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, only stopping when the colony was no longer viable. She continues to speak up for the welfare of birds at her favorite local birding spots.
Earlier this year, Linda intervened to protect the heron and egret rookery at Almaden Lake Regional Park, and got involved in discussions with the county to protect nesting Great Horned Owls at Vasona Park. In both cases, tree work was being carried out close to active nests, and Linda and others successfully advocated to stop the work until the breeding season was over.
Linda believes that change happens by building respectful and trusting relationships, one by one, with the people that need to be part of the solution to protect birds, and talking “peacefully and calmly” to reach a mutual agreement. “I want to meet people in person,” says Linda. “I want them to see me and see my passion for saving habitat, for doing the right thing. If you speak calmly, rationally, but with passion, you’ll get further.” She adds, “I am working for the best interests of both parties. I will listen to what you have to say, I will hear what you have to say, and I hope you’ll do the same for me.”
Linda measures success not only in terms of immediate outcomes, but by what happens in future years, and by new patterns of behavior that reflect lasting change. She hopes that the people she has met have a better understanding of the issues surrounding tree work and birds, and that they’ll reach out to SCVBA if they need advice or help. “I have very high hopes that our work is going to make a difference.”
A Great Horned Owl with prey at Vasona Park in Los Gatos (photo by Linda Sullivan)
Linda is strongly motivated by her desire to teach others about the importance of conserving habitat, so that the birds she loves will be here long into the future. “We all want birds to succeed and for us to go out and enjoy them as birders,” she says. “When I’m gone, I want Vasona and Almaden Lake to still be here for all those who come after me. Our goal should be to leave this place better than how we’re finding it.”
To change a culture, we all need to do our part.
Talking to Ryan, Amber, Matt, and Linda, I was struck by the common theme that flowed through our conversations: how do you change a culture? Arborists are trying to create change from inside the tree care industry; advocates try to motivate from the outside; and laws exist to define norms and create accountability and consequences.
While these are seemingly disparate perspectives, the people I talked to are united by a common approach and belief: that by connecting with others, by talking, listening, teaching, and sharing, by caring about each other and trusting one another, we do the hard but sure work of changing our way of doing things. And anybody and everybody can do this work.
A Red-tailed Hawk nestling in a tree (photo by Sushanta Bhandarkar)
I agree with Ryan, who thinks that distinctions between professions and interests are largely false, divisions that prevent us from seeing our common goal of conserving the natural world that we love. To change a culture, then, we all need to do our part, no matter who we are, understanding that we are contributing to something larger than ourselves.
Reflecting on her work, Linda says, “It’s a whole bunch of people, not just one person. That’s the one thing that I think an article should say - it’s not just about one person making a phone call, it’s about everyone being involved. I want future generations to be able to go out and see nesting birds.”
protect birds when trimming your trees:
Julie Amato is an SCVBA volunteer and the editor of All Around Town, our backyard bird report. Questions or comments about this article can be sent to Julie at backyardbirds@scvas.org.
This article is an edited version of one first published in the Fall 2024 edition of The Avocet.
Banner Photo: Cooper’s Hawk fledgling by Doug Beattie