An Arborist is a professional in arboriculture, a science that deals with the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and plants. Arborists are also known as tree surgeons or arborist-culturists. They focus on the health, safety, and wellbeing of plants and trees. The work of an arborist includes planting, transplanting, pruning, structural support, preventing or diagnosing, treating parasitism, preventing, or interrupting gracing, installing lightning protection, and removing vegetation deemed hazardous. Arborists require additional training to work near power wires, be qualified line clearance arborists or utility arborists. They can use various techniques to ascend into a tree, the most popular and least invasive being climbing using a rope. In this regard, arborists use two standard climbing methods, single rope technique or double rope technique.

The work of an arborist may include complex trees or substantial ecological communities in the context of the landscape ecosystem. These require supervision, monitoring, and treatment to ensure they are safe, healthy, and suitable for community standards and the collective good. Arborists may also design, plan, consult, write reports, and give legal testimony. The work of all arborists is not the same, some may just provide a consulting service; others may perform climbing, pruning, and planting, yet others may provide a combination of all of these services.