A lot of arboricultural education focuses on knowledge and skill: biology, pruning, climbing, rigging, treatments, and the thousands of other things an arborist can learn. Those things matter, but knowledge alone does not tell us what our work is for, what belongs in a particular situation, or whether the systems we work within will let us act on what we believe. Without those other pieces, tree care can start to feel spiritually empty, less like caring for nature and more like fucking it up for a paycheck.

This three-part series is our attempt to work through those missing pieces using a pizza metaphor. Knowledge and skill make the crust. A theory of nature is the sauce that gives the practice direction. Judgment determines what belongs on this particular pizza. Agency is the oven; the working structure that allows you to carry those decisions through.

Tree First is only one version of what that can look like. These videos are an invitation to examine your own practice, question the defaults you inherited, and find a way of working where your knowledge, values, judgement, and agency can actually operate together.