A story that honours those that have made waves across the industry, The Arborist Innovators & Influencers docuseries has been produced by Simeon Balsam and Phil Sutton to bring the largest historical documentary to arboriculture. 

“We currently haven’t got a history lesson for our industry,” begins Balsam, media and documentary creator. Also a working climber, he creates daily content for his Instagram, @visual.climber, published to his 28.4k followers. His first idea: “I wanted to work on a project that was meaningful for the industry that lasts for a long period of time,” he adds.

During these initial conversations with Cambridge-based videographer Sutton four years ago, the pair realised, “we’ve got the means to create a documentary,” and so the beginnings of the official documentary began. What started with a focus on Europe, the producers quickly realised that America and Europe were in sync since 1993 when a catalyst event established a connection in development. 

Something that hasn’t been covered before, the documentary features conversations with the professionals that have been around since the early innovations and developments in arboriculture. “The characters we’ve got in this documentary are the untold stories that will be lost in the next 10 years if they’re not recorded now,” says Balsam. From chatting to British legends, Fred Hall, founder of DMM and Robert Knott, also known as Noddy, founder of Treeworker, the docuseries follows the paths of both local and international gamechangers. Balsam says:

“It’s been a privilege to chat to very influential people that have changed our industry as a whole. No one even knows what they did, so it’s nice to give them the credit.”

Humble and passionate, “the people we’ve spoken to are not searching for credit, they don’t even see the value of what they’ve done in some aspects,” explains Sutton. He specifically refers to rope runner inverter Kevin Bingham:

“He didn’t recognise how big products like his are for the industry, especially when going into Europe. He didn’t appreciate just how many people are using a device that he created.”

As the industry grows and continues to evolve, it feels crucial to tell the untold stories of people who may not be around to tell it in another five to 10 years. “When you go back to those early days, you’re recognising how fortunate we are to the relationships formed between people like Fred Hall and Denny Moorhouse, to see how meeting and working together has changed the industry,” explains Sutton. 

On top of this, the documentary looks to inspire the next generation. The producers look to communicate the value of understanding the industry, while also highlighting the value of networking between international markets. Strategy Twenty3, industry growth partner for arboriculture brands, founder Hannah Casey explains:

“There are so many different influences from other cultures, other industries, other habitats and other parts of the world that have created this. This documentary has all the emotion, it has all the inspiration, it has all the motivation to be able to inspire the next generation and the current generation of arborists and tree workers.”

Coming out of a decline in students climbing the arborist ladder, “we have now people coming into the industry over the last couple of years. We’ve lost a little bit from the generational arborists. These people we cover in the documentary are generational arborists, who can pass that tribal knowledge on,” Casey adds.

An experienced arborist, Balsam assures “no matter what, whether we make any money or we get anything back, it’s always been a self-funded project and it’s for the next generation.”

A documentation of the early inventors across the global industry, The Arborist will be a slice of history for the next 100 years, before future generations get to learn about the 2026 legends. The seven-episode production will be released later in the year, after several previews across the UK and Europe. 

On 14 August, Honey Brothers will be showing a private screening of the docuseries preview, offering tickets for £25 which includes food, drink and entry into the raffle. Presale goes live on Friday 17 July, while general sale launches Monday 20 July. The APF Exhibition, taking place from 24 - 26 September, will be showing the preview multiple times inside the Sorbus tent.