On December 31, 2024, a man in Massachusetts barricaded himself in his house after shooting at a line-clearance crew with a high-powered air rifle. The crew was working down the road from his house, with no direct connection to his property. In July 2024, there were two separate instances of violence against tree crews (residential and utility) reported in Illinois and North Carolina on the same day. In 2024, TCIA was made aware of five separate instances of homeowner or bystander shootings involving residential and line-clearance tree crews.

Photo collage/TCIA images

While there isn’t enough data to talk about statistical significance, five incidents is an alarming increase over zero incidents reported between 2021 and 2023.

Workplace violence is a terrifying reality that we face here in the United States. Workplace violence can have lasting psychological effects. Fear or anxiety about workplace violence can have ripple effects, resulting in long-term trauma for the people who experience it and those around them.

These acts can make us feel out of control, that they are unpreventable and random. They can be hard to discuss, because we need sensitivity around those affected. We don’t always have direct controls we can implement, and not having an answer can make a conversation difficult to start. However, it is critical that we keep looking at how to prevent and cope with these incidents.

After talking to industry experts and leaders whose programs had experienced gun violence in 2024, two common themes came up: de-escalation and emergency response.

De-escalation
De-escalation is one of the most important safety practices we can use. It is crucial, since our work is rarely one-and-done. Line-clearance tree crews working for a utility will likely return to each site on a cyclical basis for continued maintenance. It is critical not only to de-escalate for our safety in the moment, but also to do everything we can to avoid creating a hazard for the next crew. Your interaction with a homeowner today may have allowed you to get the work done, but did you set the next worker up for success?

These are the best practices for de-escalation as outlined by the Utility Arborist Association (UAA) Safety Committee:

• Remain calm and professional: Maintaining a calm and composed demeanor is critical in the face of hostility. Avoid arguing or escalating the situation with emotional responses. Speak in a measured tone and listen actively, showing the individual you are taking their concerns seriously.
• Keep a safe distance: If an individual becomes aggressive, maintain a safe distance and avoid entering their personal space. If you sense any physical danger, back away slowly while remaining nonthreatening. Never turn your back completely, as this can increase the risk of attack.
• Avoid confrontation and escalation: Do not engage in confrontational behavior or argue. If the situation escalates, disengage immediately by stating that you will refer their concerns to your supervisor or the appropriate department for further action.
• Use defusing language: Phrases such as “I understand your frustration,” “Let’s find a way to address this” or “I’m here to help” can help reduce the intensity of a situation. Acknowledge their concerns, but do not make promises outside of your authority.
• Know when to walk away: If an individual refuses to de-escalate or begins to display threatening behavior, including using firearms or physical threats, walk away and seek safety. Do not try to reason with an armed individual. Notify law enforcement and your supervisor as soon as possible.
• Always report incidents: All hostile incidents, no matter how minor, should be reported to supervisors. Keeping a log of interactions allows for patterns to be identified and addressed with further safety measures, if needed.
• Train for safety: If offered, participate in conflict de-escalation training and familiarize yourself with company protocols for handling aggressive individuals. Knowing how to respond in these situations can prevent them from escalating to dangerous levels.

Emergency response
We were incredibly fortunate that none of the gun-violence incidents in 2024 were fatal. These incidents are traumatizing and tragic, but we owe it to our industry and our peers to talk about how to prevent a fatality.

If an incident occurs, the first step is to call 911. The sooner first responders are on site, the sooner this incident can be halted or contained. Team members must have cell phones on hand, have a communication plan and know how to direct first responders to their location.

Create a plan for how to behave as a crew. If an incident occurs, do you scatter, or do you stay together? Does everyone have a cell phone on them? Do you have a rendezvous point?

All of these are essential components of an effective communication plan.
Location: Where are you located? All team members must know where they are and how to direct medical care and law enforcement to the work site.
Cover: What does cover look like? How can you get as much space as possible, or a protective space, between you and the active shooter?
Escape routes: What do escape routes look like? Can you shelter in or behind the truck? Can you get everyone into the vehicle and leave the site?
First aid: In addition to this, all crews must have access to a first-aid kit. It must be in an easy-to-access, central location. Basic first-aid training can be crucial to helping crews perform lifesaving interventions while waiting for emergency medical services.

A continuing conversation
As we continue exploring this emerging threat in our industry, there are areas for which we don’t have direct controls or easy answers. The points below are discussions we should have at all levels across the industry. What can we do together to move safety forward? What are we doing locally or in each area of our industry, and how can we share best practices with a larger audience?

Run, hide, fight: The most adopted model for an active shooter is run, hide, fight. While these principles apply to our job sites, the most compelling examples of this model used in training occur in confined spaces. What do run, hide and fight look like in an open field? In a lift truck? On a residential street? Do we talk about this in a daily job brief? If there were an active shooter, what things would work well as cover, and which wouldn’t? We won’t be prepared for it if we don’t consider and train for it.

