The line between social media and social networking can be a fine one. Once you press enter, and your comments appear in a group chat the roller-coaster begins and where or when it stops nobody knows. On one occasion, I innocently entered a slow-burning chat that simmered away for nearly two years, just when you thought it was safe it came back, again, and again it returned – it had become a cyber-cancer.

I foolishly pressed the enter key on a similar post recently – the same people started posting… had the cancer metastasized? I briefly found myself defending qualifications – risk assessment qualifications, then the roller-coaster turned left and I got out; I turned off the notifications.

In the same way that social media and social networking can be subtly different, so to can being qualified and having a qualification. A qualification is a document that says you can do something, being qualified is being able to do that something – you can have one without the other; many people do. When it comes to risk assessment qualifications, we are really talking about qualifications on using a given methodology. If you become TRAQ or QTRA qualified (possibly VALID too, but I’m not sure), you gain a qualification that says you can use that methodology.

To be able to effectively use those assessment methodologies you must first be able to risk assess trees, i.e. you must be qualified before you gain the qualification. I know that this sounds a bit backwards, but in reality, you don’t need to use a set methodology or hold a qualification to be able to risk assess trees. Arborists have been risk assessing trees for longer that there have been qualifications that say that they can. So, what is the point, why get a qualification?

Apart from knowledge, and knowledge is never wasted, I believe that a qualification gives you protection. When it comes to risk assessing trees, being able to defend and document how your decision was made is really important – especially when the decision is to retain trees. Being able to stand in front of your client, or the Court, or a reporter and say; ‘I came to the decision that I did, through my knowledge and experience and because I used the internationally recognised methodology X, and here is my qualification that says I can use methodology X.’ I believe that being able to say that give you protection.

Note the number of ‘ands’ in that statement – my knowledge and experience and because I used the internationally recognised methodology X, and here is my qualification. ‘Ands’ give you protection – the more ands you have the stronger your position will be. And if you are an employer… it gets even better ‘I have knowledgeable and experienced staff and I have put them through training in the internationally recognised methodology X, and they used that methodology and here are their qualifications’.

Of course, you could always just use methodology X – after all the ISA sell the TRAQ manual and you can download the forms for free… QTRA expires – why not do it once and never renew?

Because not having a qualification but using it, weakens your position; not only is it hard to defend but it is an invitation to be attacked. ‘I used methodology X, but I’m not qualified to use it’…

If you don’t hold the qualification don’t use it, simple as that – use your knowledge and experience. Ands give you protection – buts weaken your position.

All of that said, and to repeat what I have said many times – a qualification [in this instance, a methodology qualification] is just a tool, and like all tools, they are only as good that the person that uses them. If you don’t know how to assess trees in the first place, it is unlikely that methodology X (whichever one that may be), will make your assessments better. You don’t need to use a methodology or hold a qualification to be able to risk assess trees – but having one will strengthen your position.

So, why get a qualification – because they give you protection and right now, we and our trees need all the protection that we can get.