Mark Chisholm - Biography

Up in the trees, navigating the Web, or educating and learning from tree experts, Mark Chisholm is the embodiment of the well-rounded arborist.

For Chisholm, this is more than just his life's work; it's also a family affair. He's the third generation of Chisholm to work as an arborist – he works with his father Steve, mother Laura, and brother Steve for the family-owned Aspen Tree Expert Company. He doesn't just have the physical strength and flexibility of an athlete required to elevate among the highest limbs in nature, though. He has acquired a vast knowledge of tree climbing wisdom. He knows the ropes, inside and out, about crane removals, aerial rescue, cabling and bracing, proper pruning techniques, and complex climbing and rigging techniques, not to mention tree physiology. He has assisted the USDA in scouting out the spread of the insidious Asian long-horned beetle throughout the Northeast. He has also appeared on P. Allen Smith's Garden Home on PBS and the syndicated show P. Allen Smith Gardens. The shows featured Chisholm pruning centuries-old post oaks at the Garden Home Retreat in Arkansas of TODAY Show garden expert P. Allen Smith.

Chisholm has won every International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) New Jersey Chapter Tree Climbing Championship for the last 16 years. He has conquered the wider tree-climbing world on two occasions, most recently in 2001, when he won his second ISA International Tree Climbing Championship, which consists of six events. Chisholm currently holds the world record in the 50-foot secured footlock with a time of 13.8 seconds.

The competitive nature in Chisholm finds its release in an arena far away from chalkboards and textbooks – it's high in the trees where guys like him make their living working with incredible speed and agility at dizzying heights. Competitors come from all over the country – and world – to put their skills to the test, because when they're hundreds of feet in the air, it helps to keep sharp – and at the very top of their game – so to speak.

Another endeavor on which Chisholm has set his eyes is forming a stronger community within the arboriculture industry via the development of his Web site treebuzz.com, with climber, innovator, friend, and fellow arborist, Tom Dunlap. Chisholm is very enthusiastic about the dynamic Web site that is designed to move and shake with this ever-changing industry. By pooling common resources and contacts in arboriculture that Tom Dunlap and himself have accrued over the course of their successful careers, along with offering the most innovative technology and newest information, he hopes this tool will be just as valuable to tree professionals as their pruning saws, ropes and rigging.

Chisholm is as dedicated to the science of trees as he is to the competition, and is a part of the overarching community of tree climbers, arborists and enthusiasts the world over.

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