Arborist nurtures Fujian's natural assets

Safety protocols

Despite her 10-year climbing experience, Yu remains fully aware of the risks involved.

"When I get high up, my legs sometimes shake. But when I'm up that high, 20 meters or higher, taking big swings, there's simply no time to dwell on it because tree work carries risks.

"For recreational climbing, it's great exercise and not likely to hurt climbers. But with tree work, injuries can happen," Yu said.

To mitigate the risk of injury, Yu always seeks out a secure position, a spot to stand in order to make the cut safely.

"When I cut a branch, I always check first. Sometimes two branches are intertwined, pressing against each other. If I don't see that and just cut, a branch can snap back and hit me in the face or neck. That can be fatal," she said, adding that an arborist needs strong spatial awareness and an ability to predict how things will move.

She added: "One can have experience with similar situations, but no two trees are exactly the same. We need to rely on accumulated practice to develop a sense of what's going to happen. The closer the prediction matches reality, the safer we are."

The difference in approach has consequences. Yu uses an analogy to describe what happens when untrained workers prune a tree: "If a finger is injured, professionals might only need to amputate the finger. But some untrained ones take the whole arm. The bad branch is gone, but what's left behind is a mess."

She explained that a trained arborist knows where and how to make a cut so the tree can activate its own healing mechanisms. The wound forms a protective callus, sealing out bacteria and decay.