Scott Johnston partners with The EDGE’s Facilities Manager, Dan Nellis, to ensure the safety of our clients and our trees. Since 2009, Scott has logged 144 hands on volunteer and consultant hours.
An arborist muses on a 35-year career high in the branches
(Adrian Higgins/The Washington Post)
By Adrian Higgins Gardening columnist
Scott Johnston has his feet on the ground but his heart in the air. Day in and out, he trusts his life to a harness, coils of half-inch rope and 35 years of knowledge gained by working in trees.
“Do you want me to rig up and climb a tree?” he asked. That’s all right, I said, clinging to my notebook. I’m not sure my nerves could take it, even as a spectator. Johnston, who is 58 and looks like a maturing matinee idol, thinks nothing of getting high into an 80-foot oak or tulip tree. As an independent certified arborist, he has devoted his working life to trees, is passionate about them and, if you scratch below the cambium, is vexed by the way we treat them.