My experience in landscape maintenance and arboriculture industry started in the 1970's when I was employed by Markland, Inc. to perform various landscape and maintenance duties for this conglomerate that built, owned and managed a number of elite community home associations in a variety of real estate settings in the upscale prime areas of the Valley and elsewhere.

                        After several years working for Markland Inc. I resigned to advance my expertise and took a position to work as a municipal park’s groundskeeper which I would be working for over the next 20 years and where I gained most of my experience in urban forestry and landscape/grounds maintenance management.

                        The process of planting, cultivating, and nurture growth development of hundreds and thousands of trees is a long term program that takes years in the making and is a formidable task for city arborists who must have the attainable knowledge, be trained and fully equipped to provide proper care in urban forestry so that these oxygen producing species are given the proper care so as to be able to live out their full life span in the urban environment.

                        Tree removal is also another matter that requires strenuous labor and is extremely dangerous work especially if it requires rigging sections or removing down tall trees and operating the diesel/gas power machines such as the brush chipper, stump cutter, chain saw, etc which was another entity that required the proper training to be fully operational and to be able to practice a safety conscious mentality.

                        In January 1997, I became a Certified Arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) which started this new certification program in 1992, for the purpose of enhancing my skills and knowledge of learning more of the biology side of trees as well as all the other topics that are required to be certified.

This certification process is comprised of a rigid test of 12 categories which are weighted in:
  1. Tree Nutrition and Fertilization
  2. Installation and Establishment
  3. Tree Biology
  4. Tree, Soil & Water Relations
  5. Cabling, Bracing & Lightning Protection
  6. Identification & Selection
  7. Safe Work Practices
  8. Pruning
  9. Diagnosis & Treatment
10. Trees, People & Ecology (Construction Damage, Hazard Trees)
11. Construction Preservation
12. Tree Risk Assessment

                        It is a voluntary decision among professional arborists to be affiliated with one of the best well known arboriculture associations in the world to provide a means of self-enhancement and advancement as well as to stay current in the industry by helping to ensure that the arborists are able to keep up with the latest research, new techniques, new equipment and network with fellow arborists.

        The designation of an ISA Certified Arborist has become the symbol of professionalism in arboriculture within the town, city, county, state, and federal government and is now considered mandatory criteria in the hiring or contractual work in urban forestry for municipal government procurement.

In addition to my ISA arborist certification, I’m also certified as a:

• Arizona Certified Landscape Professional,
• Certified Turfgrass Professional,
• Certified Equipment Operator  - Please see links to these organizations below.

 

        I look forward to serving you and will be happy to provide you with additional information regarding your landscaping and maintenance needs large or small.
 

        We want all our customers to know that we value your business and keep all information confidential.

        Although we have our phone number listed on our website, we are seldom able to answer when you call to leave a message, so we have a CONTACT FORM right here on the site. This form allows us to serve you faster because it spells out exactly what you need to have done and also lets us log in to see and read our form mail while out in the field during the day. So if we are nearby, we may be able to respond the same day to make your estimate.

        So many of you have asked us if we take credit cards - we are in the process of joining PayPal - please bear with us. In the meantime your cash & personal checks are most welcome. Please see our Payments Pagefor more information. Thanks!

        The organizations listed below represent memberships we have and/or certification classes we have taken to further our education ensuring our customers the best services we can provide.

Thank you for allowing us to serve you!

Mark Ortega, Owner & General Manager