Spot on Sean, get them tree protections in, local ordinances, it's vital.
For those who think they're good at their job and they'll get shafted, nonsense, with other trades when this happens there's an amnesty period where training, recognition of skills and evidence (previous jobs, referals etc) get the ticket you need. Not an absolute perfect system but better than some tree lopper walking in scratching his tattoo and lisping through his front missing teeth that "she's stuffed luv, needs to come out".
The trade (tree workers) need proper training like anything else, the orgs (ISA) along with others can roll it out, so can private colleges and govt like TAFE etc.
Getting trained people is good, but when there's no reg enforcing people to use trained workers then what's the point, you get the hacks do the job.