Environmental Risks of Arboricultural Operations: Exposure to Weather and Electricity
The previous three articles in this series covered tree-worker incidents within the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics event categories of Contact with an Object (divided into the two sub-categories of Struck-by or Caught-in) and Falls. These are three of the four horsemen of the arboricultural apocalypse. This article will cover the event category Harmful Substances […]
Navigating the Purchase or Sale of a Used, Truck-Mounted Aerial Lift
“Buying a used aerial lift is like buying a used car.” That’s how several of the sources for this article described the buying experience. The big difference is that you’re actually buying two used pieces of machinery – the chassis and the lift. However, they all agree that with some due diligence, a buyer should […]
Hazards With Objects Going Into Chippers
Chippers are essential machinery for many arboricultural operations. True, arborists can haul the brush to a landfill and pay a tipping fee, but that gets expensive. It also can require a lot of trips to the landfill, as brush piles are about equal parts air and brush. Some of the older arborists may remember the […]
Crane Crew Safety Culture
Before I was “The Crane Man,” I worked for another local crane company. I had been there for 10 years and was the tree-removal guy, but we ran 14 cranes and I wasn’t the only one doing trees. We had monthly safety meetings, but the concept of crane-assisted tree removals was new, and we lacked […]