ISA CERTIFIED ARBORIST STUDY EXAMS GUIDE
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Biorational Control Product - ✔✔1) Control product or pesticide formulated from
naturally occurring plant extracts, microbes, or microbial by-products that poses very
low risk to nontarget organisms.
✔✔Biorational Control Product - ✔✔2) Control product or pesticide that has limited
environmental persistence and poses very low risk to nontarget organisms.
✔✔Bipinnate - ✔✔Double pinnate. Contrast with palmate and pinnate.
✔✔Biotic Disorder - ✔✔Disorder caused by an infectious living agent.
✔✔Blake's Hitch - ✔✔Friction know climbers use, sometimes in place of the tautline
hitch or Prusik knot.
✔✔Blight - ✔✔Any disease or disorder, regardless of the causal agent, that kills young
plant tissues.
✔✔Block - ✔✔1) Heavy-duty pulley used in rigging. Designed for dynamic loading.
✔✔Block - ✔✔2) Casing enclosing one or more parallel pulleys.
,✔✔Body-Thrust - ✔✔Method of ascending a tree using a climbing rope.
✔✔Bollard - ✔✔Post on which wraps can be taken with a rope to tie it off or to provide
friction for control.
✔✔Botanical Pesticide - ✔✔Pesticides derived from plants.
✔✔Box Cable System - ✔✔Tree cabling system that forms closed polygons. Used to
join together more than three stems.
✔✔Bracket - ✔✔British English term for the fruiting body of a decay fungus.
✔✔Branch Bark Ridge - ✔✔Raised strip of bark at the top of a branch union, where the
growth and expansion of the trunk or parent stem and adjoining branch push the bark in
a ridge.
✔✔Branch Collar - ✔✔Area where a branch joins another branch or trunk that is created
by the overlapping vascular tissues from both the branch and the trunk. Typically
enlarged at the base of the branch.
✔✔Branch Protection Zone - ✔✔Chemically and physically modified tissue within the
trunk or parent branch at the base of a smaller, subordinate branch that retards the
spread of discoloration and decay from the subordinate stem into the trunk or parent.
✔✔Brown Rot - ✔✔Fungal wood rot characterized by the breakdown of cellulose.
Contrast with soft rot and white rot.
✔✔Bud - ✔✔1) Smaller lateral or terminal protuberance on the stem of a plant that may
develop into a flower or shoot.
✔✔Bud - ✔✔2) Undeveloped flower or shoot containing a meristematic growing point.
✔✔Buffering Capacity - ✔✔Ability of a soil to maintain its pH.
✔✔Bulk Density - ✔✔Mass of soil per unit volume. Often used as a measure of
compaction.
✔✔Butt-hitching - ✔✔Method of lowering pieces when the rigging point is below the
work, traditionally without the use of a block.
✔✔Butt-tying - ✔✔Tying off a limb at the butt end for rigging.
,✔✔Buttress Roots - ✔✔Roots at the trunk base that help support the tree and equalize
mechanical stress.
✔✔Cable Aid - ✔✔Device used to tighten lags and aid in cable installation.
✔✔Cable Clamp - ✔✔Doubled-bolted, U-shaped clamp, sometimes used to secure tree
cables. Not acceptable or approved for tree support systems in the U.S.
✔✔Cable Grip - ✔✔Mechanical device that grasps and holds the cable during
installation.
✔✔Cable Stop - ✔✔Metal knob that can be affixed to the ends of steel cable strands to
terminate a cable installation.
✔✔Cambium - ✔✔Thin layers of meristematic cells that give rise (outward) to the
phloem and (inward) to the xylem, increasing stem and root diameter.
✔✔Canadian Standards Association (CSA) - ✔✔Canadian not-for-profit association
made up of representatives from various industry, association, and governmental
groups providing standards documentation and training materials. Provides a similar
role as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in the United States.
✔✔Canker - ✔✔Localized diseased area on stems, roots, and branches. Often
shrunken and discolored.
✔✔Capillary Water - ✔✔Water held in capillary pores of the soil; much of this water can
move in any direction and is readily available to plant roots.
✔✔Carabiner - ✔✔Connecting device. Oblong metal ring used in climbing and static
rigging that is opened and closed by a spring-loaded gate. Contrast with snap.
✔✔Carbohydrate - ✔✔Compound, combining carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, that is
produced by plants as a result of photosynthesis. Sugars and starches.
✔✔Carbon Sequestration - ✔✔Capturing and long-term storage of carbon. Most often
used in reference to the capturing of atmospheric carbon dioxide through biological,
chemical, or physical processes. Trees sequester carbon through photosynthesis.
