Bence

When I wrote my introduction on the website, I immediately rewrote it, because after my colleagues read it, the only thing they asked me: okay, we understand, these are your plans, but did you write about yourself? :D Anyways, they are right, I always have a million plans in my head and I focus on those first and foremost, even though we already have a lot of beautiful projects behind us that we are really proud of.

We have been able to care for such veteran trees that I would never have dreamed of years ago. We've also had complex projects where the brainstorming, planning and sourcing of materials used took much more time than the execution itself.

Although we learn a lot about the care of mature and veteran trees, one of the most interesting parts of our work is how we can use our experience to treat young trees. Old trees can provide space to a lot of tree defects, but it is always a question of whether we should keep, for example, a branch with a den on a younger tree, of course with the appropriate pruning to make it safe, even if only as a curiosity, to benefit ecological diversity. 

I graduated as a forestry technician in Sopron and soon afterwards I ended up in Budapest. I started working in one of the parks because, as it turned out, in the capital there was a need for everyone with a forestry or horticulture qualification. As an employee, I worked my way through the major tree and park maintenance companies in Budapest, a period that had its advantages and disadvantages as well.

It became clear to me that I wanted to work with tree care in the long run and I wanted to do it as well as possible. I fell completely in love with this profession. Many late evenings I would find myself knotting ropes on my terrace and I watched all the climbing videos I could find on the internet diligently and tried to learn from them. I came across foreign arborist professionals in the online space and started to follow their work on all kinds of platforms, watching how they worked, what they did and why they did.

In the meantime, I have attended many courses and at every workplace I had, I have met skillful professionals from whom I could learn, but unfortunately these larger companies did not value their good professionals at all.

I wanted to learn, I wanted to become better, I wanted to work with good tools, I just didn't want to get stuck and because there was no other way to do it, I became an entrepreneur. In the beginning I also did a lot of tree felling because I didn't have other solutions to every problem yet and even if I did, I had to learn how to communicate that.

We have reinvested every penny back into the business and that's how we have expanded our equipment. Fun fact: we paid for my first helmet with a Christmas gift voucher, and for quite a while I sewed the throw weights myself to keep the costs down. Until these days, reinvesting the money is still very much a thing – given the choice between an all-inclusive holiday in Mallorca and a DMM Kinisi harness, I'd go for the harness without a second thought. Or actually, I've already got one. :D

I dove into the international arborist training system, and at the same time, we started creating content about our work. The 'whys' started falling into place – I was discovering more and more great technologies, gaining deeper knowledge, and gradually upgrading to better tools. 

After completing the SKT-A (tree pruning with handsaw) and SKT-B (tree pruning with chainsaw and tree removal) courses, and gaining several years of hands-on experience, I finally achieved my long-awaited ETW (European Tree Worker) certification in 2021 at the Arbor Technical Institute Kreitl in Austria.

I never thought I would enjoy hunching over books and notes to such an extent as I prepared for the exam. It was fun to learn something I was really interested in and so passionate about. I did a lot of preparation, I also made a bud collection again after many years, this time of urban tree species. Metasequoia glyptostroboides have haunted my dreams ever since. :D

Another fun fact: my wife put together quite a few practice tests for me. The toughest one was a seemingly endless exam: I had a maximum of 3 hours to write the whole thing, I had to wear chainsaw protective trousers (and anyone who has ever worn them knows, they are far from comfortable :D), and in addition, the most difficult questions were left to the end, when I was sufficiently tired already. After all this, my wife told me that if I prepare for the harshest conditions and still can get everything right, I should have no reason to fear the exam. And she was right. I did quite well in the exam, and I even got some compliments. :) 

We try to showcase our work on more and more platforms, introducing trees and all the interesting facts and little quirks in connection with them. However, we also wanted to pass on the beauty of the profession to younger generations, so we decided to write a children's book. We worked on it for about a year. The result is far from perfect, since I am not a writer, but perhaps the book has fulfilled its purpose: more and more children will know that the profession of arboriculture exists, and if it exists, why couldn't they give it a chance too?

The book has been translated into German, and there was also an article published about it in a German professional journal, Kletterblatt, which I am particularly proud of.

Recently I have been receiving more and more invitations to give lectures on arboriculture across the country. It is a real challenge to make these presentations engaging for all participants. The feedback and questions help a lot in shaping my lectures, as they allow me to reflect on current issues and topics that are more interesting to my audience. 

Coming back to arboriculture – I love the variety of my work. No two trees are the same, and as a result, their environment is always unique. They are exposed to different influences, and they do not all react the same way.

When caring for trees, I always try to understand the underlying causes. Every growth anomaly has a reason, and once we identify it, our goal in tree care is not to force some radical idea on the tree but rather to support it while also making it safe with our interventions. I love how complex this is – it constantly pushes me to learn. I also follow the work of international colleagues, and fortunately, many of them regularly share updates on their most interesting projects.

I will never know everything about trees – it would be stupid to claim otherwise. But that's a good thing! It means that our knowledge of trees is growing daily. More and more people are researching them, and more studies, lectures, and professional writings are born. Our task is simply to stay up-to-date and not be afraid to reevaluate our past care methods if necessary. Growth is essential, and that requires us to move away from outdated habits and search for new approaches, because if we want the best for our trees, this is the only way.

The climate is changing, the pruning manuals written decades ago are out of date. The argument "this is how we've always done it" is no longer acceptable. We must adapt and find solutions to new challenges. This is the mindset in which we work every single day.