Plant health care: what ISA, TCIA and EPA say it is

This page reports what the named codes, regulators and makers say. It is not training and does not teach the work. The sources are a tree body's owner leaflet, a trade association's course page, a federal agency's description of integrated pest management and an arboretum's newsletter page. None of them is a standard or a law. The licences that govern spraying and injecting are on the plant health care pesticide licences guide, and the courses that teach tree care are on the TCIA Tree Care Academy page and the certifications guide.

What ISA says plant health care is

The ISA leaflet "Plant Health Care" (version of February 2021, published through Trees Are Good) says arborists created plant health care programs to give property owners more options. It states the objective as maintaining or improving the landscape's appearance, vitality and safety; the leaflet's own wording is "the most effective and environmentally sensitive practices and treatments available". It says the work involves routine monitoring, preventive treatment, and a working relationship between the arborist and the property owner.

The leaflet says there is no standard program, because no two landscapes are the same and client objectives vary, but that programs have common features. Monitoring is one: it says monitoring may be as simple as annual visits or may involve monthly or more frequent inspections, depending on the size and variety of the landscape and the owner's goals. When a monitoring visit finds a problem, it says the arborist works out a solution with the owner, and it gives examples ranging from reducing lawn irrigation so the soil is not too moist for tree roots, to pruning or spot applications of pesticide.

The leaflet explains the word "plant" rather than "tree": trees share soil with turfgrass, shrubs and other plants, whose roots intermingle and compete for water and nutrients, and it says every treatment applied to a lawn can affect the appearance and vitality of a tree and the reverse. On how programs are billed it says some charge for monitoring and bill each treatment separately and others charge an annual fee that covers the season's visits and many possible treatments. The ISA Trees Are Good page on plant health care gives a similar description, with "most cost-effective" where the leaflet says "most effective", and has sections on insects and diseases, trees and turf, mulching and mature tree care.

What TCIA says its technician course covers

The Tree Care Industry Association lists a Plant Health Care Technician course in its Tree Care Academy. It describes the course as a mix of online learning and on-the-job skills demonstrations ending in a certificate, and says it is meant to prepare a worker to do the work of a plant health care technician. The topics it lists are:

an introduction to plant health care and tree biology;
monitoring for plant health and diagnosis;
disease and management controls, and the tree parts affected by disease;
pesticide application guidelines;
abiotic disorders;
wildlife damage and insects;
soil health and fertilization.

The page credits the course with 16.5 ISA CEUs and 2.25 CTSP CEUs, and says it comes in an English and a Spanish version. It also calls plant health care a growing service offering for tree care companies. How CEUs count toward ISA credentials is on the keeping certified guide.

Where it meets integrated pest management

The US EPA describes integrated pest management as an approach relying on a combination of common-sense practices, using information on pest life cycles and their interaction with the environment to manage damage economically with the least possible hazard, in EPA's words, "to people, property, and the environment". It lists four steps: setting action thresholds, monitoring and identifying pests, prevention, and control. It says a single sighted pest does not always mean control is needed, and that many organisms are harmless or beneficial. EPA says the approach uses all appropriate options, including the judicious use of pesticides. The EPA page is about pest management in general, farms, homes and gardens included, and does not mention trees by name; the two ISA pages do not use the term "integrated pest management".

Timing tools

The Morton Arboretum's Plant Clinic publishes a weekly Plant Health Care Report during the growing season. Its page says the report carries disease and insect pest reports for northeastern Illinois, a table of accumulated growing degree days across Illinois, precipitation and weather, and indicator plants in bloom, all used to predict when pests emerge. The figures are not reproduced here. The degree-day arithmetic is on the degree-day calculator.

Plant health care: what ISA, TCIA and EPA say it is

What ISA says plant health care is

What TCIA says its technician course covers

Where it meets integrated pest management

Timing tools

Sources