✔✔Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) - ✔✔Procedure used by a trained person to
force air into the lungs and to force blood circulation in a person whose heart has
stopped beating.
✔✔Carotenoid - ✔✔Yellow, orange, or red pigment responsible for those colors in some
parts of trees and other plants. Compare to anthocyanin.
, ✔✔Cation - ✔✔Positively charged ion.
✔✔What are the most abundant cations in soil? - ✔✔Calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg),
potassium (K), sodium (Na), and aluminum (Al). Contrast with anion.
✔✔Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) - ✔✔Ability of a soil to absorb and hold cations.
Affected soil by PH. Measures soil fertility, clay composition, and engineering
characteristics.
✔✔Causation in Fact - ✔✔In determining legal liability, the test of the proximate cause
and foreseeability of the consequences.
✔✔Cavity - ✔✔Open or closed hollow within a tree stem, usually associated with decay.
✔✔Cellulose - ✔✔Complex carbohydrate found in the cellular walls of the majority of
plants and algae and certain fungi.
✔✔Chain Saw Pants - ✔✔Trouser designed to protect legs while operating a chainsaw.
Compare to chaps.
✔✔Chaps - ✔✔Form of leg protection or personal protective equipment (PPE) worn
when operating a chainsaw and/or when applying chemicals. Made of various materials,
depending on use.
✔✔Chelate - ✔✔Chemical compound that keeps plant nutrients (usually iron Fe) soluble
and available for plant absorption over a broad range of pH.
✔✔Chemical Control - ✔✔Control of pests using conventional pesticides.
✔✔Chlorophyll - ✔✔Green pigment of plants found in chloroplasts. Captures the energy
of the sun and is essential in photosynthesis.
✔✔Chloroplast - ✔✔Specialized organelle found in some cells. Site of photosynthesis.
✔✔Chlorosis - ✔✔Whitish or yellowish leaf discoloration caused by lack of chlorophyll.
Often caused by nutrient deficiency.
✔✔Chronic - ✔✔Disorder or disease occurring over a long period of time. Contrast with
acute.
✔✔City Forester - ✔✔An individual specializing in the fields of arboriculture and urban
forestry and having responsibility for the management of all or part of planted and
naturally occurring greenspaces on public land in communities.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Biorational Control Product - ✔✔1) Control product or pesticide formulated from
naturally occurring plant extracts, microbes, or microbial by-products that poses very
low risk to nontarget organisms.
✔✔Biorational Control Product - ✔✔2) Control product or pesticide that has limited
environmental persistence and poses very low risk to nontarget organisms.
✔✔Bipinnate - ✔✔Double pinnate. Contrast with palmate and pinnate.
✔✔Biotic Disorder - ✔✔Disorder caused by an infectious living agent.
✔✔Blake's Hitch - ✔✔Friction know climbers use, sometimes in place of the tautline
hitch or Prusik knot.
✔✔Blight - ✔✔Any disease or disorder, regardless of the causal agent, that kills young
plant tissues.
✔✔Block - ✔✔1) Heavy-duty pulley used in rigging. Designed for dynamic loading.
✔✔Block - ✔✔2) Casing enclosing one or more parallel pulleys.
,✔✔Body-Thrust - ✔✔Method of ascending a tree using a climbing rope.
✔✔Bollard - ✔✔Post on which wraps can be taken with a rope to tie it off or to provide
friction for control.
✔✔Botanical Pesticide - ✔✔Pesticides derived from plants.
✔✔Box Cable System - ✔✔Tree cabling system that forms closed polygons. Used to
join together more than three stems.
✔✔Bracket - ✔✔British English term for the fruiting body of a decay fungus.
✔✔Branch Bark Ridge - ✔✔Raised strip of bark at the top of a branch union, where the
growth and expansion of the trunk or parent stem and adjoining branch push the bark in
a ridge.
✔✔Branch Collar - ✔✔Area where a branch joins another branch or trunk that is created
by the overlapping vascular tissues from both the branch and the trunk. Typically
enlarged at the base of the branch.
✔✔Branch Protection Zone - ✔✔Chemically and physically modified tissue within the
trunk or parent branch at the base of a smaller, subordinate branch that retards the
spread of discoloration and decay from the subordinate stem into the trunk or parent.
✔✔Brown Rot - ✔✔Fungal wood rot characterized by the breakdown of cellulose.
Contrast with soft rot and white rot.
✔✔Bud - ✔✔1) Smaller lateral or terminal protuberance on the stem of a plant that may
develop into a flower or shoot.
