Paco loves camping and hiking since childhood. He has never thought about that the rugged mountain road ahead will lead him to pursue a related career. After the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), he enrolled in a new higher diploma course in Conservation and Tree Management offered by IVE. Paco then became one of the first batch of graduates of the bachelor's degree in Horticulture and Landscape Management from the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi). He keeps going to achieve his goal as an arborist.
Paco describes himself as “enjoys outdoor activities than indoors, and loves trees more than people”. However, his parents have similar thoughts as other traditional parents, wished their child could sit comfortably in the office at work. Paco expressed, “They wanted me to study business, but business terms such as opportunity cost is a real headache, and I feel uneasy if I have to sit in the office for a long time. I have thought about being a coach of adventure activities, but in reality, I look for more opportunity for professional development.”
Parents suggest giving up trees and choosing business
After the release of the HKDSE result, Paco was unable to apply for the Geography studies he desired at the university, though he received one offer for Business course from a private university. At the same time, Paco found a new path that could fulfil his interest and future career development – to enrol in IVE’s new Higher Diploma in Conservation and Tree Management, then bridged for further study at the THEi for the first Horticulture and Landscape Management degree programme. His family persuaded him to give up this idea and opted for business studies, but Paco insisted. Eventually his parents supported his decision.
Well, life is beautiful ideally but life is mostly difficult in reality. Paco said that biological and botany knowledge are prerequisites to study in conservation and tree management, but as a liberal arts student he had never learned these subjects before. Another challenge was that he had to recognise up to 80 types of trees commonly seen in urban areas of Hong Kong. He said, “Although I love camping, in fact, apart from Hong Kong's city flower Bauhinia, I don't know anything about other trees. Therefore, my study started from scratch. So when I go hiking or walk along the street, I would pay attention to the trees around me, I will take photos and search information online or ask my teachers when I came across trees I don’t know.” So far, Paco has been familiar with more than 80 types of trees.
Life in the wild
After graduation last year, Paco worked as an Assistant Landscape Coordinator at a private tree management company. Some people may think that trees management is an enjoyable and playful job. In fact, Paco describes that his career is just like an advance force. He often has to go remote rural areas to report on the growth of trees, and has to find the path by himself. He described, “Sometimes there is no way to go in the wild areas. When I encounter slopes of nearly 50 degrees, I still have to keep going.”
According to Paco’s estimation, he usually stays in the office for less than 5 days among the around 20 working days in a month, and the rest is all outside work. He spends long time in wild areas and is always bitten by mosquitoes and mites. He regards this as very common. He said, “Gradually I know how to distinguish bites by different breeds of ants or bees and I am able to tell what circumstance after bite is fine and will be healed soon and when is urgent to deal with by medical professionals.” When talking about these threatening incidents, the calmness this young man at his 20s shown seems not so equivalent to his age. Talking about the most threatening incident, Paco still remembers it vividly. He remembered, “At that time, we had to clean up an enormous tree. There was a big hive on the tree. After it was cleared by professionals, the ground was fully covered with dead bodies of bees. Many bees were still flying around the tree, but the professionals still continued to climb up and work on top of the tree. I really admire them.”
Staying in the wild is part of his career. Paco admits frankly that many of his classmates or colleagues who joined the industry last year like him quitted because they could not tolerate it. Fortunately, when Paco was studying in IVE, he had started to work part-time on repairing trees and relocating trees. His real-life experience made him have deeper understanding of the work of tree conservation. He expressed, “For repairing a tree, the descriptions on textbooks may be very simple; but in reality, you will know the complexity of the problem. Therefore, real-life experience is very crucial.”
Protecting the trees, and chopping the trees
In Hong Kong, shortage of land is always an issue for people, let alone the trees. Paco used to participate in tree conservation work. It may take one or two years to move a hundred-year-old tree. More often, he is responsible for repairing of trees and even chopping of trees. With his nature-loving character, will he feel pity about the chopping? He explained, “As an arborist, the safety of citizens and the city come first. If chopping off trees is for the sake of protecting the safety and property of citizens, we have to do it.”
As he always stays in wild, he feels that the life and fate of trees could be totally different for trees to grow in country parks or urban areas in Hong Kong. He said, “After joining my work, I understand that trees cannot be planted without planning, especially in urban areas. The planting of trees, such as types and location of trees, has to be planned carefully so that the trees can grow healthily. For example, during the occurrence of Super Typhoon Mangkhut to Hong Kong last October, many large trees being planted in very small places in the urban area were collapsed finally. Then it was necessary to clean up the fallen trees, replant new trees, and re-evaluate the trees for risk assessment. This induced heavy burden on the industry. So, it is important to have complete urban landscape planning.”
At present, associations from Britain and America are entitled to award the professional qualification of arborist. Applicants must have relevant work experience and certain years of service, and must pass the written test. To become a professional arborist, the person should able to withstand the very low or high temperatures of the countryside, and stay under the sun or the rain, and have good knowledge and physical health. It is not easy at all. Paco smiled and said, “Fortunately, my skin color is not easy to tan under sunlight, and I can stand with high temperature.” With his unique advantage, persistence and passion for the work, it is obvious that success is just around the corner.
