The Tree Doctor: A Guide to Tree Care and Maintenance

Pleasance Crawford is the co-author of The Canadian Landscape and Garden
History Directory and Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian Garden
Writing.

Trees are precious assets, especially in the urban landscape. Although
countless studies document the positive effects of trees on our lives,
the urban forests in many North American cities are in a serious state
of decline. Anyone concerned about the future of the trees around them
will welcome this concise, up-to-date handbook on tree care and
maintenance. In seven chapters the Prendergasts discuss the
appreciation, choice, placement, planting, care, and pruning of trees;
the diagnosis and prevention of tree problems; and the benefits of an
arborist. Yet in spite of—or perhaps because of—its length, The Tree
Doctor does not measure up.

Dan Prendergast has good credentials as an arborist, including
certification by the International Society of Arboriculture. His sister
Erin has a master’s degree in publishing, and has worked in publishing
and the arts. Their book’s main problems could have been corrected
with thorough, rigorous editing. The text is so repetitive that it reads
like a compilation of notes from several courses. The occasional
sidebars and captions echo, rather than augment, the text. The
photographs, in too many cases, bear little or no relationship to the
text. The 20 pages of supplementary information need heavy pruning. The
diagrams by John Lightfoot, although its best feature, are not reason
enough to purchase this book.