✔✔Bud - ✔✔2) Undeveloped flower or shoot containing a meristematic growing point.
✔✔Buffering Capacity - ✔✔Ability of a soil to maintain its pH.
✔✔Bulk Density - ✔✔Mass of soil per unit volume. Often used as a measure of
compaction.
✔✔Butt-hitching - ✔✔Method of lowering pieces when the rigging point is below the
work, traditionally without the use of a block.
✔✔Butt-tying - ✔✔Tying off a limb at the butt end for rigging.
,✔✔Buttress Roots - ✔✔Roots at the trunk base that help support the tree and equalize
mechanical stress.
✔✔Cable Aid - ✔✔Device used to tighten lags and aid in cable installation.
✔✔Cable Clamp - ✔✔Doubled-bolted, U-shaped clamp, sometimes used to secure tree
cables. Not acceptable or approved for tree support systems in the U.S.
✔✔Cable Grip - ✔✔Mechanical device that grasps and holds the cable during
installation.
✔✔Cable Stop - ✔✔Metal knob that can be affixed to the ends of steel cable strands to
terminate a cable installation.
✔✔Cambium - ✔✔Thin layers of meristematic cells that give rise (outward) to the
phloem and (inward) to the xylem, increasing stem and root diameter.
✔✔Canadian Standards Association (CSA) - ✔✔Canadian not-for-profit association
made up of representatives from various industry, association, and governmental
groups providing standards documentation and training materials. Provides a similar
role as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in the United States.
✔✔Canker - ✔✔Localized diseased area on stems, roots, and branches. Often
shrunken and discolored.
✔✔Capillary Water - ✔✔Water held in capillary pores of the soil; much of this water can
move in any direction and is readily available to plant roots.
✔✔Carabiner - ✔✔Connecting device. Oblong metal ring used in climbing and static
rigging that is opened and closed by a spring-loaded gate. Contrast with snap.
✔✔Carbohydrate - ✔✔Compound, combining carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, that is
produced by plants as a result of photosynthesis. Sugars and starches.
✔✔Carbon Sequestration - ✔✔Capturing and long-term storage of carbon. Most often
used in reference to the capturing of atmospheric carbon dioxide through biological,
chemical, or physical processes. Trees sequester carbon through photosynthesis.
✔✔Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) - ✔✔Procedure used by a trained person to
force air into the lungs and to force blood circulation in a person whose heart has
stopped beating.
✔✔Carotenoid - ✔✔Yellow, orange, or red pigment responsible for those colors in some
parts of trees and other plants. Compare to anthocyanin.
, ✔✔Cation - ✔✔Positively charged ion.
✔✔What are the most abundant cations in soil? - ✔✔Calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg),
potassium (K), sodium (Na), and aluminum (Al). Contrast with anion.
✔✔Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) - ✔✔Ability of a soil to absorb and hold cations.
Affected soil by PH. Measures soil fertility, clay composition, and engineering
characteristics.
✔✔Causation in Fact - ✔✔In determining legal liability, the test of the proximate cause
and foreseeability of the consequences.
✔✔Cavity - ✔✔Open or closed hollow within a tree stem, usually associated with decay.
✔✔Cellulose - ✔✔Complex carbohydrate found in the cellular walls of the majority of
plants and algae and certain fungi.
✔✔Chain Saw Pants - ✔✔Trouser designed to protect legs while operating a chainsaw.
Compare to chaps.
✔✔Chaps - ✔✔Form of leg protection or personal protective equipment (PPE) worn
when operating a chainsaw and/or when applying chemicals. Made of various materials,
depending on use.
✔✔Chelate - ✔✔Chemical compound that keeps plant nutrients (usually iron Fe) soluble
and available for plant absorption over a broad range of pH.
✔✔Chemical Control - ✔✔Control of pests using conventional pesticides.
✔✔Chlorophyll - ✔✔Green pigment of plants found in chloroplasts. Captures the energy
of the sun and is essential in photosynthesis.
✔✔Chloroplast - ✔✔Specialized organelle found in some cells. Site of photosynthesis.
✔✔Chlorosis - ✔✔Whitish or yellowish leaf discoloration caused by lack of chlorophyll.
Often caused by nutrient deficiency.
✔✔Chronic - ✔✔Disorder or disease occurring over a long period of time. Contrast with
acute.
✔✔City Forester - ✔✔An individual specializing in the fields of arboriculture and urban
forestry and having responsibility for the management of all or part of planted and
naturally occurring greenspaces on public land in communities.