Situational awareness: Situational-awareness training can be provided to our crews to help them spot out-of-the ordinary conditions. The good news is that situational awareness is already a daily practice for tree crews. They are experts at looking for branches at funny angles to complete a full risk assessment before climbing a tree. This is a matter of expanding our scope of vision, of using the skills we use daily on our job site and applying them to the world around us. Have we been able to partner with local law enforcement or security teams on situational-awareness training?

Conditioned risk acceptance: Our industry has conditioned us to accept risk when it comes to upset homeowners. The utility world focuses on work completion for safe and reliable power. Work is not optional. Often, it is mandated by a state or federal agency. Almost all the work is prescribed and completed at the utility’s direction, not the homeowner’s. Crews have been conditioned to complete work despite homeowner resistance. This can lead to a tolerance of homeowner aggression or threats. How do we shift our expectations, processes and culture to ensure risk factors are taken seriously?

Sharing known threats: It is valuable to look at what we report and how we discuss it. How are known threats shared internally? Are they mapped in a GIS system, or are we still working off of spreadsheets? Are they accessible to everyone at the crew level? Are close calls with escalated homeowners discussed with as much attention as pruning and operational safety?

How can we communicate between industries? How can we share threats with other organizations and branches of our industry operating in the same area? Do you have local cross-functional groups? What would it look like to start sharing threat-level information in these networks? A residential crew today and a utility one tomorrow – both are at risk.

In conclusion
Worldwide, one in five workers experiences violence in the workplace. We must continue talking about not only de-escalation but emergency response. We need to focus on what we can control as an industry – training and communication. We need to shift the culture away from getting the work done at any cost, and we need to take threats of violence seriously.

The Utility Arborist Association (UAA) Safety Committee is committed to supporting the safety of all utility arborists and vegetation-management workers. While hostile interactions may be on the rise, following best practices for de-escalation and emergency response will go a long way in ensuring the safety of our field workers.

If you ever feel unsafe, trust your instincts and immediately remove yourself from the situation. Remember that your safety always comes first.

Sara Dreiser, ISA Utility Specialist, is senior program manager with ComEd Vegetation Management in Greater Chicago, Illinois, and a member of the Utility Arborist Association Board of Directors.

Rich Alexander, ISA Certified Arborist, Certified Tree Growth Regulator, Pesticide Applicator and Utility Specialist, is a product manager at ACRT Services, a 40-year TCIA corporate member company based in Stow, Ohio, and a vegetation-management professional with 20-plus years of industry experience.

This article was the result of a discussion and collaboration between the Utility Arborist Association (UAA), based in Forest Lake, Minnesota, and the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA).

Examples of violence in the workplace

The following were pulled from TCI Magazine’s Accident Brief reports. All occurred in the last eight months.

Three workers shot
Three tree care workers were shot July 24, 2024, in Green Mountain, North Carolina. The workers were clearing trees for a power company when the incident occurred. Officials shot and injured the original shooter, and he was taken into custody. The condition of the victims was unknown, according to a WCCB Charlotte, Associated Press report.

Worker shot
A tree worker was shot while on the job July 24, 2024, in Schaumburg, Illinois. The worker was part of a crew clearing trees in a neighborhood when a resident shot from his home. According to a witness, the homeowner said he didn’t like the noise. The victim was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, according to an ABC7 Eyewitness News report.

Homeowner and worker injured in shooting
A tree worker and a shooting suspect were injured when they were shot September 13, 2024, in Jones, Oklahoma. Apparently, the incident was the result of a dispute between two neighbors. Two tree workers were hired to cut down trees by one homeowner. The second homeowner shot at the tree workers’ truck while they were in it, striking one of them. The neighbor who was shooting was also shot, according to a Fox 25 news report.

Worker escapes injury when gunshots fired
A tree-trimming contractor escaped injuries when a man fired shots at him, just missing the worker October 22, 2024, in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The 55-year-old suspect threatened to kill the tree worker, and was later arrested, according to a Fox 6 news report.

Man shot at tree workers
A man fired shots at tree workers December 31, 2024, in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Kyle Stacey shot a rifle at the workers, then retreated into his home. When police arrived, he barricaded himself in his house. No injuries were reported, and Stacey was later taken into custody, according to a Boston 25 News report.

Man charged after setting fire to tree-trimming service trucks
A Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, man is facing charges after reportedly setting two tree-trimming service trucks on fire March 11, 2025, in Manor Township, Pa. According to CBS21.com in Harrisburg, Pa., Logan Chamberlain, 24, reportedly told police he set fire to a Ford F-350 dump truck and an international bucket truck. Chamberlain became angry with the owner of a dump truck and Joyce Tree Service while they were performing work, according to court documents. Chamberlain has been charged with three counts of reckless burning or exploding.