This blog will feature my career as an ISA certified aesthetic specialty tree pruning, tree consulting, tree planting, wood chip mulch spreading, landscape advice giving, cycling arborist!
Hello! My name is Michael Thurman. I grew up in the Napa & Siskiyou counties of California, gardening and exploring the outdoors with my father while developing a deep intimacy with and adoration for the natural world.
My Merritt College landscape horticulture education in Oakland California, along with my traveling, volunteer and work experiences in places like Chile, Hawaii, Costa Rica and Japan inspired me to search out an extraordinary and meaningful career as a certified arborist and aesthetic tree pruner. With trees and the design of nature as my calling, I endeavor to create an exceptional and meaningful livelihood in the communities I cherish as a cycling arborist and tree pruner.
I am an International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist with a Tree Risk Assessment Qualification. I also have an Associates of Arts Degree in Landscape Architecture and am a recipient of the Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Award. I have served as president of the Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Club, a group of pruning teachers, students and volunteers that maintains various community, Japanese gardens and landscapes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Trained in Japanese style tree and landscape aesthetics through the Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning program founded by Dennis Makishima, I have developed my skillset over time to work with tree health, form, shape, focal point, accent, framing, context, correction, remediation, enhancement, reduction, thinning, essence, time, intention, fruit, foliage, flowers, espalier, structure, succession, longevity & more in the context of the wider landscape.
Bicycle Based Business
By keeping things local, small and simple and with a custom-designed bicycle trailer, I can have a fun and environmentally friendly career as the neighborhood cycling arborist and tree pruner. Although not always practical, I can do most of my specialty small tree services and landscape consulting this way. I have always loved riding bicycles and have always hated commuting via automobile in traffic, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Comprehensive Consultation Services
In addition to specialty aesthetic tree pruning, I provide basic verbal ground-level tree & landscape consultations that include but are not limited to, tree health and tree risk assessments, pruning recommendations and ground-level pruning demonstrations, landscape design advice, landscape ideas, plant/tree recommendations, visual soil / water tests, and analysis, irrigation audits, tree trimming cost and removal price range estimates, tree planting and more. Tree pruning consults advice can be details like when to trim, specifics on cutting branches and providing trimming costs, and how to prune fruit trees including apple tree trimming and tree trimming tool usage.
Thank you!
I continue to be very grateful for all the support and for the people who got me where I am at today. I look forward to continuing to serve you all. Much appreciated, see you very soon - Michael
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